Chapter 58

CYNTHIA

I took a gentrified breath into my helpless body, my lungs quivering with residual fright. Every inhale was torture, as if it were laced with shards of glass, and my ribs would snap from the strain.

My heart pounded hard and fast like the galloping of a thousand horses, a chaotic rhythm against my chest, still reeling from the encounter with Collins.

His words rang through my mind, twisted and venomous, seeping into my thoughts like a creeping poison.

“Chase is only using you,” Collins had whispered in that raspy, sinister tone, his burnt skin cracking with every syllable. “He plans to kill you, Cynthia. He told me himself. You need to kill him before he kills you.”

The thought of it sent a shiver trickling down my spine, cold and sharp. Collins had seemed so certain, so assured in his revelation, that it had clung to me like a leech, embedding itself in my brain, that I couldn't think of anything else but fear for my life.

But as I stood there, trembling and trying to steady