Page 84 of Reckless At Raleigh High
Mydoctoris prowling towards Alex’s old boss with a gun in her hands.
Monty shakes his head, his grey hair coming loose from his ponytail as he backs away from her. “Listen. There’s money. A lot of money. The bar, too. You can have the bar. I was thinking about retiring, anyway—”
As if by some weird trick of the light, Zeth coalesces out of nowhere, like the very shadows themselves merged together and gave him form and life. I’ve never seen anything like it before; one moment there’s only the ink-black darkness, and then there he is, all murder and death, with the biggest silver gun I’ve ever seen in his hands. He lovingly caresses Dr. Romera’s cheek, shaking his head. “There she is. My angry girl. Hate to make you break a promise, though. You save lives. You don’t take them.”
His hand whips up and he fires the gun. I brace for the sound. The gun’s so massive, I expect an earsplitting bang, but there’s nothing more than the dull thud of Montgomery Cohen the Third’s body hitting the snow. A rifle suppressor. A regular silencer wasn’t good enough for the weapon in Zeth’s hands. He literally needed ariflesuppressor to mute it.
A commotion breaks out as Zeth and Dr. Romera approach the three guys on the football team. I can’t even muster up a single fuck to give about them. All I care about is the dark, still form lying on a patch of ice ten feet away. Jacob didn’t shoot Alex, but he’s far too still.
Oh god. Oh god, no, why the hell isn’t he moving?
Detective Lowell says something to me, but I shake myself out of his grasp. I reach Alex, skidding toward him on my knees, and for a terrible heartbeat, I see the way he’s staring up at the sky and I think he’s fucking dead.
And then he blinks.
“Weird…night.” His voice breaks when he speaks. Wincing, he tries to roll onto his side, but it seems to take his breath away, so he slumps back into the snow. I quickly help him, lifting his head and placing it carefully into my lap.
“I’m hallucinating, right?” he says, his eyes searching for and finding mine. His face is a patchwork of bruises, forming rapidly underneath his skin. His lip’s split open, as is his left eyebrow, and there’s a gash on his temple, but he seems fairly alert. The vine tattoos around the base of this throat shift as he swallows. “Lowellshot Jake?”
A strangled laugh wells up and spills out of me, anxious and too loud. “Yeah. Yeah, I have no fucking clue what’s going on. Are you okay?”
He nods, slowly lifting his hand and taking hold of mine, squeezing it reassuringly. “Of course I am.”
“You don’t look okay.”
He smiles. Thankfully all of his teeth are still where they’re supposed to be. “Wow.Rude.”
“If he’s smiling, then he’s definitely concussed as fuck,” Zander says. He drops down next to Alex, peering over him suspiciously.
Shock sets in all over again as Zander fusses over Alex. The weight of what’s just happened finally begins to hit me, and my calm starts to slip away from me.
I just watched two people get shot.
My boyfriend’s in pieces.
Again.
How the fuck are we getting out ofthisshit fight unscathed?
Zeth appears opposite me, crouching down, forearms on his thighs, his hands hanging loosely between his legs as dips his head, trying to make eye contact with me.
“Sometimes the job’s way bigger than you think. Sometimes you do need a demolitions expert after all,” he says.
“And…what about that?” I ask numbly, eyeing Jacob’s body. God, this is so weird. He was a monster. A creature made of nightmares, who posed such a threat to me and those I love not five minutes ago. And now he’s this fake-looking, mangled, empty vessel. Now, he’s nothing at all.
“Don’t worry about that,” Zeth rumbles. “I’ll get this cleared up. I know a guy.”
42
ALEX
“Where the hell is he? No, no, I’m not his father. Look, lady, I’m going into that hospital room whether you like it or—I need to see if he’s o—thank you. Yeah, well, you can report me to security. I don’t care.”
The door opens, and Cameron blazes into the room like a meteor, coming in hot. He’s panting and he looks like he’s ready to physically fight someone. Curled up in the armchair with her legs dangling over the arm rest, Silver doesn’t even stir from her slumber when he father bursts into the room. I smile, because he’s just so ridiculous sometimes. “And you’re normally so good with people,” I say, pouting. “Weird that she wouldn’t let you in.”
In fairness, the woman sitting at the nurse’s station outside my room is terrifying. Silver had to lie and tell her she was my sister in order to gain entrance to my room, which is kinda awkward now, since the nurse saw Silver kiss me on the mouth about half an hour ago. God knows what she thinks is going between us.
“Still alive, then. That’s nice,” Cam observes, planting his hands on his hips. “It’s all over Raleigh. Jacob Weaving’s dead? Wha—?” He shakes his head, as he looks up at the ceiling. I know exactly how he’s feeling, because I’m feeling the same way: confused, exasperated, lost for words. “What the fuck happened?” he asks. “You guys went to prom, for fuck’s sake. And somehow that motherfucker winds up with his brain splattered all over the basketball court? I swear to god…”
