Page 189 of The Coldest: Stay Dangerous Part 2

And honestly…

“I don’t really care, Auty.”

A surprised sound rushes out of her lips. Her hands drop to her sides, palms slapping on her thighs.

“How could you say that? How could you?!”

My eyes roll all the way to the back of my head. “Auty, how many times do I have to tell you how fucked up Aaron and Amani Shaw did us?! Give it a rest, they didn’t even like you. He did us a favor.”

“Regardless, they gave us life!”

“That’s the only thing they did,” I say dryly. My fingers pat my incision, before my shoulders hunch. “I’m sorry for your loss, Auty. I’ll be mourning privately.”

“How can you take up for him?! Why are you okay with this?!” Her voice gets higher with each question, grating my ears.

But she’s not in a state to listen to me right now, so I turn again to walk away.

A cold hand grips my arm, yanking me back.

“Don’t walk away from me!” she shrieks. Her fingers squeeze around me, making me wince.

“You’re hurting me,” I whimper, clawing at them, but she won’t budge.

“You told him to do this, didn’t you?! How could you?! You know how much they mean to me!”

Her hand clamps down harder, slowly pulling me down.

“Let go,” I grit, but she just squeezes me harder.

With my free hand, I palm her face, pushing all the way back until she stumbles, finally letting go of me.

“Don’t you fucking put your hands on me!” I thunder, pushing her once more. “Are you crazy?!”

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” Auty launches herself at me, her hands going to my neck as she pushes us all the way to my island.

She looks exactly what I just called her, tears coming down her face as she strangles me.

“Don’t fucking call me that! I’m not crazy!”

Blackness dots my vision, but I still see the gun press into the side of her face. It cocks, and we both freeze.

Something is murmured, before Auty finally lets me go. I sink to the floor in a violent fit of coughs, trying to force air down my raw throat. My lungs burn, but when tears clog my nose, I have to try harder to breathe through my mouth.

Blood roars in my ears, preventing me from hearing anything. She tried to kill me. We’re sisters. Sisters fight. Sisters argue. We’ve both said some pretty nasty things to each other, called each other more bitches than the average.

Turkey has had to hold her back. Even Shad, some months ago. But she’s never put her hands on me like this. She tried to kill me. Snuff me out right here in my own fucking house.

The tears are hot as they leak out of my eyes, no real path but downward. My whole face is covered in them, my throat now clogged with my nose. But it doesn’t soothe it, not by a longshot.

A hand barely touches my shoulder before I flinch away. My hands scratch at my chest, trying to get air into my lungs another way. Another hand grabs them both, its grip unrelenting.

“Breathe, Snow.”

It’s low, muffled, but it still registers. My body still responds, and immediately, air rushes into my lungs.

Our eyes meet only briefly, before mine flit to the gun hanging casually between his crouched legs. He squeezes my hands gently with his other hand, bringing my gaze back to his hooded eyes.

“Focus on me, bae. Keep breathing in and out.”