Page 160 of Shadows of You

Holt smacked him upside the head. “You get one more hole in your body, and Maddie’ll kill you herself.”

Nash winced. “You’ve got a point there.”

“Let’s move,” I gritted out. There was no time to waste. We could be too late as it was.

That thought had everything in me constricting. It was hard to walk, to breathe. I didn’t want anything to do with a world without Aspen.

“We stick to the trees, see what we’re dealing with. Then, we go in,” Lawson instructed.

Nash and I both gave quick nods and followed Lawson’s lead. It took us less than two minutes before the cabin came into view. But those one hundred and twenty seconds felt like a lifetime.

A navy SUV was parked out front, but everything was quiet—too quiet.

Lawson moved in closer, up to the very edge of the tree line. We circled until we reached the first set of windows. They looked in on a kitchen and through to a—my breath caught.

Aspen.

Tied to a fucking chair.

Her face was black and blue from Oren’s attack, and now she had a split lip. Shock ripped through me as I saw Steven tied to the chair next to her. I could only get a glimpse of Iris. A flash of her blond hair. Her arm. The gun in her hand.

Nash cursed. “Second hostage is shot.”

I hadn’t even noticed the blood blooming on Steven’s shoulder.

“We need to move,” I growled.

“Let me see if I can get a shot from the front,” Lawson said.

“She could see you,” I argued.

Lawson was already moving. “I’ll stay covered.”

We followed the edge of the trees, and Lawson crouched low, getting into position. He let out a slew of curses. “I don’t have it.”

A crack lit the air as though lightning had struck without any hint of a storm.

I didn’t think. I simply moved. Running for the cabin with everything I had.

I hauled open the door. Steven cried out in pain, more blood oozing from his good shoulder.

Iris’s head jerked in my direction. Her eyes went wide. “No! She doesn’t get to be happy. She has to pay!”

Iris raised the gun and pointed it at Aspen.

I didn’t think, I simply dove.

Iris screamed, the sound so loud and deranged that it nearly pierced my eardrums. “No! She has to die!”

She was strong for such a little thing, and I struggled to grab hold of the weapon.

A crack sounded, and the world went sideways.

52

ASPEN

Roan grumbledsomething under his breath from his spot on the couch next to me.

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