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33

TIME’S A-WASTIN’

DIYA

“W hat’s going on here?” Doctor Stanley asked, walking toward us with Mayor Bricks.

“Jimmy is dead, and Millie’s missing,” I said. There was no use of mincing words.

Doctor Stanley gasped.

“What?”

“Holland, it seems like Jonah is…” Vincent stared at his brother with a wince. “Jonah might have kidnapped Millie.”

Mayor Bricks stiffened, his lips becoming a pale, thin line.

“That can’t be. No. Jonah won't do something so…”

“Even if he didn’t do it, Millie’s still not here. We have to find her. I’ve called for a search and rescue. He couldn’t have gone too far.”

Mayor Bricks glanced at his wife, who was busy coordinating with the caterers, before turning back to me with an apologetic look. “I’ll tell them to leave now. I’m so sorry.”

Doctor Stanley looked at me with a sigh. “I’ll keep everyone inside. Asher, you—”

“Asher will help us,” I interrupted him, and he nodded.

“Sure, sure.”

“Close the main door and keep everyone inside their rooms, Doctor Stanley,” I said. Nodding, he walked toward the main building. Becca looked at me, eyes begging, desperate. I gave her a nod. She wouldn’t lose her niece, not again.

“The cabin in the woods,” I said to Asher, my voice barely above a whisper. “But if we tell Vincent, he’ll know you killed them both. This will be like handing solid evidence to him.”

Asher’s jaw tightened. “I don’t care. I just want Millie safe.”

Maybe that was why I loved him, but I l oved him.

I exhaled, rubbing a hand over my face. “But I care, Asher.” Even as I said it, the guilt grew. “Maybe I’m more selfish than I thought, but I want to protect you more.”

He turned to me then, his eyes burning with something fierce, something desperate as he softly, discreetly traced my face. “It’s okay. We’ll find Millie. We won’t let that bastard hurt her the second time.

I nodded, biting my lips.

“Deputy Clark and I did a thorough search on the perimeters, babe. No sign of them,” Layne said with a frown.

“We need to go to Duskwood Park now. If it’s all connected, he’ll be there,” Asher said, looking around the place.

“Where’s Vincent?” I asked Layne.

“I think he left to talk with the fire department. Deputy Clark is still here.”

“Lay, please stay and keep an eye on everything.”

“I will. Go now.”

“I need to go to my cottage first,” I said as Asher took my hand in his. “I have to change and…”

Asher gave me a nod, cupping my face. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get Millie back.”

“Will we? I feel like I’m doing something wrong.” I shuddered when Asher pulled me closer, pressing a kiss on my forehead.

“No. None of it’s our fault,” he said, pulling away. I wanted to hold on. To not let go. To stay right here and not move, but Millie needed us.

My hands lingered on him. He rubbed my back. “I’m going to grab my tools. I’ll meet you at your cottage?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Be careful,” he said. “Don’t let yourself get hurt, Diya Sharma. It will… kill me.”

“You too.”

Nodding, he jogged off, disappearing into the long arches of trees.

I took a deep breath and made my way outside the door, passing Mayor Bricks as he barked orders at the caterers as they packed everything back into the vans.

“Tick tock,” he said, looking at his watch. “Hurry up. Time’s a-wastin’.”

The words hit me like a boulder. I froze, my breath coming out in a painful gasp.

Fuck.

For a heartbeat—just one agonizing heartbeat—I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. My mind screamed at me to act natural, to not give anything away. The rational part of me knew I needed to move, to pretend like nothing had changed, but my body refused to obey me.

I forced myself to look up. Holland Bricks smiled at me, a tinge sadder. Like he wasn’t the one… who did all of this. Like he was innocent.

It took everything in me to return that smile.

I turned away, scanning the crowd for Layne or Asher, but didn’t find them. My pulse roared in my ears as I turned on my heel and walked toward the gate, keeping my strides even, when all I wanted was to run.

As I neared the exit, I took one last glance over my shoulder.

His smile never broke. It was like a saccharine poison. Seeping through my freezing skin.

My stomach churned as I grabbed my phone and called Layne. She didn’t pick up.

Vincent. I had to call Vincent and—

I jerked when someone grabbed my shoulder.

“Whoa. It’s me, it’s just me,” Ellis Bricks said, raising her hands.“I just got a call from Vince,” she said quickly. “He told me he tried to call you, but…” she trailed off. “So, he called to say they found where Millie is.”

