She drops the sharp and heavy rock she just used to silence her partner and looks at me.
“You’re right. He can’t kill you,” she says as she steps over Blake’s unconscious body and picks up the gun that escaped his hands. “Which is why I’m going to have to do it myself.”
Great.
“Bianca, please,” I say in a hurry. “We can talk about this.”
That’s when I see the motion.
Right behind her.
I see the shadow hiding behind the million-year-old barn.
It’s him.
The man I’ll love until my last moment, even if my last moments are soon.
Haze.
I can’t hold it back anymore. Warm tears come rushing down my cheeks. But they’re tears of joy. How did he find us? I can’t believe it. He’s here. Haze is here. Our eyes meet. He motions to remain quiet by pressing a finger to his lips.
“Now, I’m going to let you choose.” Bianca checks out her perfectly manicured fingers with her available hand. “You tell me how you did it and you get the bullet to the head, quick and easy. Or, you don’t, and we do this the long, painful way.”
“Tell you how I did what?” I sob, my lips trembling.
“Don’t play dumb with me. You know what. How did you get him to commit, huh? How did you turn the heartless player into a good man?” She carefully analyzes my face as though she really thinks she’ll find the answer somewhere in my features.
This girl is completely insane.
Haze and I exchange glances from afar. I gather from his body language that he’s been dying to intervene, but he’s waiting for her guard to be down. He doesn’t have a gun. She does. One wrong move and it’s curtains for both of us. He needs to be smart about this.
My hope dies when Bianca speaks again.
“It’s all right, Haze, you can come out now!”
No.
Shit, shit, shit.
How did she know?
With a look of defeat all over his face, Haze exposes himself.
“Please.” She chortles at his shock. “I knew it was you from the second we noticed someone following us.” She points the gun at him, and he has no choice but to put his hands up in surrender.
“Bianca, please, listen to me, you don’t want to do this,” he says.
“Shut the fuck up.” She makes it clear that she’s not asking. “Get over here.” Haze obeys, walking toward us. He’s still wearing his tux, the same way I’m still wearing my white dress—which is now brown due to the dirt on the ground. I can’t wrap my mind around how quickly our prom turned into a living hell. How fast the Cinderella dream became a nightmare.
“You’ve come to save your precious Winter, I suppose?” Bianca asks, anger and jealousy flowing out of her. “What does she have that I don’t, huh?” She begins to cry as her once perfect mascara covers her face. Her arm is shaking. I desperately pray that she won’t pull the trigger.
A part of me feels bad for her. The truth is, I don’t know why he chose me over her. Why do things happen the way they do? Why is life the way it is? She’s seeking answers that don’t exist.
“Is it because she’s skinnier than me?” She gasps for air. “Because I can lose weight. That’s not an issue.”
Wow, the girl needs help…
And she needs it fast.