Leave Me Behind

by K.M. Moronova

“My name is Bradshaw.” My voice is a mere whisper, but I know he hears it.

thin one-inch scar resides beneath his left eye, making him appear tired. Another crosses the bridge of his nose and two small scars rib his lower lip on the right side, almost appearing like piercings. The

He’s easily the most beautiful man I’ve ever laid eyes on.

The dark forces take people like me who did something unspeakable and put us to use, rather than throwing us in prison.

We don’t exist, not on paper. We’ve been long forgotten by the people we used to know. I am only a weapon.

It’s perhaps the government’s darkest secret, the underside of the special forces that does all the dirty work they don’t want to sully their hands with. Anti-terroris...

Basically, when it’s all summed up, we’re suicide squads. The generals only want to make sure we get the missions done. They don’t give a shit about us.

There’s really only one person I’m worried about running into before tomorrow. They call him Bones. He’s rumored to be the cruelest man in the dark forces.

Apparently he likes breaking open ribcages and literally pulling people’s hearts out. Sometimes their bones. Hence the disturbing code name he bears.

Unfortunately, he’s my partner on Malum and I’m not sure...

“A reaper, huh? That’s a weird thing for a beautiful young woman to say.” His eyes narrow.

Time to set in the cold bitch face Jenkins taught me. He made sure I knew how to survive in this male-dominated world. “Otherwise you’d be eaten alive,” he told me.

Getting angry will only fuel their taunts, I remind myself. Show them you’re worthy of their respect.

Hades: The hounds they send to wreak havoc. Riøt: The executors of traitors. And Malum: The Evil—the squad that goes where no one else can or is qualified to go, to snuff out the enemy quietly like ghosts in the darkness of night.

“Jefferson, Pete, Ian, and Harrison.” He skips Bradshaw and for a moment I think it’s because he knows I already met him.

“Their corresponding code names are: Jobs, Badger, Colt, Wasp, and Bones. My code name is just Sergeant.”

Jefferson is the tallest of Malum. Codename: Jobs. I try to go through my motions of memorizing them so I can start the internal profiles I keep of every squadmate I’ve had. It also might be a temporary reprieve from stressing about my situation.

Jefferson has short, light brown hair, dark brown eyes, and sun-kissed skin. He looks like he’s in his late twenties and has a scar shaped like a bullet hole on the back of his neck.

I look to my left and find Pete’s brown eyes intently on me. His code name is Badger.

Of all the men on my team, his eyes are the least judgy. There’s a curiosity to them rather than distrust.

Jenkins’s first rule: No emotions. No weakness. Not when you’re on duty.

Ian’s code name is Colt. I narrow my eyes at him. He’s the youngest of the group. His hair is an inch longer than Pete’s, black and slicked back. His olive-toned skin is the same shade as mine and he

Harrison barks, disgust muddled in his voice. Code name: Wasp. His hair is blond and he has pale skin that’s been tanned by the sun. His hair is short and he has a straight nose that has yet to be broken. Yet.

“Jenkins. Call me Jenkins when it’s just us.” His eyes hold me captive. A dark light flickers through them.

“Report you? No, Gallows, I want to take you under my wing.” My eyes widen as he grips my chin gently, tilting my face up so I look into his dark eyes. “I’m going to help you bloom into the monster you truly are.”

“Because you’re just like me. I also happen to like you, Gallows.” That’s the second compliment he’s ever given me. My heart thumps wildly inside its cage.

The world ceases to exist as the man I fear most adorns me with kisses and his dark dreams for us.

I knew it then. Jenkins would ruin what good was left of me.

I think of Jenkins’s icy blond hair, the dark brown of his eyes. How I’ll never see him watching me from across a room ever again. Two years is not enough to forget him. No amount of time can erase his face from my mind.

I was his second. It should’ve been me who died, not him. I close my eyes and think of his last words.

“I love you, Gallows. Leave ...

“He was the only one who saw the real me and trained me to be like him.”

He blows out a breath and shakes his head. “Damn, you’re a cold bitch.”

Yeah, and it’s better that you know it now.

“When you let go of your thoughts, you can do anything, Gallows.”

“I truly believe it’s because he doesn’t want what happened to Abrahm to happen to you. Not just because you’re from a bad squad.”

A bad squad. My chest deflates. I shake my head and sigh. “Yeah, sure.”

When she stared at me with all of that hatred burning in her eyes, I wanted to carve it out of her myself and that’s exactly what I did.

He saw a little shadow and took it for himself.

shake my head. “No, she’s not. And she’ll go worse than he did. She doesn’t care if she dies or not. She’s trained to be a suicidal death machine.”

Of course I’m not. He hurt me, but he also awakened something really dark and disturbed inside of me.

He’ll go to great lengths to make that happen. But then he gets upset after I’m hurt… My teeth set and I try not to think about it anymore.

Bradshaw’s thumb digs into the flesh of my hip and I jerk involuntarily at the sensation of it. He smirks under his black mask.

“You fucking masochist. I knew you liked when I carved you up. Your thighs were hot and rubbing

Is that why you won’t go? Because I keep feeding your sickness?” His voice is hoarse. I know a c...

“You obviously enjoy dealing out pain. It’s not my fault you ...

Wondering why the more I show her who I am, the more she seems to be drawn to me. And more disturbingly, the more I’m starved for her.

“You’re going to be okay, Nell.” He pushed me away from his slumped body, the tree stained red with his blood. I stood shakily, shocked that a man I knew as invincible could look so broken.

“Leave me behind. You can still live. Get as far away as you can, escape the dark forces, Gallows. Be free.”

“You do things to me, Bun,” his voice is low, drowsy.