Page 157 of Wicked Lord

So why wasn’t I drowning in white-hot, searing torment?

I peeled my shirt up to examine the crimson-stained flesh. A chuckle almost slipped out at my stupidity. The bullet had only grazed me, tearing a shallow trench in my flesh. I’d live.

Another one of Lorelei’s screams burst into the atmosphere, full of terror.

“Let me go!” She kicked and fought like a demon as Brock gripped her hair and dragged her farther away.

“It’s time to tie up loose ends, Lorelei. Like I said, if I can’t have you, no one can.” He waved the gun around as he spoke, his gaze darting in my direction to ensure I was still down.

If he knew it was just a graze, he’d pull the trigger again. The wild, feverish look in his eyes made that a hundred percent clear. He had to believe I wasn’t a threat.

But watching him hurt Lorelei ignited fire through my veins. How much could I stand before my control snapped and I charged him, regardless of the weapon in his hand?

“You won’t get away with this,” she hissed, her fingers digging in the ground. “Axel will?—”

“Axel won’t do shit.” He jerked his chin toward me. “He’s dying.”

Lorelei’s frantic eyes shifted in my direction as I hunched over, pretending to be struggling to stand. I forced one corner of my mouth up, hoping she would understand I wasn’t as close to death as I looked.

Her head tilted, and her mouth parted, understanding flicking across her face.

“It’s a shame I never got to fuck the disobedience out of you.” Brock paused and scratched his forehead with the barrel of the gun. “I suppose it’s not too late to at least give you a punishing send-off. And as a plus, your boyfriend can watch me defile you as he bleeds out.”

A mixture of rage and disgust clashed through my insides as Brock spun and fell on Lorelei, straddling her. She kicked and bucked as he unfastened his belt with his free hand.

“Keep fighting, sweetheart.” He forced the gun into her mouth. “I like it rough.”

Streaks of crimson bled over my vision. But with his back now turned, he’d given me the perfect opportunity.

My heart raced, and fury pumped through my bloodstream as I shot to my feet and bolted forward. Lorelei’s frightened expression came into view, stoking the fires of rage within.

I wrapped my arm around Brock’s neck, hauled him off, and tackled him to the ground. The gun fell from his hand and tumbled several feet away. When I turned him over, the shock flickering in his wide eyes made me laugh.

“I-I shot you,” he sputtered.

“Barely a flesh wound, you pathetic excuse for a man.” I crushed my fist into his face, blood gushing from his lip and splattering his chin. “If you’re going to threaten someone with a gun, make sure you know how to use it. And I thought you were from Texas. Doesn’t everyone own a gun there?”

He snarled. But with him on the ground at my mercy, the sound had lost its arrogance. “Why go through all this trouble for some little whore, Vanderhart?”

“Call her a whore one more time, and I’ll finish your sorry ass.” My nostrils flared as images of him ruining my beautiful, kind Lorelei inundated my thoughts. “You know what? Fuck that. I’m just going to kill you.”

My fingers wrapped around his throat, and I squeezed.

Everything suddenly became so quiet, as if the world stopped while I committed murder. Again. The waves crashing against the bluffs were barely whispers on a gentle wind, and I couldn’t even hear my beating heart.

Maybe it had stopped too.

Brock’s eyes bulged out of his head as scarlet pooled in his cheeks. And then he started to turn purple.

“Ax, stop.” A soft hand wrapped around my arm, and that familiar, hypnotic fragrance I’d become so addicted to infiltrated the red haze fogging my mind. “You don’t need to do this. Please.”

My jaw clenched, teeth grinding. “Why not? He was going to do it to us. Toyou.”

The world could stand to lose me.

But not Lorelei.

“I don’t want you to have to live with murdering Brock.” She gripped my chin and forced me to meet her gaze. “If you kill him, it will haunt you, and you’ll never be free of him. You can pretend this won’t affect you, but I know it will.”