Page 95 of Love at First Sighting
“They’re never going to believe you,” Marcus says. “No matter what I do to you. This is my sector to run, and you two aren’t supposed to be here. I was protecting my own, like I always have.”
Marcus shifts his focus to Carter.
“You were protectingyourself. Just like you always do.” Carter’s grip on his gun shakes. I catch his eyes and pull out the corner of the file folder for him to see. Relief floods over him. “You don’t care who ends up being collateral damage. Even my dad knew it.”
“You would do the same thing. If you were pressed—if you had to make a choice. I was trying to protect PIS and all the people it protects. You don’t get to act like you’re better than me. I mean, look at you,” Marcus sneers. He steps closer toCarter and tilts his chin up with the barrel of his gun. “You dragged this nice young lady into your crusade, didn’t you? You didn’t care what happened to her if it suited you.”
“That’s not true,” Carter says, and at the same time I chime in with, “I actually bullied him into letting me help.”
Marcus looks between us and smirks. “What a match made in heaven, then.”
“And you don’t think I’m a nice young lady,” I add. “You were going to shoot me a few seconds ago.”
Carter and I lock eyes as Marcus turns back to him. Pain is heavy in his eyes, and each breath is punctuated with a quiet gasp. We need to get out of here fast and get him to a hospital. Carter gives me the slightest of nods. He’s telling me to run.
But I’m not going to do that. I’m going to give him a distraction.
I shove a stack of books off one of the shelves and Marcus snaps his attention to me. It’s all the time Carter needs to punch him with all the might he still has left.
Marcus stumbles backward and his gun skitters out of his hand, metal against rough concrete. I dive forward and kick it farther under a desk. He’ll have to offer us a chance to escape if hereallywants his gun back.
Instead, he doesn’t go for the gun. He turns and throws an unforgiving punch at the side of Carter’s face, and Carter goes down with a sharp cry. Blood flows from a cut on his cheek, left behind by one of Marcus’s rings, but the bigger problem is that Carter’s other wound is bleeding far worse now. He curls into himself with a broken shudder and reaches feebly for his gun, but Marcus snatches it and aims it at me.
I hold my hands up in surrender. I glance down at Carteras he struggles to keep his eyes open and spits blood onto the porous concrete floors. When he tries to pick himself up, he collapses.
“Carter…” I say. My voice shakes and tears fill my eyes. “Carter, please. I need you to hang on, okay? You’ve gotta stay with me.”
But he doesn’t have a response. Marcus turns his focus to me, and we stand at opposite ends of the aisle.
“I don’t think you want to take that with you,” he says.
I wrap my arms around my jacket, holding the file even tighter. “I actually really do.”
“Hand it over and no one has to get hurt.”
But Carter alreadyishurt. He’s walking a fine line between surviving and not. Marcus has already done so much damage.
That’s when I notice Carter isn’t on the ground anymore. He’s left behind a trail of blood that my eyes follow into the adjacent row of shelves, but I can’t see him and I can’t hear him. I’m led to believe maybe his defeat moments ago was merely an act. What we both need is time.
Think.
My years of peddling products I don’t like and fitting into molds I’ve grown out of will be behind me now, and a real, unfiltered future lies ahead. But if there’s one thing all that time taught me, it’s how to be the center of attention.
“I…I know exactly what it’s like trying to prove something to the world,” I start. Marcus’s attention returns to me as Carter’s shadow moves down the aisle, out of view. “Like you’re never going to be good enough? Someone’s always more successful than you? Better funded? Better resources? It’s so hard when the odds feel stacked against you.”
Marcus’s brows furrow. “What…are you?”
“I used to feel like that, too.”
I rack my brain for the words of wisdom in all my self-help lifestyle podcasts. God knows Marcus needs to reevaluate a lot of things in his life. However, the influencer side of my brain knows what comes next after a solid intro—an ad roll.
“Femletics athletic gear actually helped me overcome a lot of those confidence issues.”
Based on the baffled expression on Marcus’s face, the distraction is working. I need to keep his focus for a few seconds more, until finally I see Carter sneak behind Marcus into the opposite row of shelves, taking a far better, hidden angle on him. His movements are silent, masking the immense pain he must be in, but he finds a place and a strategy for us.
“You can use code ARIEL20 for twenty percent off your first order—”
“What the fuck?” Marcus mutters, now even more confused than ever. “Why are you trying to sell me yoga pants right now? Just give me the damn file.”
