Page 43 of Sinful Chains

We’d been calculated. Precise, like always. McAllister was a man with too many enemies and not enough money to throw at his problems. It was easy. Clean shot, clean getaway.

But everything had gone to shit somewhere between the first trigger pull and the last breath Revere ever took.

And it had something to do with that mystery figure.

I stared at the mountain, focusing my thoughts on the moment shit felt off to me, when my mind and body screamed at me that I fucked up.

I exhaled sharply. The feeling was getting heavy.

It was an ambush.

We ran for cover as bullets flew, returning fire, moving on instinct. Made it to the bunker, and then…

I clenched my fists.

Rev’s sharp gasp sounded in my earpiece just before he staggered backward, blood blooming across his chest. I yelled his name, even though I knew in the moment that he was fading fast.

A shudder moved through me, beads of sweat breaking out across my forehead. I remembered going to my knees next to Rev, my gun slipping through my fingers and hitting the dirt floor of the bunker. I remembered rifling through the pockets ofmy hoodie, turning them inside out, desperate to find something to stop the bleeding. Cruz and I lifting him up. His body going limp.

I was overwhelmed with grief. We bawled the whole way back, knowing our brother was gone. Titan pulled over twice, once so I could vomit, then a second time so he could. The pain of loss was unimaginable, knowing we were transporting a shell of a man who had once been a part of us.

Fuck.

Looking around again, I realized there were no answers for me here.

Except…maybe one, only it was more like a revelation.

I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my messages.

Updates on McAllister’s associates?

Cruz responded immediately.

Cruz

Still working. Nothing obvious yet, but I’m digging deeper.

Titan

You at the place?

Yeah. I’m getting the feeling this shit ain’t over. We need to watch our backs

Cruz

Noted

I slipped the phone back into my pocket, then put a hand on my chest. A persistent ache had settled there, making me wonder, just for a moment, if I was having a heart attack. Then I remembered that articles I'd read about grief manifesting physically. Titan and Cruz shook their heads at me when I told them that, but that's just me. I have to analyze shit. Intellectualize it. That's the only way I can control it.

But this shit here…wasn't no controlling it. I didn't run grief; it was running me.

A tear rolled down my cheek. Just one, and then I turned back to my car. Inside, I gave the lodge one last glance. The mountains loomed large above it, the air thick with something I couldn’t quite name.

Not grief. Not even guilt.

I was uneasy for a reason.

This was a warning.

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