Page 116 of Kings Don't Break

“KORI!”

All strategy goes out the window. My determination to search for the right moment. My restraint to play by his rules ’til it arrives. Everything I plotted out before setting foot inside this home flies free of my mind as only one singular thought takes control.

I sink down a hole of red-tinged tunnel vision, where I’m moving off impulse alone.

I’m dashing toward the staircase as Stricklin yells out after me. He springs forward in an attempt to stop me. He’s unholstered his gun and warns me he’ll pull the trigger. A couple steps behind me, he’s swiping out his free hand to grip me by the back of my shirt.

My elbow jerks straight into his face. The hit produces a satisfying crunch of his nose and he’s falling away, tripping down the stairs he’s climbed. His trigger finger accidentally slips at the same time he does and fires rogue shots into the ceiling. The gun flies out of his grip once he’s collided with the floor.

I’m already on the top stair. I bolt down the hall in a surge of adrenaline and ram my shoulder into the door. Sharp pain echoes through my right side, but I couldn’t give less of a shit—the door’s bounced open, practically knocked off its hinges from my direct tackle. I hurry inside searching for Korine.

I don’t have to go far.

She’s in a ball on the floor. Her face swollen and bruised, contorted into an expression of suffering. Her arm’s curled around her stomach like she’s unable to withstand what she’s been through much longer.

He’s put her through this. He’s brutalized her again.

I’d scream from the maddening fury of it if my need to get her to safety didn’t win out.

“Kori. Hang on.”

Before I can even scoop her up, I’m being speared into from behind. Stricklin’s made his way upstairs and he’s launched straight into picking up where we left off. We land in a tumble halfway across the room. We both rise up at the same second and go at it again.

He swings on me. I swing on him. We collide in a brutal crash of violence. If there were any rules, any etiquette to our confrontation, they’re long gone.

I slam Stricklin onto the ground and knock the wind out of him. My fists follow up, pummeling him, smashing into his face. He slips into defensive maneuvers and blocks a few of my blows. We tussle, grappling at each other, trying to gain the upper hand.

Korine screams from the background.

We’re up on our feet. Stricklin comes at me. I duck when he swings and land a fist into his ribs. Then another. By the third, he’s swaying like he’s drunk on his feet and I’m smashing my knuckles into his mouth in a spurt of blood.

But I refuse to stop. I can’t stop.

I’m beyond reason. I’m feral, beating Stricklin into the ground ’til he’s twitching and groaning. My fist only draws back for another hit, seeking to destroy.

To end him.

“Hit him again a-and… and I’ll shoot!”

I go still, heaving out breaths, slicked in sweat and blood from the fight. Confusion passes over me at the voice. Female but not Korine’s. Glancing over my shoulder, I’m thrown even more by the woman standing a few feet away with Stricklin’s gun shaking in her hands.

Janessa?!

29

KORINE

Janessa makes Blake stand up. She uses the gun in her grip to direct him where she wants him. Blake takes a second to comply. He’s heaving deep breaths, his features still twisted in rage, streaked by the blood that’s been shed. Eyes narrowing, nostrils flaring, he tilts his head to the side.

“What do you think you’re doing, Janessa?” he asks, then takes a slow step in her direction.

She backs up one. Her hands shake more than they already are. “Stay where you are, Cash! I… I mean it… I won’t let you h-hurt him anymore.”

“You’re protecting this piece of shit, is that right? You’re going to, what, shoot me?”

“You’re killing him!”

“Look around you! Did you miss the bound and bruised woman on the floor? His ex-wife that he’s kidnapped?” Blake roars over her. He takes another few steps toward the registered nurse with no sign of slowing down until she curls a finger around the trigger of the gun.