Unwritten Rules
Page 24
“Here comes the rescue squad,” a voice screams as people rush inside the building from every possible entrance.
But it’s not just anyone.
That voice belongs to Will.
The East Side is here.
“Winter!” Kendrick’s voice rings in my ear, and I’m overwhelmed by a thousand emotions. The numerous fighters Kendrick brought easily manage to get Owen and Man Number Two under control. Too bad Tanner’s not around to witness his evil plan fail. Will unties me and sets Haze free after he steals the key to the handcuffs from a knocked out Owen.
“Get them out of here,” Kendrick calls to his friend. “I’ll take care of the traitor.” He then gets on top of Blake, pulling him up by the grasp he has of his collar.
“Kendrick, I—”
“No, you don’t get to speak. You are dead to me from now on. You are nothing. If you ever try to hurt my family again, I’ll kill you and make it so painful you’re going to wish you were never born, you hear me?” Kendrick circles Blake’s throat with both his hands.
“I’m sorry. I had to survive,” he chokes out.
Kendrick spits in Blake’s face as a response. “Yeah, well, what’s the point of surviving if it’s to spend the rest of your life alone?”
The punch he gives him when he finishes his sentence renders Blake unconscious.
“Come on, we have to go. Now!”
Kendrick throws something into the room and a foggy cloud of thick gas quickly fills up the atmosphere as we rush out of the building through the nearest entrance.
It’s over. The nightmare is over.
My cousin’s voice cuts through the uproar. “Run. Get to the car.”
We see it—Kendrick’s car in the distance. Alex is waiting inside. I bite my lower lip roughly, reliving the excruciating pain I’ve been through barely minutes ago every time I take a step forward. I’m supposed to be running when even putting pressure on my toe hurts me.
“Her leg. She’s hurt,” Haze screams through the chaos.
We’re this close. This close to escaping.
But when we hear rattling gunshots, my first instinct is to run… and my leg can’t take it.
I collapse to the ground, screaming in agony.
The asphalt doesn’t hurt. What truly hurts is the big chunk of glass entering my flesh.
Cutting my leg open with what I assume to be a beer bottle and bleeding profusely feels nothing like I expected. The pain isn’t even the worst part.
Watching my last chance to escape burst in flames is.
Haze bellows from afar, “No!”
I try to get up. I know Tanner’s guys aren’t far behind. I’m holding them back. They need to leave me.
I close my eyes, unable to see the red fluid gushing out of me any longer. I feel brawny arms pick me up from the ground. He’s running, holding me up like I’m weightless.
“No, no, no. Fuck! Winter, stay with me.” I recognize Haze’s voice instantly. It sounds so close but yet so far. “Open your eyes.”
“What the hell happened?” Kendrick’s voice is followed by the sound of a car door being slammed open. Haze puts me in the back seat and scrambles inside, followed by Will. The vehicle takes off in a booming roar.
Every ounce of strength I ever had leaves me, my body no longer listening to my brain. I always had no tolerance for pain, not to mention a phobia of blood ever since I was a kid. I struggle with my time of the month. So watching liters of blood pour out of me? I don’t think so.
“You’re going to be okay. It’s over,” Haze says. “Open your eyes, Winter. Look at me.”
Using the very last of my energy, I open my eyes, just enough to see the pain in his.
Even if I do survive this, Haze lost the fight. He has to hold up his end of the deal. We can never see each other again.
It’s now or never. I have to tell him how I feel.
“Haze, I—”
He cuts me off, his voice trembling. “Don’t speak. Save your strength.” He tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear. I can feel and hear the car screeching down the silent roads. I think back to the multiple gunshots. There’s no way nobody in the neighborhood heard it. The cops are probably already on their way.
I can feel myself slipping away… from life… from reality…
From him.
Haze whispers, “It’s my turn to speak.”
All my senses dissipate, and I can’t bring myself to fight it anymore. The darkness takes over me.
“Keep her awake,” Kendrick yells.
I can no longer speak or move a muscle.
But he makes it better.
Four words. Sixteen letters.
He said it. I bet he thought that I wouldn’t hear.
But I did.
And I’ll never forget it.
“I love you, Kingston.”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To my boyfriend, Tommy, thank you for sticking by my side when I doubted myself and encouraging me to chase my dream no matter what people said.
To Tigris Eden, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. Your expertise and your precious advices made all of this possible and so much easier.
To Jen, thank you for introducing me to the website that changed my life. We might not talk anymore but I’ll never forget what you did for me. You used to say that my stories were piling up and that I should just stick to one. Well, I finally listened to you.
To AJ and Nathalie, thank you for helping me get in touch with the right people and introducing me to self-publishing.
To Marie, the best sister there is. Thank you for being a reader as well as a best friend and being completely honest with me about the plot. But most of all, thank you for loving Haze’s smirks and Winter’s clumsy ways as much as I do.
To Sandra Depukat, thank you for being a great editor, answering all of my questions and showing Haze and Winter some love along the way.
Again, thanks to my father for taking me in while I wrote this book every night and day. You never made me feel like I was jobless or “lost” in life. You told me you’d rather see me try and fail a thousand times than settle for something that would make me unhappy. I’ll never find the words to express how grateful I am that I got you as a father.
And last but not least, to the 23,400,000 people who gave Unwritten Rules (The Bad Boy’s Rules) a chance online, thank you. You made this possible. Thank you for coming back to read every chapter, waiting for my updates, no matter how long they took, and lifting me up when I was down. I love you more than words can say and I’d be nothing without you. You Wazers brought Haze and Winter to life.
ALSO BY ELIAH GREENWOOD
Unspoken Rules (Book 2 in The Rules trilogy)
(To be published in 2018-2019)
Heartbreakers For Hire
(To be published)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eliah Greenwood is a Canadian author and singer-songwriter who started off by writing books online when she was fifteen years old. When her story “The Bad Boy’s Rules” reached close to 25,000,000 reads, she decided to give her loyal readers what they’d been asking for and self-publish. She’s currently working on the sequel of her book “Unwritten Rules.” The second book in the trilogy is expected to come out in early 2019.
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