Pulling the trigger, I expel three more shots and two hit their target, center mass on our final assailant. Blood spurts from his mouth, coating his chin as his head lolls to one side. He tries to lift his gun, tries to fire one last shot, but it’s over. Crumpling like a rag doll, he lands beside his friend, twitches twice and then lies still.
I’ve killed four people.
As if it’s a poisonous snake, I drop my gun to the ground. Weakness flows through my muscles as the adrenaline recedes and I lean against a tree for support, unable to tear my eyes from the men I have just killed.
I am a murderer. Over and over again. Four people dead by my hands. The knowledge that it was either me or them is neither comforting nor reassuring. It doesn’t change the fact that I have taken lives, that I am no better than the Councilmembers of ROC who allow thousands to die every year all to keep their secrets safe.
“Kelsey!” someone yells and I lift my eyes to see Jax clamoring over the log. His shirt is gone, and I realize he’s wound it around his hand to stop the flow of blood. In the tiniest hint of moonlight beaming down on the clearing, I can see the muscles along his chest ripple as he races to me, folding me into his arms.
“You really are insane, you know that?” he asks, murmuring into the side of my neck.
“I’ve killed four people,” I whisper, giving life to my thoughts. “Since I’ve been up here, I’ve killed four.”
Drawing back, he gazes down at me, his stunning eyes almost a dark silver in the pale light. “You had to. They would have killed you.”
“I know. It doesn’t make it any easier.”
“It’s not supposed to be easy.”
“You do it. I’ve watched you kill people without even thinking about it. You just, do it because you have to. How? How is it so easy for you?”
Releasing me from his grasp, his face becomes clouded. “It isn’t easy for me either. Since that night my family died, I’ve killed twenty-seven people.”
“Twenty-seven?” I whisper in astonishment.
“Yes. And I remember every single one. I see them in my dreams and sometimes I wonder if their dead, vacant eyes burned into the back of my memory will eventually drive me insane. It wasn’t easy the first time and it wasn’t easy today and I don’t ever want it to be. I figure, if I ever kill someone and don’t feel the guilt chew at me afterward, it’s time to turn the gun on myself because it means I’ve become nothing but a monster.”
I step forward, resting a hand on his shoulder, the muscles taut and strong beneath my fingertips, a strange contrast to the warm, silkiness of his skin.
“Let me see your hand.”
Unraveling the blood-soaked shirt, he reveals his injuries. “It was shrapnel when a bullet shattered against one of the rocks by the log.”
The side of his hand is shredded, skin hanging in strips and I can see bone glistening through the gore. I have to bite back against the bile rising in my throat.
“Can you move all your fingers?” I ask.
Nodding and wincing, he flexes his fist to prove everything still works. “I’ll be fine, just need to get it cleaned up.”
“Jax, what were you trying to tell me before?”
Turning back, he reaches out with his uninjured hand and tucks my hair behind my ear, whatever good that will do because I am a filthy mess.
“I just wanted you to know that-“
A twig snaps, the sound bouncing through the woods like another gunshot. I jump, but Jax, silent as the wind, grabs his gun from the ground and spins us around a tree in one motion, pressing against me so I’m sheltered from whatever comes. His eyes grow wide and alert, like an animal watching for signs of a predator, which I suppose is exactly what we are.
A shape emerges through the woods no more than ten feet away and Jax shifts just slightly away from me. Slowly he draws the gun to his shoulder, eyes never leaving the target. I’ve stopped breathing, afraid one exhale will give us away.
Cocking the trigger, Jax lines the sight of the gun and prepares to shoot, training the barrel along his mark’s chest.
Then the shape turns and stares straight at us and my insides roll over and tie into knots. It takes me a moment to register, a moment that almost made me too late to react and resulted in this person’s death.
“No!” I scream, shoving Jax with such force, he staggers backward as I knock him away. The gun goes off, firing a bullet into the sky, the sound reverberating through the forest and ringing in my ears.
“Kelsey! What the hell?” he shouts, but I don’t hear him as I step around the tree to stand before the newcomer. I can only gape at the person frozen less than three yards away. A person who stares at me with the same stunned and confused expression that’s written across my own features. I falter forward, legs trembling and footing unsure and I think I might fall over from the uncontrollable shock. My head spins because I can’t believe it, can’t understand how it’s true because I know for a fact that this person is dead. I know…
And yet here we are, and I am reminded once again that I have never known anything at all.
I try to find my voice, try to ask how any of this can be real, how they can be alive again, but I seem to have forgotten how to speak because only one word, one name, is able to pass my lips.
“…Rey?”
Acknowledgement
As always, a book is so much more than the time, effort and talent of the author. I wish I could individually name every single person who helped make The Gamble a reality, but that would be a book all its own. So I will do the best I can here.
First, I want to thank my family; Mom, Dad and Neil. They have always supported my love of all things art, and the productions I have been a part of or work I have created, even when I was just starting and my work was terrible.
Next, I'd like to thank my husband who puts up with most of my crazy ideas and reigns me in when I may have gone a tad too far. And of course there are our two beautiful, intelligent, silly daughters who bring constant joy to our lives, and a little craziness of their own.
A huge thank you goes to Katie Rasinski for doing my amazing cover art. Check her out at: www.facebook.com/KtRazzDesigns/ for all of your graphic design needs!
I also want to thank every beta-reader, friend, student, random stranger on the airplane or anyone else who gave input on this book. A part of you is in this story.
And lastly, I thank you, my reader. This was created for you.
About The Author
Kathryn Jacques
Raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Kathryn Jacques graduated with a BFA in Dance Performance from Towson University. She performed professionally as both a classical and contemporary dancer for several years.
Upon retiring from the stage, Kathryn transitioned into TV and film acting where she appeared in numerous TV shows, commercials and independent films. She starred in the 2016 feature film Soul Fray, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It was during her down time on sets when she returned to her childhood love of writing, and eventually The Gamble was created.
Kathryn still lives in Maryland with her husband and their two daughters.
Books By This Author
The Choice
Book 2 of The Gamble Series- Coming 2021
Redemption
Book 3 of The Gamble Series- Coming Eventually
The Gamble (The Gamble Series Book 1) Page 26
