Page 45 of Dr. Do-Right
As Asher turned, I could see it. The green eyes weren’t the exact same shade, but close. The blade of a nose, chocolate brown hair. Even with the similarities, I was caught off guard.
“He just seems so different from you,” Sonia voiced what I was thinking. Grayson was so serious and focused compared to flirty, nonchalant Asher. They were polar opposites.
Asher’s mouth opened to say something, but instead jerked in surprise. Then again.
Belatedly, my brain registered two cracks of a gun ringing through the apartment. A third.
Everything felt like it was underwater. I watched a cloud of blood spray out of Asher’s body and onto the pristine, white marble countertops. Sonia shrieked, reaching for him, but he shoved her away, hard, before crumbling to the ground. He was saying something, yelling, as he fell, but my brain wasn’t keeping up. It was fuzzy and slow and moving at warp speed at the same time.
“—go, Rija!” Suddenly, I was airborne, Mal hauling me over the back of the couch. Wine spilled in my hands, glass smashing on the floor. My vision blurred, narrowing to a pinpoint. “Run! Go!”
Bare feet scrambled to find traction on the wine-slick floor. Mal was pushing me, hauling me down the hall towards our bedroom. Like the snap of a rubber band, time sped back up again. We’d practiced this dozens of times over the last few days. If something were to happen, if she were to somehow get into the apartment… Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
She was in the apartment.
Another gunshot made me whirl to see Mal dragging Sonia into the hallway with him. In the living room, something crashed, blown apart by a stray bullet coming from the kitchen. How was she here? Where had she been hiding?
A sob burst from my throat, watching in horror, stumbling down the hall while Malachi dragged his sister after us.
She couldn’t get on her feet, still struggling, still reaching for Asher. I couldn’t hear him anymore.
“Mal? Baby, I’m here!” Christine’s voice was shrill, manic.
Mal pushed Sonia into me, face pale. “Run.”
It was a nightmare, a cruel twist of physics. I ran, but the hallway seemed endless, stretching feet into yards. Miles. My heart sped as seconds slowed. I grabbed Sonia’s arm, hurtling across the floor.
The door to our bedroom was in sight. Just there, just there…
I looked back for Malachi, right on our heels. Too late.
“Don’t move,” Christine snarled, standing at the top of the hallway, gun pointed right at us. We all careened to a stop together, freezing at her voice and the heart-stopping metallicclickthat accompanied it.
Inches away, our bedroom door was cracked open. I caught a flash of the open closet, Siggy’s empty crate, and a stray pair of shoes I hadn’t put away yet. We’d been so close.
“You’re withher?” Christine demanded, wild blue eyes swinging from me to Mal and back again. She shook her head, matted, tangled hair tumbling around her. A stench filled the air. In the YouTube video, she’d looked so normal. Now, though, nothing about her seemed right. There was a vibrating, tangible energy of wrongness emanating off her. “You knew I was coming, baby. And you’re still withher?I came here for you!” She shouted, jerking her gun towards us. I cringed away, grabbing for Sonia.
“I’m right here, Christine. You came for me, you got me.” Mal spoke in a low, soothing voice, stepping slowly in front of me and his sister. His arms were raised in surrender. Every muscle in my body seized up in denial. “Let’s keep this between you and me, alright?”
“Christie,” she hissed, brows squeezing over her blown pupils. “You used to call me Christie. Don’t you remember?”
“Of course. Christie.” I could hear the strain in his voice. Mal took another step towards her. I wanted to grab at him, snatch him back to me and safety. I must have flinched or something. Christine swerved the gun in my direction.
“Don’t you fucking move, I said!” she shrieked, hands shaking. Her finger still pressed tightly on the trigger. I gulped, squeezing Sonia’s hand harder. My knees felt weak. My heart was pounding so hard, I felt dizzy.
“Hey, don’t worry about her. I’m right here. Let’s go, let’s get out of here. Just you and me,” Mal soothed, taking another step forward.
“You, too!” she screamed, the tip of her gun waving back and forth between the two of us. How much more pressure would she have to put on the trigger before a bullet came flying towards us? “I love you! I did all this foryouand you’re still here withher? I was never good enough for you, was I?”
“Christi—”
“She doesn’t know what we’ve been through,” she screeched, spit flying in the air between her and Mal. She glared daggers at him. “You said you’d take care of me. You promised! And youleft mejust like everyone else!”
“Christine,” Sonia’s voice trembled as she reached a hand out to her former friend. “Please.”
“Shut. Up. You bitch!” Christine screamed, aiming at Sonia. “If you would have just let us be together, none of this would have happened. He would be withme! You’ve been standing in my way since the beginning, I know you have. I should have killed you the second I—”
Her finger tightened on the trigger. A crack split the air, and then she was falling, the gunshot going wide, embedding into the drywall next to Sonia’s head. I flinched back, blinking plasterdust out of my eyes to see Asher wrestling Christine to the ground. Malachi dove, scooping up the gun Asher had knocked free from her hand, stumbling to a stand to point it at her.
