Page 65 of Blood Ties

The dark haired one lets out a little shriek and backs away from me, throwing up her hands as if to surrender. But the blonde is sharper. She immediately grabs her purse off of the counter.

“Wait, wait, wait—” I say, trying to defuse the situation. Knox’s footsteps pick up in the living room, headed our way. There’s still a way to fix this, there has to be—

The blonde pulls out a gun.

“Back up, motherfucker,” she snarls, aiming it right at me.

I freeze, hands still up. “Okay,” I whisper, and take a step back.

“Get on your knees. Now.”

I drop to the tile. “Just go,” I plead. Dad must be away if Knox brought people home, but Uncle Frank might be out at the shack, and my brother—

Is bursting through the kitchen doorway, ramming straight into the woman with the gun.

It goes off with a sharpbang.I flinch as a bullet whizzes right past me, an inch away from the side of my head. But then she’s on the floor and Knox is on top of her, and he wrestles the weapon out of her grip in seconds. The gun goes off again.

I stare, stricken, at the dead stare of the blonde woman, the bullet hole right between her eyes.

My fault.

Her friend screams and runs. Knox shoots once more, a bullet to the leg sending her crumpling to the tile. He grabs her ankle and yanks her back as she tries to crawl away, still shrieking her head off.

“Get up, dumbass,” Knox snarls at me.

I rise shakily to my feet.

He presses his knee into the woman’s spine and twists her arm behind her back, holding her down on the floor. But as he looks up, the fury in his gaze is directed fully at me.

“You didn’t gag the bitch in the basement,” he says.

“I... She...”

She begged. She promised.All of my excuses sound flat even to me.

Knox sighs. “You’re a bigger idiot than I thought.” He shifts his weight, giving the sobbing woman beneath him a dispassionate look. “Here I was, trying to get some fresh pussy instead of fucking your girl, but you screwed everything up. As usual.”

Guilt is a stone in my stomach. I know that he was going to kill these women either way. It’s what he does. But right now itfeelslike my fault. And I’m sure he’s going to take it out on Riley.

Unless...

“We could...” It comes out a whisper. I clear my throat, try again. “We could keep her. For you.”

I know it’s a horrible, selfish solution. But it will keep Riley safe from him.

Knox huffs a laugh. “We’ve only got room in the basement for one.” He shoves the gun into the back of his pants and slides his hunting knife out of the sheath on his waist. He twirls it idly, looking down at the woman. She doesn’t even seem to register the weapon. Her eyes are on her dead friend and her gaze is wide and blank with panic. “But...” Knox sucks his teeth, tilts his head thoughtfully. “We could use some fresh meat. And I think she might be hotter than Riley. What do you think?” He grabs the woman by the hair and lifts her face from the tile to show me. “Should we swap her out for Riley?”

“No,” I say, without hesitation. Even if it means I’m sealing this woman’s death, I refuse to sacrifice Riley for her.

Knox shrugs. “Well, your call.” He places his knife on the tile and slides it over to me.

I stare without reaching for it. “What?”

“It’s your choice, so you do it.”

I clench my fingers into fists, shake my head. “I don’t... youknowI don’t...”

Knox sneers. “I’m sick of doing all your dirty work, Kai. Pick up the fucking knife.”