“What? Where?”

“They’re checking the place out now. He wanted you to know, but for some reason, he couldn’t get through.”

I swallowed, my heart roaring in my ears.

“Don’t worry,” Ellis said softly. “Vincent is a great cop. Millie will be alright.” She smiled, and it wasn’t sad. It was… self-satisfied.

The smile that never reached her eyes, the practiced charm, the kindness that bleed like sticky sugar...

How did I miss it? She was a classic narcissist with antisocial personality disorder.

I sensed it before I felt the sting of the needle.

“I liked you, Doctor Sharma,” she whispered, leaning closer to me and the suffocating smell of lavenders.

This scent was what triggered Millie. Ellis must have worn the same perfume that day. She would have relished in the fact that it hurt Millie again. And again.

Fucking bitch!

“Jonah… Jonah. He always makes a mess,” Ellis hissed, running her long nails along my arm. My legs trembled, ready to collapse under me.

“Find him before he creates more problems,” a voice said. I didn’t have to turn to see. Holland.

“What do you want to do with this one?” Ellis asked. “Do you want me to kill her?” My eyes turned dark as the world around me faded.

“I’d love to fuck her before that.”

A short laugh. Delighted. He was already thinking about ways to hurt me, and she was loving it.

“She’s beautiful. But she’s not your type.” Ellis said, trailing her hands down my shoulder. “She’s more mine.”

“Join me, doll,” he said. “You love a good chase, and it’ll be so good, breaking her together. It has been a while.”

“I have to clean up the mess you made. She came too close, Holland. How did she do it? That shouldn’t have happened.”

“Don’t worry. She’ll take our secrets to thegrave.”

The van door opened. One of the catering trucks.

My eyes went dark, and before I fell, I was pushed into the van.

“In you go.”

I woke to the cold bite of metal chains around my legs. Darkness pressed in from all sides, thick, suffocating, and unwelcoming.

I tugged at the chains, wincing as the sharp jangle echoed through the small space.

Was I in the hunting cabin?

It was too dark to tell.

“Holland? Ellis?” I called out, my voice brittle in the silence.

Something moved.

“You’re awake,” Holland said, his face hidden behind a mask with twisting horns. He looked exactly like he did in Millie’s sketches—a monster stripped of anything remotely human.

“Why the mask? I already know it’s you.”

“Yeah. I already broke too many rules anyway.” He pulled off the mask and placed it on the single chair against the cement wall. “Well… This looks like it’s going to be fun. I’ve never had a doctor before. Mostly insane bitches,” he said, undoing his tie. He pulled off the jacket and threw it down. His lips curled upward, but the smile was too slow, too precise. Like he had learned to smile by watching others.

“You... you made it look like Jonah did it. You planted a false trail—little pieces of evidence here and there, just in case anyone ever figured out what you’re doing.” I shuddered.

“Jonah’s a freak. And now he has gone and kidnapped Millie. Everyone willcertainly think it’s him.”

“No, he’s not a freak, you are. He ran with Millie because he figured out you killed Jimmy, didn’t he?”

Holland smirked.

“He had this little crush on Millie back in the day,” Holland said with a laugh. “Now he’s trying to play the hero, that useless bastard.” He snorted. “How did you know it was me though? You doubted Jonah. That’s why you came to my party. You perfectly followed the trail we left.”

“Riley and Millie.”

He shook his head. “No fucking way. A dead girl who has never seen my face and a crazy bitch?”

“Millie draws, and Riley, before she died, wrote a bunch of letters.”

“So, it was Asher who killed Doctor T and Hannigan. I was right.” He crouched next to me, pulling my hair out of the braid.

I didn’t move. I just watched. He got off from fear and pain, but he didn’t know I was just as good at this game as he was.

That was my advantage.

“You think you’ll get out of this unscathed, Mayor Bricks?” I asked, slowly pulling myself up from the floor.

“No one will find you here, Diya.”

“Are you sure?”

His eyes narrowed for a second before he gave me a grin.

My finger curled around the knife in my coat pocket. Did they not check my coat? That was a mistake on their part and it was going to come andbite themin their asses.

I closed my eyes, biding my time.

Holland didn’t look like he was in a hurry anyway.

“How long has your wife… known?”

“She knows everything about me, and I know everything about her.”

A match made in fucking hell.

They somehow found each other.

Was this destiny?

