Every part of me shatters as the betrayal sinks beneath his skin.
His eyes bounce between me and Tobias at my side, standing far too close to be comfortable. He wasn’t carrying a gun but the men around him were, I knew only because he made me watch.
“I am incredibly impressed, Kingston,” Tobias says with a smirk, “Can I call you Kingston?”
But King doesn’t look at him, he stares at me, searching my face, for what, I didn’t know.
My heart hurts. Tears run freely down my cheeks, but I can’t move. Can hardly breathe.
They’d shown me Tate. Let me talk to her. She was okay, unharmed which of course Tobias promptly reminded me that would only remain so if I brought him here.
They had managed to get a lot of information on Kingston using those Trojan’s, which tech had claimed were untraceable. It seemed they were wrong. The only thing they needed was his home address. From me.
In return, Tate could go.
What they did to me after this, I could only guess.
I swallow, throat dry. He had made me walk here while he and his small army drove. The rain had bit at my skin, the wind chilling me through to the bone, but it was nothing against the pain of what I’d done to King. To everything he stood for.
I would have tried to get something in the message I sent earlier if it had been me who had the phone.
“Such an interesting turn of events, wouldn’t you say?” Tobias continues, “I should have seen it sooner but better late than never, right?”
“My, my,” King finally looks to Tobias, rolling his eyes as he takes on that cocky, arrogant mask he adorns so well, “don’t you enjoy hearing yourself speak.” The pain of my betrayal is no longer evident on his face, in fact he barely looks at me at all, “Well get on with it then, we all know what it is you’re here to do.”
Despite the fact that he doesn’t look at me I never take my eyes off of him. I can’t. Terror keeps me watching him, even if I have to watch him die.
Everything happens in a second, one minute it’s just us, then there are more. Coming up through doors I didn’t even realize the penthouse had, the elevator opening to let in more. I see Ace. Micha.
I’m grabbed around the waist so quickly I don’t see who it is, but I’m hauled away and then shoved roughly.
“Stay there,” King growls, the anger in his voice is clear.
“King,” I grab his arm, “I’m sorry.”
He pauses, just for a second, long enough for me to rush out, “They threatened Tate. They told me this was the only way I could keep her alive.”
His nostrils flare.
“Please,” I beg, “I’m sorry.”
He stares at me for the longest time, “Don’t die.”
And then he heads back to Tobias and his men, backed into the corner by Ace, Micha and now King, at their backs an army of men I’ve never seen which I’m sure is deliberate.
“You had me at quite the disadvantage, Tobias,” King clicks his tongue, “Shame on you for taking the cowards route.”
Tobias just smiles.
Something was wrong.
“I had hoped this would be easy,” Tobias replies.
Warning bells begin to ring inside the penthouse, so loud I can barely hear myself think. There’s too much going on and not enough space to track it and in the chaos, I lose sight of Kingston. One minute, there was space, the next it was being filled with men with guns, knives, shoulders squared in preparation of a fight.
I step forward, I need to find Kingston or Ace or even Micha, but I see none of them. None of Kingston’s men, only Tobias’. It would be a bloodbath.
There was no way King would walk out against this lot.
A shoulder slams into my spine and I fall forward, stumbling over as loud shouts suddenly fill the penthouse, grunts and deafening bangs, so loud they make my ears ring and continue to do so even when it’s stopped.
My fingers are stomped on, my body kicked, but I continue to crawl, unable to find enough space to get up.
Where is he!?
I don’t look at the bodies dropping to the floor, I hear the thuds and look the other way, I smell the blood and hear the shouts of pain, but I don’t look. If I look it’s over. I wasn’t built for this. I couldn’t do this.
Oh, what have I done!?
What have I done!?
“King,” my voice cracks and is barely above a whisper, no use. He won’t hear me, I doubt he’ll even see me, that’s if he isn’t already dead.
I cry out when hands suddenly band around my waist from behind, tugging me up violently. I slam against a chest and spin.
“What are you doing, Eleanor?” King growls in my ear, “run!”
I frantically turn in his arms, eyes catching the carnage behind, but I see his face a second later, blood running down his temple from a cut in his hairline, a bruise blooming across his jaw, bottom lip split and swollen. Blood coats his hands, his clothes.
“I’m sorry, they had Tate, and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to warn you, I’m sorry King!” I’m rambling, and I know I’m repeating myself, but he had to understand. I didn’t want to hurt him, I didn’t have a choice!
“You listen to me, Eleanor,” he grips my face in his hands, stopping my rambling speech, I feel the blood from his palms smearing on my cheeks, “You run, do you understand me?”
“No,” I shake my head.
“Love,” he softens, “I understand, okay? I understand why, but I’m not winning this and there’s no point us both dying. What will happen to Tate then?”
“King!” Ace hollers from somewhere in the chaos.
Kingston stiffens, “Run, Eleanor, please. Run!”
His mouth slams down against mine, the taste of his blood hitting my tongue. I open my eyes when he pulls away only to see Tobias beelining towards Kingston’s exposed back.
“Kingston!” I warn.
King spins, dodging the thrust of the blade and pushes me to the side hard enough I slam against the wall, “Run, Eleanor!”
So, I do, not because I want to, not because I can stand it but because I am fucking scared. I am so terrified that my body is not my own.
I make it to the door to the left of the elevator and slam it open, finding it clear and I risk one last glance back. I was hopeful. Hopeful that he would somehow survive, somehow win but at the same moment my eyes meet his, the noise of the battle drowned out by the roaring in my ears, is the same moment Tobias thrusts his knife into Kingston’s chest.
Everything stops in that moment.
I don’t see the bodies or the blood, don’t hear the sirens wailing outside as the police finally arrive, don’t see Ace or Micha screaming towards King, I only see him.
I only see Tobias jerk his arm, thrusting that knife in deeper before he yanks it out, the steel coated in blood.
To the side, I see shapes moving, Ace, Micha, battling through the numbers to get to King, to save him, to do something, but they won’t make it, they’re outnumbered. King was dead.
But he never takes his eyes off me, even when the pain crumples his features, even when blood gushes from the stab wound, he watches me always.
Tobias wipes the blood from the blade on his trousers.
Kingston falls to his knees.
My head is underwater, I’m drowning in an agony so deep, so dark I can’t see the surface.
Kingston finds my eyes again, his steadily dimming, and he says one word, “Run.”
So, I do.