Page 117 of Of Flesh & Bone

Each time I take a step forward and he staggers backward.Vengeance feels pretty damn excellent.

People are talking outside.They're coming closer.

Hurry, take him down before they get here.

It's Cal and Cotton.They'll take the gun from me.Hurry.Quickly, I take aim again and fire off three more shots in quick succession.

POP!

POP!

POP!

Adam grunts and jerks back with every hit.

"What the fuck, Eve?"

Cal wrenches the gun from my grip, and Cotton wraps his arms around me immobilizing me in a bear hug.

"Adam!Adam!Fuck are you okay?"Cal's yelling at Adam, who is still standing and looking down at himself in shock.

"She shot me," Adam says to no one in particular.He's clearly dazed and his voice is barely audible.I haven't heard him like this before.In fairness, he's probably never been shot before.

"Wait, Cal, let me see that."Cotton sounds amused.

Cal looks back at him like he's lost his mind.

Cotton bursts out laughing and loosens his grip on me enough that I can break free.Now he's laughing so hard that he can't speak even though he's trying to explain.

"It's paint.She shot me with a fucking paintball gun."

"What?"Cal looks thoroughly lost now.He raises the gun to inspect it more closely."Holy shit.It looks so real.Remarkable."

"Why the fuck did you shoot me, Eve?"

Using everyone's distracted state to my advantage, I rip the gun back out of Cal's hands and open fire on the three of them.

All over the room, I hear "Ouch!"and "What the fuck, Eve?"and "That shit hurts, damn it!"and "What did we do?"and my personal favorite, "Just shoot Adam, we're innocent!"

"None of you assholes are innocent.You were engaged!He was engaged and you both knew it!No one told me!Fucking assholes!"

"No, no wait!He wasn't!I swear!"

Shouts are coming from everywhere.I don't know who's saying what.I just fire anytime I see a body part peek out.

"Engaged?Who was engaged?"

"Eve, love she lied!There was never a relationship there!I swear!"

This gives me pause.It's perfectly plausible that bitch lied.That's what they've all been screaming."He wasn't!I swear!"and "Who was engaged?".

Ohhh shit.She lied.They were never engaged.Oh, I am dead.

I sprint for the stairs and very nearly get caught by Adam as he lunges for me.Keep running.Loud footsteps are right on my heels.It's Cotton.Shit!!He's fast for a Yeti.He stumbles midway up the stairs, gaining me some distance.I get to the bedroom and slam the door shut, locking it as fast as I can.One door isn't enough though, when you're dealing with men this size, so I go one further and lock myself inside the bathroom.

There's pounding on the bedroom door as soon as I click the lock on the bathroom."Eve, you better open this damn door right now."

Adam.He's covered in dark red paint.Oh hell.It's literally covering his entire body.Not his face though.I didn't shoot him in the face.That should count for something, right?

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