He tugged at my coat, and I subtly took my hand away from the knife. He took my coat off and placed it down.

I gritted my teeth when his fingers went to my throat.

“Why? Why did you do it?”

I saw it, his desire to gloat, to tell stories. He was itching… After all these years, he finally wanted to tell his secrets.

“I had always been a curious boy. I used to throw toys against the wall over and over again to see how resilient and strong they were. And when they finally shattered… It made me happy. Truly happy like nothing ever did.” He groaned. “I grew up, and model cars stopped satisfying my need.”

Curious, my ass!

“Then you did it to animals. How old were you?” I asked.

“Thirteen.”

“Alone? Or with Ellis?”

“With Ellis, of course. She gets off on it, you know? Manipulating, controlling, breaking. More than I ever did. I just followed her lead,” his voice was wistful. He was a psychopath and he loved her. He shouldn’t be able to, but he did. “And when we were done, she’d be hornier, and she’d play rough with me. I love it.” He licked his lips.

“Millie was your first victim.”

He nodded, his eyes eager. “She is. She’s special. I was twenty, and oh… it was amazing when she screamed.”

“But you weren’t even in town?” I asked, thinking about what Asher told me. “You were in college, right?”

“Nobody knew I was in town. I saw Millie with Jonah. She was beautiful and I wanted her. Killing animals had stopped being fun.” He closed his eyes, smiling like he was reliving a fond memory. I swallowed back the curse on the tip of my tongue. “I was here the whole time. In here.”

“Ellis was the one who kidnapped Millie, wasn’t she?”

He smiled. “You’re smarter than I thought. Ellis has always been good at befriending the quiet, stupid ones. They’re desperate for friendship. Once Millie was here, it was easy, but we got careless.” He frowned. “Millie was a fighter. Good for her, but really, what was the point in surviving like… that?” He grinned. “I’m glad she didn’t die. That was my biggest trophy. Her life.”

I gritted my teeth.

“And that’s why you go to the asylum every year,” I said quietly. “To see her.”

Serial killers often went to the scene of their crimes to relive their experiences. For him, Millie was the scene of crime. It made my blood boil.

Millie didn’t deserve that. None of them did.

“I wanted to fuck her again. Millie is still beautiful, you know. I wanted more, but Ellis…” he shrugged.

“When did you start it? The men… the blackmailing?”

“Oh. Ellis was smart like that. Killing randomly became boring. They died too soon, too easily. Fuck. Some of them didn’t even fight. So we found a way… to make them all special like Millie. Tabitha was quite fun.”

“And Riley,” I whispered.

“Oh, I was sad to let her go. She screamed so loud, but the bitch was quite persistent. She lived longer than I thought she would. Ellis had to take matters into her own hands, and help her along.”

Riley didn’t kill herself?!

“You’re beautiful,” he moaned, trailing his fingers down my breast. Clenching my teeth, I took a calming breath.

“I don’t fit your profile.”

“I made an exception for you. Aren’t you happy?” His eyes were dark, unfeeling. “You’re special enough to break the rules. Do you want to know why?” He smiled. “Because every car, every toy I broke as a child... none of them were mine. They were Jonah’s and Vincent’s, and I blamed Jonah for breaking Vincent’s car, and Vincent for stealing Jonah’s.” He laughed, looking pleased with himself.

I’m the toy this time. Vincent’s toy.

“I’ll break you, just as I broke the ones before you. I know you’ll be difficult, but it already makes me hard… thinking about that.” He ran his fingers down his erection.

“You think I’m going to go down without a fight?”

His eyes narrowed, a glint of excitement in them. He leaned in, close enough for me to smell the stale coffee and cigar on his breath. I shuddered in disgust when he pressed a kiss on my mouth.

“Oh, please, do fight,” he said with a sneer when he pulled back. “There’s something oddly satisfying about breaking an animal that fights back. The moment when I see the last spark of fight leave their eyes… when they finally give in and realize there’s no hope left.” He moaned. “That’s when I feel truly alive.” His eyes clouded with desire as he leaned in and kissed me again. I bit his tongue when he tried to push it in.

He howled. With a grunt, I spat the blood in his face. His smile faltered. His hand shot up, wiping the blood away, nails scraping against his skin as he fought to contain his rage, to keep his control.

I saw the crack in his armor. A faintest tremble.

“When this is over,” I said, smiling. “You’ll understand just what it means to fight a woman like me. I’m NOT going to die, Holland. I won’t die. You’re not strong enough to kill me.”

