Amidst Crimson Kisses

Chapter Thirty Nine: A Crimson Kiss

Asher's POV

We stood with our backs to one other, the room growing quiet as mindless soldiers flooded the house. Their rifles cocked aimlessly at their souls as each man overlooks the age gap drifting between our adulthood and the fear swirling in our eyes. I understand how meaningless it was as his blood-stained my hands, and the truth behind David's parting words whispered to me. I realize he knew someone wasn't going to make it home alive because he didn't stop until he took something from each one of us. Even now, hot tears collapse on my face under another haunting sunset, and I still keep thinking he's just going to appear over my shoulder with the light basking in his bright smile.

I ponder his final words and how they're still a mystery to me even with his eyelids sealed shut. After everything we've been through, why would he apologize to me when I'm the one that let him down. He's dead because of my foolishness, and every single drop of his blood attests to my past destruction. I exhale, gazing up at the clouds as his calm fury erupts in a thin white cloud, stretching across the sky underneath a slur of colors likened to a rainbow of fiery gold. I hold back the tears in my eyes, promising I'll embrace the violent memories of my old nature to avenge him until David's dead.

"Hey Margo, get Andre out of here," I yell, pulling her close to me as her irises flicker to Andre. "Charlie, I want you to get up slowly then calmly walk over here to us, and if one of these dumbasses are bold enough to take a shot, then their brains will be splattered all across these walls. I promise."

"Woah, look at Maddox speaking my kind of love language. You hear that, boys, if you so much as take another step, I'll kill you where you stand, and be mindful with me you don't even have to pull the trigger. I'll blow your brains out because I fucking feel like it, so watch your step, sunshine." Mateo announces, his attention-holding David's men as Charlie slowly makes his way to Andre.

"Bro, are you sure we can trust this guy," Andre grunts as his father raises the left side of his body off the ground, and Margo struggles with the other side. "It's not like Mateo's done anything to help anyone except himself. He's an opportunist, and for some reason, you're his next mark. I don't know what Mateo wants with you, but he doesn't have any friends, just collateral damage. Ten minutes ago, he held a gun to Charlie's head, but who do you think made him stop? Your absent sister? There's no way he's telling the truth, and if he is, then we should be worried because the only person Lynn cares about is standing outside trying to kill us."

Andre's bold statement settles in the pit of my stomach as my eyes flash between Mateo and the twelve men stationed in front of him. I had no reason to believe Mateo, especially not when two pistols are still aiming for a headshot, and the other ten were dead by his hand. Even when he helped Elijah beat Andre into a glimmer of a different person, I never believed Mateo. He always seemed so above the heights, even when he spoke with ridicule.

Then there's Andre, who was shot in the leg ten minutes ago and carried into the kitchen by his concerned father. It was weird watching Elijah's eyes take in his son's wound, and then for the first time in years, he dropped his pistol. Elijah's gaze had faltered to Mateo with tragedy lingering in his countenance. Mateo tended to Andre's wound with some supplies Elijah found in the kitchen, and then he disappeared out the back door. But not without glaring at me with hatred in the final glance he takes before he disappears in the basement.

"Maddox, I get I've done some questionable things, even said a mouthful of disrespectful slurs to get under your skin, but what can I say? You're an easy mark. Look, I get you don't trust me, but your sister does. I know you hate her, but if Lynn trusts me, I know it has to mean something to you. She told me her whole story, and out of everything, the one thing she regrets is turning her back on you when you needed her the most. It's up to you to decide if you trust a single word Lynn Torres has to say." Mateo affirms, snapping me out of my thought as he takes a step toward the basement, urging me to follow him.