Page 127 of Emerald

“What was I supposed to do? I was sick of jerking off. You had one more year on this mission,” he reminds her.

“You fucked her because you were sick of jerking off?” Anna screams at him as tears fall down her cheeks.

“I didn’t fuck her, baby …” Damon screams, taking his eyes off me to defend himself against Anna. That is my moment, picking up the gun, I shoot. He is dead before he even has a moment to take a breath.

“No,” Anna screams, tears running down her cheeks, but because she is so distraught and in shock, she tries to shoot me but gets me in the shoulder, sending me backward. My return shot misses her, and I fall on my back, fuck. “You fucking bitch, you killed my man,” Anna screams as she runs toward me with her gun raised.

This is it.

I’m dead.

I didn’t think this was how I was going to die. There have been many times when I thought this is it, but this time, I truly believe this is it.

Bang.

Anna falls to the floor.

What just happened?

“I couldn’t let her kill you,” Sergei says before he collapses.

47

NASH

Ihear gunshots, and everything in me tenses.

Elena!

I have to get to her. I push and pull at my restraints, I must stop these motherfuckers.

“Fuck,” Brooks curses beside me as he, too, frantically tries to get free. Then I hear footsteps and the squeak of the door opening.

I still.

This is it.

My mind wanders through how I could have gotten myself into a better position and how I could prevent myself from dying. How I could have saved one of my oldest friends.

But I can’t.

And that is the worst feeling in the world.

“Nash!” Elena’s voice fills the silence as she rushes over to me.

“You’re alive.” I buck as a tear of relief falls down my face. Then I see her shoulder, there’s a massive red hole in it with blood dripping down. “You’re shot!”

Elena shrugs and winces. “You should see the other guy,” she jokes, wiping away the tears from my cheeks. “I thought I lost you,” she says quietly as her hand runs over the bruising on my face.

“I’m hard to kill.”

“I watched them beat you and I couldn’t do anything.” She cries, and I can see the anguish on her face. All I want to do is hug her and let her know everything is going to be okay. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“I’m here, kitty,” I reassure her.

Elena cups my face and kisses me softly. “I love you, Nash.”

My heart tightens in my chest hearing her words. “Baby, I love you, too, so fucking much,” I tell her.

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