“Shut the fuck up,” he growled. “No one’s coming here to save you.”

“Who said I need anyone to save me?” I scoffed.

“You won’t live past this night. I’ll kill you myself,” he spat.

“No suicide for me? Oh, that makes me feel special.”

“I’ll kill you myself… after I’ve fucked you a million times, Diya. I’ll tear your cunt and—”

“You think I’ll die even then, Holland?” I leered. “Oh, you pathetic little man. I have lived half my life fighting useless men just like you. I didn’t just survive; I made sure they never did.”

His eyes darkened, and for a second, a flicker of doubt creased his brows. “We’ll see who’s left standing when this is over, won’t we, Doctor?” His lips tilted up as he grabbed my hair and yanked it hard. I winced. “Now, it’s time for a game, little fly. The spider is hungry.”He unlocked the metal shackles from around my legs. Oh, this stupid fucker. “Time’s a-wastin’.”

I closed my eyes, my fingers curling around my coat, my heart racing.

He stood up and pulled off his shirt.

“Run.”

I waited, my fingers slowly tugging the coat closer to me. I didn’t make any sudden movement, fearing he might catch on.

When my fingers finally found the solid weight of the knife, I bit back the smile.

God, I love Layne.

He pulled his pants down.

“You won’t run?” he asked. “Ah. You’re a psychiatrist. You know I enjoy the chase, and so you’ll deny me that. Neat trick. It’s okay. I’ll take you right here then.” His fingers curled around my hair as he pulled me up from the floor.

He pushed me against a metal shelf, and I bit back a scream when glass jars fell to the floor and a million spiders crawled out of them. Four eyes… millions of four eyes stared as they jumped.

I pushed him, but he was stronger. His fingers curled around my throat as he smiled at me.

“Your body is mine now.” His fingers bunched my lehenga skirt, and his nails cut against my skin.

I trembled as he tightened his hold around my throat, his breath filled with cigars and nightmares.

No. He’s not my foster father, and I’m not fourteen.

His nails clawed against my flesh as I waited.

I pulled away from him when he tried to kiss me again, and he laughed.

“Oh, when I told you to run… you should have run, then.”

Gritting my teeth, I lunged toward the floor. I grabbed the knife from my coat and plunged it into his cock before he could realize what was happening. With a scream, he slumped to the floor, flailing.

“My body, my choice, and… your dick, my fucking knife, Holland.” I grinned as he howled. I moved then, sitting over him, pulling out the knife from his deflated cock, and he screamed harder, tears trailing down his cheek. “When I’m done with you, you won’t ever hurt another girl.”

I pushed the knife into his right ball, relishing in his scream, my laughter mixed with his wail.

He sobbed out, spewing curses.

“Riley called you a monster, but you’re not. You’re just a weak, pathetic man,” I gritted out. “You think you can gain power just because you abuse a woman who can't defend herself. Fuck now. And men like you who hurt women for pleasure don’t deserve to have a penis.”

When I plunged the knife into his left ball, he wailed louder.

“No, no…”

I pushed the knife against his cock, and started slowly sawing it. I went as far as I could, until blood soaked the floor around us, until his howl turned into a weak prayer.

“This…” I said, stumbling up from him. “This is who you are, Holland. A pathetic piece of nothing. This is what you have always been. Now I’ll wait for Ellis to see you like this. Defeated. Defaced. De-cocked?”

“Please, please. Don’t.”

“She’ll take one look at you and hate you. You’re useless to her now.”

His screams grew louder, his voice breaking as he tried to sit up in the pool of his own blood and slid back down.

“Kill me,” he begged. “Pl-please. Kill me.”

I laughed.

“Why would I do that? Do you think this is enough punishment? Oh no, Mayor Bricks. A man who strips a woman of her dignity, who robs her of her right to her own body… is the worst kind of evil, and so you will get exactly what you fear. Your wife will see what a loser you are.”

“Kill me. Ellis… she—she can’t see me like this.”

“The bitch will see you like this, and then I’ll tear her cunt into a million pieces like you wanted to do to me.”

“No.” He thrashed, trying to move, and sit, but slid helplessly down again on his own blood.

“When I’m done with both of you, you’ll regret your entire fucking existence.”

I sat down on the floor, keeping my distance away from the pool of blood, smiling.

“Tick tock. Tick tock,” I hummed. “Tick tock.”