Full Circle by Lisa Marie Davis Read Free Book Online Page A

him with one final order.
    “Kill them. Both of them.”
    “What? Why me?”
    “Because I think you’re a fucking pussy and you need to man up. And I want you to finish the game for me. Put a bullet in both of them. If you don’t, I’ll find you and use that gun to kill you.”
    Lane had no doubt Trent meant it. He would kill him.
    And Hank too.
    Just shoot them and get it over with.
    As the thought ran through his mind, Jaylin looked up
    at him, hate in his eyes, but mixed with that hate was a
    desperation. It snagged Lane’s heart, and what was left of his soul, and he felt heated tears rush to his eyes.
    “I’m not a killer.”
    Hands shaking, he dumped the bullets from the gun,
    threw them to the floor and tossed the gun onto the bed,
    before dropping down to kneel beside Jaylin.
    “We’ll get him help. Okay? We’ll get him to the hospital.”

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    Fumbling, Lane pulled his cell phone from his pocket,
    turning to glance over his shoulder at the sound of Hank
    coming into the room.
    “I’ve already called the cops, Lane.”
    Hank sounded defeated as he leaned against the wall
    and sank to the floor, burying his face in his hands as he
    began to sob.
    Closing his eyes, Lane cried along with him, but while
    he cried, he prayed as he had never before prayed in all his life. He didn’t pray for forgiveness. He was fairly certain he didn’t deserve to be forgiven for the role he had played in what had happened to Max and Jaylin, so he simply prayed
    that somehow, Max would live, despite all he had suffered.
    He was sure Jaylin was praying too.
    Maybe his prayers would make it through to God, even
    if Lane’s didn’t.

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Chapter Five
    JAYLIN had always hated hospitals, but he supposed no one
    really liked them, not even the people that worked in them.
    This hospital seemed particularly horrible. It smelled
    funny and the walls were a horrible pale green that was
    meant to match the white-and-green speckled tile on the
    floor. He couldn’t sit still in the ugly, plastic green chair he sat in, with his mother at his side, holding his hand, the
    tears she had shed when she learned what had happened
    finally ceasing for a while.
    She knew now that he was okay, he hadn’t been hurt
    badly, at least in the physical sense, though she agreed
    when a doctor suggested shock was likely settling in. Jaylin wasn’t so sure. It was obvious to him that he was well past shock. He felt suspended in time. His mind kept replaying, in vivid detail, every monstrous, brutal act Trent and Greg had taken such delight in while he was totally powerless to stop them.
    If he lived to be a hundred and one, he would never
    forget the sight, the sound of Max’s screams or the smell of blood.

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    Closing his eyes, he drew in a breath, fighting for calm,
    knowing he needed it. He had already given a statement to
    the police on the way to the hospital, after they had refused to let him ride in the ambulance with Max. And both Lane
    and Hank backed his story. They were ready and willing to
    take a stand against Trent, even if it was too little too late in Jaylin’s mind. An officer had stopped by fifteen minutes ago to tell him Trent and Greg had already been located hanging out at a local bar and had been arrested without incident.
    Jaylin wished they had resisted.
    He wished they had given the police an excuse to shoot
    them dead.
    They should die. Max could. And if he does, I’ll be as
    good as dead, too.
    He didn’t voice that thought out loud—he knew it would
    just upset his mother—but it was true and he knew it.
    If he lost Max, he lost everything, his heart and soul
    included.
    What would there be to live for?
    Opening his eyes, Jaylin chanced a glance at the woman
    seated on the other side of the waiting room, looking
    annoyed and disgusted.
    Maryann Sydney was a beautiful woman, in a cold,
    almost plastic sort of way. There