Chapter 48
BLUE SKY filled my vision. The sun stabbed the corner of one eye. Blood coated my mouth and the inside of my nose. The asphalt radiated end-of-day warmth against my arms, through my clothes, and against the back of my head. And a silence I’d never heard before.
A silence so total it didn’t include my own heartbeat.
My chest burned. A hot wire ran from my breastbone, through my heart, between the ribs of my back. I tried to inspect my breastbone, but my hands only fluttered at the ends of my wrists.
“Kevin?” Alice shouted. Her voice echoed inside my skull.
I heard the shotgun pump. Ceren. I wanted to tell her that the safety was on, but my mouth barely stirred.
I’d been shot.
Teresa. Where had she hidden a gun? No, that wasn’t important. The important thing was, she’d shot
