Desperately, he used his last bit of strength to try tossing me to the floor, but there was no way I was going to miss this opportunity to make him feel the same pain that he’d inflicted. I clasped my blood-coated hands firmly around his throat and squeezed until I nearly lost feeling in my fingers. The smell of fear was heavy in the air and I couldn’t get enough of it. I was drunk with the need to make these his final breaths. As his eyes dimmed I smiled as consciousness began to slip farther away from his grasp.
This was the first time that I’d actually seen red. I’ve heard people say it before, but I didn’t fully understand what that meant until this moment. My blood felt like ice flowing through my limbs as I brought him within inches of death. As he stared up at me, I somehow managed to squeeze tighter as the blood vessels in his eyes burst and the last bit of air sputtered from his mouth. It was such a rush knowing that in this instant I could end his life like he deserved. I continued to stare at his lifeless body lying on the floor long after I’d let him go. Watching him, I still felt like I hadn’t done enough compared to what he’d done. My fists were clenched as another wave of rage rolled through me. I couldn’t control it. The feel of his slick, warm blood on my hands made me want to hurt him more; one hit was all it would take at this point and I could see to it that the only way he’d be leaving here would be in a body bag.
Chapter1
AJ
1,317 miles…..that’s how much distance there’d be between Sam and me for the next six months. It’d take me approximately 17 hours to get to her if there was an emergency, and that’s on a good day where weather and traffic weren’t a factor. The thought of it made my stomach turn. Too preoccupied to check my mirrors when I changed lanes, I continued to think about the “how’s” and “why’s” that put us in this predicament in the first place. The root cause of it all? My father. Big surprise there.
As far as Sam knew, Charleston just received my application too late to let me start the semester with her…but the real reason I was driving in the exact opposite direction of where I should’ve been headed was much more complicated than that. In short, I was distancing myself to protect her. From what exactly, I don’t even think I fully understood. But what I did know was that whatever my father had done that required us to need 24-hour, armed security detail wasn’t anything I wanted around Sam. She’d already been through enough because of me. So, when things at home continued to spin out of control, I came up with a lie to give the situation time to die down. I hated keeping secrets from her, but this way, for Sam at least, there wouldn’t be danger lurking around every corner.
I’d been lying to pretty much all of my friends for months. They had no clue what it was like being Kato Hahn’s son as of late. Knowing that I could cross paths with the wrong person on any given day, and that they’d possibly hurt me just to get my father’s attention, I couldn’t put Sam in harm’s way, too. Even the upcoming trip to New York would be risky, but I wouldn’t disappoint her by canceling.
The tension between my father and me concerning my relationship with Sam created enough of a smokescreen for my anger. To Sam, it made sense that I hated him as much as I did. She had no clue that a big part of why I was pissed had to do with whatever douche-bag move he pulled that messed everything up – including my college plans.