Read Online Until We End by Frankie Brown - Free Book Online

didn’t think. My legs pushed me off the pavement, gun at the ready, and I fired at the exact moment that the soldier started to stand.
    Brooks jumped out and the two men fell. I didn’t see which of our shots brought them down.
    My legs couldn’t hold me anymore. I crashed to the ground, and my eyes fluttered closed, as I sank into oblivion.

Chapter Eight
    Waking up was like coming out of a fog.
    My head pounded like someone had driven over my skull with an eighteen-wheeler, my ears were ringing and my arms burned like I’d been skinned. I cracked my eyes open, the lids sticky with a crust that filled their corners, and was met with the gray light of dawn.
    Squinting through the gloom, I could just make out the outline of a dresser and a patchwork quilt hanging in place of a wall. The ceiling was towering, crisscrossed with metal beams. I sat up in Brooks’ bed and groaned, cradling my head.
    In romance novels, the heroine always wakes up naked and fresh in the tall, dark and handsome man’s bed, her hunk standing over her and holding a silver platter with a hot breakfast. No such luck for me. I was fully clothed, alone, caked with blood and reeking.
    Then the images came back to me — crouched behind the SUV, my pistol with that woman in its sights.
    My hand curled reflexively around the grip of a gun that wasn’t there, and my biceps clenched in memory of the kickback that felt like it was still ringing in my bones. I closed my eyes again, wishing I could sink into the bed and disappear forever.
    All those hours at the shooting range couldn’t have possibly prepared me for what I was feeling: a bottomless pit of guilt. Swirling in that pit was shame, horror and — worst of all — a twinge of relief. Until I remembered why I did it.
    I didn’t have a choice. They would have killed me. They would have killed Brooks. They would have taken from me any chance I had of getting my brother back and piecing my family together again.
    But what about
their
families?
    I squashed that thought, torched it and buried its ashes.
    Swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, I looked around and spotted a bottle of water.
Hallelujah!
I guzzled it down, then stopped and took a gasping breath as the water sloshed in my empty stomach. I was
starving.
I reached into my back pocket, grabbed the smashed granola bar that I’d stashed there and ate it in three bites. My stomach quieted a little.
    I trudged out of the bedroom and made my way into the middle of the warehouse, where Brooks and his brigade were sitting and eating frosted granola bars. Strawberry ones, by the look of it. I hated them all.
    Jackson sat on the vomit-colored green couch with Lu beside him, and Lonnie sat across from them. Between them, on the battered old coffee table, was a chessboard. Lonnie played white and Jackson played black.
    Lonnie was getting his ass handed to him.
    Brooks lounged in his overstuffed recliner, staring at the game with an amused expression. I tried to catch his eye as I walked closer, but he didn’t look at me. Why did he keep letting me sleep in his bed?
    â€œCheckmate,” Jackson said. Lonnie groaned and collapsed theatrically back in his chair.
    Jackson looked up as I sat gingerly on my rickety wooden chair.
    â€œFeeling better?”
    I gave him a fake smile and said, “Yeah, lots, thanks so much for asking.”
    â€œGood,” he said. “Then maybe you can help us figure something out. McKenzie told you about our last order?”
    â€œThe order that told y’all to shoot civilians?” He nodded. I glanced at Brooks for a second, unsure if I should say anything. His face was blank. “Yeah,” I said slowly. “Brooks told me about it.”
    â€œThere was a lot of talk about the greater good when we got that order. Containment, treatment, that kind of thing. A few brigades deserted, like ours. But most of them stayed.” Jackson shrugged. “The