Run To Me (Lazarus Rising #4)(70)

“Jay?”

Willow’s voice.

She was back, but staring up at them weakly. She tried to push herself up—

Lucas pulled out the knife. The blade was red with Jay’s blood. “You’re too weak,” Lucas snapped at him. “No match for me. And you’re dead—”

“Behind… you,” Jay managed. “Distract…”

Lucas spun around. And he saw that Jay had just been the bait. The distraction. Sawyer Cage and Flynn Haddox were there. They’d come in the window, and he hadn’t even heard them make a single sound because he’d been so focused on that bastard Jay. Now they were rushing toward him, and there wasn’t time to retreat. They’d caught him. They were going to—

“Stop!”

Willow. Willow’s weak order.

Everyone froze because Willow had risen to her feet. She trembled a bit, as if still struggling to recover, but she’d just put her body in front of Lucas. She’s protecting me from them. He smiled at her because…She was his Willow. She loved him. Always had.

The two of them could win, as long as they were together.

“You belong to me,” he whispered.

She stared into his eyes.





Chapter Eighteen


“You belong to me.” Lucas smiled at her. He held a bloody knife in his hand. A knife he’d just used on Jay.

Willow’s body was heavy. She felt sluggish, but she was absolutely sure of one thing. “I belong to myself.” And she grabbed him. She slammed his head into the doorframe as hard as she could. She heard the smack. The thud. She saw his eyes glaze, and then he was slumping to the floor.

The knife had fallen from his fingers. It was right there. She grabbed it. Held it clutched in her fingers. “You killed me, you bastard. And you think that’s love?”

His breath came faster. He’d blinked, shaken his head, and he seemed about to rise—

She felt Sawyer and Flynn—actually felt them start to advance. “Stay back!” Willow yelled. Or tried to yell. Her voice was funny. Was that from dying? From the tranq he’d given her? She didn’t know. Didn’t care. Her hand tightened on the knife.

“Willow…”

Her head whipped up at that voice. His voice. Jay. He was standing near the door, still outside the motel room. His hand was at his side, and blood was flowing down his shirtfront. He stared at her with wide eyes, and he looked at her—

No one has ever looked at me like that.

Like she was everything. The only thing that mattered to him.

And she was about to kill. He was going to see her at her worst. Her darkest.

Lucas laughed. “He won’t love you. You just figured that out, didn’t you? You thought you had it all. But you don’t get the good guy, Willow. You weren’t made for him. You’re dark and twisted, just like me. You love death and violence. Just like me. You were meant to be with me. You were meant—” He surged up toward her, rising in a too-fast heave, and she realized he’d snatched a gun from his boot.

She drove the knife into his chest. Straight into his heart. It sank deep. And then she twisted it. “We’re done,” Willow told him softly as she leaned toward him. “Because I say we’re done.”

His mouth was open. A gasp, a gurgle, spilled from him.

She yanked the knife back. And she watched as his body slid down the doorframe. He hit the floor as his hands flew to his chest, trying to stop the blood.

It wasn’t going to stop.

“Damn,” Sawyer whispered from behind her. “She’s fierce.”

She still held the knife. Willow made herself glance up at Jay. “H-he said—”

“Give me…the gun,” Jay growled.

Willow shook her head. “What?”

“The gun he dropped—give—oh, hell…” He lunged for it, wincing as he leaned down. More blood soaked his shirt.

“Jay!”

He lifted the gun. For a minute, it seemed as if he were pointing the gun at her. But then she realized he was pointing at Lucas. At a Lucas who wasn’t moving any longer. “He’s dead,” Willow said, voice stark. She’d killed him. Jay had seen her for exactly what she truly—

“He’ll come back, baby. Or rather, he’s not gone. Not yet. He’s not Lazarus…” Each word seemed like a struggle from Jay. “But he’s something else. And I’m making sure he won’t come back—”

Right then, Lucas’s eyes opened. He stared up at her with rage. Glared at Jay with fury.

“Didn’t you hear the lady?” Jay gritted out. “You’re done.”

Then he fired. The bullet blasted into Lucas’s head.

Willow didn’t move. Her heart was racing too fast. She could hear shouts from outside. The other people in the motel seemed to be freaking the hell out. Not that she blamed them.

Her knees were shaking again.

“Super soldiers…my ass.” Jay dropped the gun and frowned over at Sawyer and Flynn. “Didn’t see you…saving the day…”

“You two had it covered,” Sawyer said, but there was something about his voice…about the worried gaze that was on Jay…

“Jay?” Willow whispered.