Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
There was shouting again.
I saw from the corner of my eye as the guy behind Marco, the one who was with him, was shooting behind me.
Marco was focused behind me as well, and he was starting to turn to run, but then I brought my gun out and he stopped.
Slow motion.
That’s what this was.
This was all happening in slow motion to me.
Even better because I raised the gun, and I pointed, and as his eyes widened, he realized what I was going to do–I did it.
Connor’s death would stand for something.
I pulled the trigger.
EPILOGUE
KALI
Katie was okay.
The random men were okay.
I found out where Harper and Justin had been the whole time, and they were more than okay.
But me, I wasn’t okay.
That day when I shot Marco Estrada, I got him. I know I did, but we didn’t have his body.
Shane had driven in, guns blazing and he drew attention from me. It’s the whole reason I was even able to shoot Estrada. Thinking back on it, I realized that I would’ve been killed the moment I pulled that gun. The guy with Marco Estrada had been that good. He wasn’t like the other imbeciles who worked for him.
He ran in, grabbing Marco’s body at the same time that Shane ran in and scooped me up.
They were like two opponents having a ceasefire for a moment as they each got their partner to safety. Shane had come alone, his other men were back at the other ‘battle.’ So in a way, I still blamed myself for why Marco got away, if he did indeed get away. I put it that way because it’s been a whole year later and no one’s heard a word about him or from him.
His cartel didn’t fall. After all that planning, there was no chaos in Mexico. But there wasn't an all-out war either. It was like one side went silent, and our side… just continued living.
The Red Demons were free.
And my brother, he went through with what he promised. He killed those four men, and then another surprise happened after. Instead of getting a call informing me about his death in prison, I got a call saying that my brother had escaped prison. It was kept very hush-hush. No media covered his disappearance. I never once had law enforcement knocking on my door, asking about him or looking for him. To my knowledge, my brother literally vanished from prison.
I had no idea where he went, and when I asked Shane about it, he would say the same thing.
He made a call to the one person he trusted in law enforcement.
He never thought it would pan out.
And he had no idea where my brother went.
But, no news of my brother’s death was very good news to me. I liked to think, like on days like this, as I was standing on our front porch in our house just outside of Frisco, that everything was a happily ever after.
Aly and Brandon got married.
Brandon didn’t quite ‘hate’ the Red Demons anymore, but he didn’t necessarily like us. What he did was thaw toward Shane and me specifically. That meant Aly and I got to hang out. I helped plan her wedding. I helped plan her bachelorette party and her baby shower. I also got to know her in-laws more, and while I enjoyed her sister-in-law, I was always uneasy around her too.
But we weren’t the only ones here.
Harper and Justin did indeed get married. They decided to leave Manny’s that night, and instead of going out the ‘back back’ as Harper put it, because it was ‘creepy,’ they went to the front. They enjoyed the show of machismo going on between Shane and Brandon, but they went and ‘had it out,’ also as Harper put it, in their hotel room. After a few hours of yelling and crying, the make-up sex had been Hot (also as Harper spelled it,) and after that, he had an epiphany.
“What the fuck was I fighting him for?” he explained to us. “I mean, like duh. I was being so dumb and being so scared of not wanting to get hurt, that all I was doing was hurting myself. I realized that Justin was actually going to go, and he would find a great guy and I would’ve lost him forever.” He started tearing up, his voice went hoarse. “I couldn’t do that, so you know, Vegas.”
They went to Vegas, got married, and turned their phones off to the world.
They didn’t turn their phones back on until a rather mammoth-size man showed up at their hotel room and informed them if they didn’t call their friends back, he’d shoot them right then and there.
Justin says the guy didn’t actually say that threat, but that’s what Harper stands by.
As for me and Shane–“Hey, hooker.”
I grinned at the same time I rolled my eyes. “Claudia.”