The Player: A Dark, Vigilante Standalone Romance (The Soldiers of Anarchy Book 4) by Nikki J Summers

Author:Nikki J Summers [Summers, Nikki J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

WILL

I ran back towards the anteroom, bursting through the door. Hearing the commotion, Bryony turned her head, her body shaking with fear. When she saw me, her eyes widened.

“Oh my God, Will. Your ear. What happened?”

“Nothing,” I gasped, eager to make our escape. “We have to go.”

I didn’t give her chance to argue. I scooped her off the floor and into my arms, cradling her against my chest.

“Close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you to,” I commanded, and she nodded, closing them tight. “Promise me you won’t look.” She nodded again, tears trickling down her cheeks as she held herself together as best she could.

“Is he… dead?” Her voice broke on the final word, but I wasn’t going to bullshit her.

“Yes.” Her sobs grew louder, and she shook in my arms. “But I didn’t do it,” I said, trying to comfort her, clinging to her and wishing I could take her pain away. “I promise you it wasn’t me.”

She didn’t respond, and I didn’t want to waste another second. We had to get out of here.

I pushed the door open with my arm, taking us through to the task room. The door to our freedom was still open, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I charged towards it. But as soon as I did, her sobs intensified, and looking down, I saw she’d opened her eyes.

“Fuck, Bee. I told you not to look.” I moved faster, heading for the door to escape, trying to get her away from the horrors as fast as I could, but the weight of guilt began to drag me down.

How was I going to get her through this?

What we’d been through was enough to destroy anyone, but seeing her dad like this… it was too much.

“What did he do? How did he…” She could barely speak.

“It was a fucking electric chair,” I told her. She deserved to know the truth. “He didn’t stand a chance.”

She clung to me; her face buried close to my chest as my words penetrated her heart. It fucking shattered mine too, but I had to keep moving forward. All of this couldn’t be for nothing.

I carried her up the steps, my arms locked tight around her like rods of steel. Each step purposeful, resolute, but still heavy and fearful of what lay ahead for us in the future.

Did we even have a future after what’d happened?

I knew one thing, if it didn’t include her, I didn’t want it.

When we eventually came up into the daylight, I blinked, and the feel of the cool air on my skin made me take a huge breath. My chest ached, my lungs burned, but the coolness from that breath reminded me that I was still here.

We were alive.

Frantically, I peered around at the dense forest where we stood, my body itching to move, to make the right choice and take us down the correct path, back to civilisation. But there was nothing here to help me, not even a hint of the underground fortress we’d just escaped from.

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