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I screas sticking out of the door, motionless

Javier

Shot

Dead

No

No

Not yet

His legs twitched and he ed to pull himself into the pool house until I couldn’t see him anymore

"Ellie Watt!" a cold voice bellowed from across the lawn I could barely tearback a range of eed to turn ht with an icy fist

Travis was standing on the lahere it un in hand

In front of him was my mother and Camden on their knees with their hands behind their heads

No

Not this

Not now

My heart couldn’t take anyto soul

"What do you want froun out ofsoftly froround

"Coht want to keep your gun down, though You know you can’t save both of the toward hiun at my side Each step I took riddled with more pain, more sorrow,away from me

I wouldn’t let him take Camden

I wondered if he knew that would be ured I came all this way foronher

I remembered when Derek had asked me what I would do if I had to save my mother, how I said I’d have to let the situation dictate my choice

I knew my choice back then and I knew it now

I stopped a few yards away and looked at Camden, at his beautiful soul in those blue eyes We stared at each other locked, in our gaze, locked in love He wouldn’t want me to make this choice either I could only hope he wouldn’t make it for me

"You don’t look as lovely as you did when you were Eleanor Willis," Travis said, sun in themore toward my mother

"You don’t look so hot either," I retorted His norrey hair was messed up with pieces of plaster in it, his slick Italian suit covered in blood and tears, his terrible eyes red "Your age is showing"

He kept s Hope it doesn’t leave a scar"

I sed hard, overtaken by the anger and the pain and the determination to walk out of there with the love of old

I raised ht up in the air and pointed it at him "I hoped this doesn’t either"

"You kill h, "your un to the back of her head

"You wouldn’t kill her," I said and though I wished it weren’t true, I had to wish it was true "You love her, don’t you?"

His eyes narrowed "She loved h to make up for it You can’t love in this business, Ellie Sooner or later everyone dies"

Javier had said that to me Now I didn’t even know if he was alive or not

"Then why are we standing here like this," I said, hiding the weakness in my voice "Do you want me to come join you, is that it? Do you want me to be like my mother? The only reason she ith you is because she wanted to get revenge for what you did to me" I didn’t even know if that was true but o down a few

He pressed his thin lips together and sot a sniper trained on your head right now None of you are walking out of this alive I just wanted you to see what love gets you in this world, in the real world Death You can escape love but you can’t escape death Not here Not anywhere And not right now"

This wouldn’t be our fate

"And neither can you," I said, pulling the trigger

It all happened so fast and so terrible