Page 162 of Cara

I poise to strike, the crushing weight of those he’s ruined bearing down heavily on my shoulders. My father notices the guard slumping in the corner, gasping, but before he can turn, I'm ramming the blade through the side of his throat, feeling it dislodge his esophagus, met with extreme resistance.

A surge of strength pushes through my veins as I urge the knife deeper, deeper, deeper—as far as it canfuckinggo.

Grabbing the handle when I release it, choking gruesomely on blood pooling and spilling from his mouth, he manages to turn enough to be met with my brutal gaze. He must see the excitement burning in my eyes as I watch him try to remove it, stumbling back and forth.

You’ll never be happy.

The taunting words he said to me last night echo in my pounding ears. When he ousts the blade, his arteries spray, and I'm not willing to move out of the way, to miss a single moment. I want him to know who did this. I want to destroy him like he tried to destroy me.

He collapses at the edge of the conveyor belt, revealing his murderer to my husband.

Xavier’s eyes, glazed from pain, swarm with horror. “No.”

Now that I’ve come this far and lost myself this exquisitely to something wholly evil, it’s hard to come to terms with the fact that the man in front of me isn’t one to kill.

I’m shaking, desperate to hurt, my eyes fixed on the corpse of my father at my heels.

The seams within me have stretched too far.

I’m drowning, flailing toward a shrinking beam of light. Through the abyss of my mind, the only voice capable of navigating the darkness with me wrenches me from the depths.

“Don’t let it in.”

The simple words deliver a staggering blow.

Don’t let it in.

I know what Xavier’s uncovering because I’ve rescued him from this void before. My vision sharpens as I reach the edge of the belt he’s fastened to. I'm gasping for words, overcome by the sight of him, as I lay my face against his chest.

“Xavier.”

“Sophie, you… You need to leave. Right now.” A sudden bang makes us flinch as we search for the source of the noise. “Listen to me. They’ll find you. They’ll hurt you worse than this. Please!”

My hands tremble uncontrollably as the steady numbness that once provided me comfort slips away, replaced by a rising panic. Untangling the straps on his wrists is an insurmountable challenge, wrapping tighter with every breath I take.

“H-How do I do this?” I stammer.

Xavier’s skin is ashen, and his lips quiver as if he’s about to be sick. All of his fingers are curled in agony, the corkscrew half-embedded in his palm. “Fuck, Sophie.Please. Please don’t make me beg.”

I remove a knife from my vest, slicing it into the resilient leather. “I can’t get them open.”

He hums softly to keep himself from screaming at me. Iknow it and I don’t care. I’ve barely made a dent. Throwing that knife onto the belt, I reach for the one covered in blood on the ground beside my father, exhaling when it parts the resistant material.

When the first bond is broken, I seize Xavier’s face, forcing him to look at me.

“I'm not leaving. I willneverleave you.”

Any fight he was about to unleash fades from his lips. He’s shuddering, unable to handle the touch of tenderness after so much hatred. I know the feeling well.

Because it’s the truth, I finish with, “They will kill me at your feet before I let them take you.”

Xavier gazes at my face as I snap the other hand restraint, visibly struggling to accept that I don’t intend for us to die today. He had accepted it as I did, and finding the will again is nearly impossible.

“Isabella is safe. She’s on a plane with Bo. I watched them leave,” I say, because I know he needs to hear it.

Xavier closes his eyes, his bruised jawbone tensing. That piece of news is what drives him to push up, grabbing the winding screw with the hand that had already been drilled into. Before I can stop him, he’s dragging the metal out of his flesh, baring his teeth in pain.

I can’t look, carving the restraints on his ankles. It’s only a matter of time before a body is found. Or someone seeks out my father. We need to hurry.