Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
That’s what this place does to you. People weren’t meant to be caged. Do you know what it feels like not to exist? To know that no one is looking for you? It’s crippling. Mentally and physically. And then you find out that you have a life inside you? That there is something good to come out of something so awful? I want better for my child.
There is a life outside of this place, far past the Lords, and I’m going to get it. By shooting him, it gives me an out. I’ll be free. It’ll only cost my soul and the love of my life. But freedom always comes with a price.
“I’m… sorry,” I choke out, my throat so tight all I can do is whisper the next sentence. “I love you.” He’s said those three words to me several times. This is the first time I’ve said them to him.
His green eyes narrow on mine, and he takes a step toward me. “Ash-“
I pull the trigger.
* * *
I stand, shaking with the gun down by my side. His body lies on the floor, blood pooling underneath him. He’s coughing, body jerking at the movement.
“Saint?” Kashton calls out. His shoes echo off the concrete walls as he stomps his way down the stairwell. He heard the gun go off. Everyone had to.
I take a shaking step back as his body continues to convulse. Tears fall from my cheeks as my throat closes. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “I-“
“Ash-tyn.” He coughs my name, blood splattering across his face.
“Saint?” Kashton yells once more, and he’s getting closer.
I lick my wet lips and turn my back to him, needing to leave. I didn’t shoot him for nothing. I rush out the hallway and down the corner. I scream when I hit a hard body. Looking up into a set of hard eyes, they drop to my gun.
My shaking hand tightens on it, ready to shoot anyone to get out of this place. “Get the fuck out of here. As far as I’m concerned, you’re dead. Do you understand me?” he growls, not making a move to take it from me or step back.
“I…understand.” I manage to say through a sob with a nod.
“Saint! Fuck!” Kashton shouts from around the corner. He just found his brother bleeding out in the hallway.
The man steps into me and lowers his lips to my ear. “We all pay for our sins, Ashtyn. You are no different. You can run from them all you want, but they will catch up with you no matter where you go.” Pulling back, he turns and walks back in the direction he came from, going away from the hallway I ran from.
Taking a deep breath, I run toward the EXIT and shove it open, entering the black night and run deep into the woods. I’m sucking in breath after breath, and my lungs burn. I try not to trip over the uneven ground as I come up to the door that’s hidden inside a hill.
I sniff, my shaking hands unlock it, and yank it open. Bending down, I pick up the flashlight left for me and turn it on, closing the door behind me.
The sound of dripping water and rats scatter away from the light. I feel the bile rising, and I can’t stop it. The smell, the fear, the blood…
Bending over, I hold my hair back as I vomit. My head pounds from the guard tossing me around, and my ears ring. I try to take a calming breath and get myself together. I can’t stop now. We’ve come too far.
SAINT
The gunshot echoes through the hall. One second, I’m staring at a blood-covered Ashtyn, and the next, I’m blinking up at the ceiling as it fades in and out.
“Christ,” a familiar voice hisses, and then Kashton hovers over me. His bloody face in mine.
“What … happened?” I’m having a hard time talking. I can’t seem to get the words out. Why is he bleeding? Did he hurt Ashtyn? Is that why they were both covered in blood?
“The bitch shot you,” he shouts before placing his hands on me and presses down.
“Nooo.” He can’t be talking about my sweetheart. She wouldn’t do that. She’d never hurt me. She loves me. The pain that shoots through my body makes me arch my back off the floor. I go to scream, but nothing comes out as my breath is taken away.
“You’re okay,” he rushes out. “Hang on.”
My body relaxes into the cold concrete floor, and I blink, my eyes heavy. The fluorescent lights that run along the ceiling fade in and out.
“Saint!” he screams as he looks up from me and down the end of the hall. “Haidyn, call the medics,” he orders.
“Ash-tyn?” I choke out. The guards were coming for her. Maybe they shot us both? Is she lying next to me bleeding out? If so, he needs to save her before they get to her. They’ll save me and leave her to die. She’s no one to them, but everything to me. That’s why I couldn’t let her leave me. I almost lost her once. I won’t let it happen again.
“She’s gone, Saint.” Kashton growls.
They killed her? “No.” I cough, and I taste blood. “Save her-“
“She ran,” Kashton snaps at me. “Haidyn, he’s been shot. She fucking shot him! He needs Devin! Now!”
“I-” My tongue won’t work. My lips are no longer able to move. I try to reach out for her, to hold her hand, but they don’t move either. She has to be next to me. Why isn’t he helping her?
“Fuck,” Kash curses, ripping my shirt open, and I feel like I’m floating. The lights dim, and the floor gets colder as he fades into nothing. The last thing on my mind is if they killed Ashtyn, I hope I die too.
* * *
I’m putting on my belt that Jessie had brought me this morning, finally getting out of my hospital stay here at Carnage.
They’ve kept me drugged up in here for two weeks, and I’m losing my goddamn mind. Ashtyn got away, and that’s two weeks that she’s had the opportunity to run. Every time I woke up and went to leave, they’d give me something to knock my ass out. Said I wasn’t ready and that I needed to take time.
She shot me in the chest. She was either a really good shot and knew it wouldn’t kill me. Or she was a bad shot and missed my heart. Either way, I’m still alive, and I’m going to find her and bring her back.
We still don’t know who was after Adam, and I’m still not clear if they wanted her dead or to use her as bait. So, the Lords need to assume she’s dead. She won’t be able to survive out in the real world without me.
The sound of my hospital room door opens, and I keep my back to it as I pick up my shirt and gently pull it over my head. I’m still sore as fuck. “Where are Haidyn and Kashton?” I ask, knowing it’s Devin. He came in this morning, and I told him I was done putting up with this shit. He said he’d be back to give me some meds in case I needed them. Fuck the drugs.
“Hello, Saint.”
I spin around at the sound of a woman’s voice, knowing that was not Devin. She stands in my room in a tight-fitting white pencil skirt that hits her knees with a pair of black high heels and blood-red top. It’s tucked into her high-waisted skirt with a deep V-cut neckline showing off her enlarged breasts. Her dark hair is up in a tight bun, showing off her neck, and she wears a pair of red-rimmed glasses that showcase a set of dark green eyes. They drop to my combat boots and run up over my jeans and T-shirt.
“Can I help you?” I give her my back and pick up my watch off the hospital bed and place it on, clasping it.
“Actually, I’m here to help you,” she says cheerfully.
I snort; no one can help me. Not right now. Not with this. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone or how I’ll find her, but I’m not coming back until I have Ashtyn in my arms. Whatever she did, whatever happened, I can fix it. I can protect her.
Locking my cell, I put it in my pocket, zip up my bag, and toss it over my good shoulder and turn around to leave. “Move,” I bark when she stands in my way. I’m really not in the mood to hit a woman. I don’t give a fuck who she is.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.” Just then, the door behind her opens, and four men step into the room, all coming to line up behind her on either side, and the door shuts once more.
I take a deep breath, about to lose my shit. “Dad, what the fuck are you doing?” I bark, looking over their cloaks and masks. If they think this changes our agreement, it doesn’t. “I don’t have time…”
“Your father is dead, Saint,” she speaks.
My eyes scan the four men once more before I look back down at her. “Listen.” I fist my hand. “I don’t know who the fuck you are or why the fuck you’re here, but you need to get out of my way before I body-slam you into the fucking wall.” If my dad were dead, I’d know.
A smile graces her done-up face as if the idea of being tossed around like a rag doll turns her on. “Things have changed, Saint,” she says cryptically.
“Get the fuck-“
“Show him, boys.” She interrupts me.