Page 7 of Mask and the Magnolia

Larissa starts backing away from me as I step forward, trying to move through the furniture without taking her eyes off me. “We need the money, Korvy. It’s a good opportunity for Maisie, too. She’d get?—“

“Shut up.”

“Korvy, honey, it was for the best. Think of it like… Like, boarding school. She’d still get an education, still have all the?—“

“Shut up!” I slap her with the back of my hand, a jolt of satisfaction when I see her lip start to bleed. “You’re a goddamn liar. A whore. You’re a worthless piece of shit who never should have had children!”

I hit her again, smiling as she stumbles, every ounce of alpha energy she once had depleting by the second. “You’re a selfish cunt, Larissa Severe, and I will make sure that no one remembers you after today.”

My mother takes off toward the door, running into the hall as she starts screaming again, but there’s no one around still, and I’m faster.

Bigger, faster, and I am stronger than she ever dreamed of being.

We make it just past the bathroom when I grab the back of my mother’s head, ripping out a chunk of her hair as I stop her in her tracks. I throw her against the wall, the bitch crashing into the wood panel with a hard thud before dropping to the ground.

“I told you when I killed Mr. Brighton,” I say as I crouch down, grabbing Larissa’s face and forcing her dazed stare on me. “No one fucks with my baby sister without paying for it.No one.” I lean in close, inhaling the scent of fear with a sick smile, then plunge the letter opener into her ribs, shoving until I can feel myfingers sink beneath her skin. “Not even the cunt who gave birth to us.”

With one final shove, I make sure the blade tears through her lung and is close to her heart then get to my feet, frowning down at her for a moment while I digest what the hell just happened.

I murdered the patriarch of an incredibly influential family of sex traffickers, and our bitch of a mother, seemingly unprovoked at a goddamn barbecue.

A barbecue that is definitely over for us.

I bend and quickly snatch the check out of my mother’s hand, spit on the bitch, then immediately start searching for my sister.

We have to get the hell out of here and we have to do it now.

“Sorry.”

I look up at the sound of Maisie’s voice, blowing out a relieved breath when I see she was in the bathroom the entire time.

“I don’t think that burger was a good idea and… Vinny?”

“We have to go.” I grab her hand and start running back toward the front of the house.

“Korvin, is that, was thatMom?”

I nod, practically dragging her down the hall. “She’s a bitch.”

“Did you kill her?” Maisie’s stare is fixed behind us but when I don’t say anything else, she stomps her foot and jerks her hand from mine. “Korvin.”

Scrubbing a bloody hand through my hair, I nod again and try to keep tabs on our surroundings while I try to explain. “She sold you, Mais. The bitch sold you to that old fuck, and she was going to leave you here so they could…” I shake my head. “Mom was giving you to that asshole for—“ I look down at the check—“five hundred thousand dollars. You were going to have to stay here and do god knows what, but I wasn’t going to let that happen and if you’ll just go with me, we can?—“

“You killed her for me?”

I meet her confused expression. “Yes. I’ll kill everyone for you, Maisie Moo. It’s you and me, no one else.”

A few agonizing beats of silence pass before my sister gives me one of her best smiles, grabs my hand then starts running through the house. “If we go out through the kitchen, no one should see you.”

Thank fuck.

Maisie helped plan her teacher’s death, she was all for it, and while I know she hates our mother almost as much as I do, that doesn’t mean she wanted the bitch dead. Well, it might have meant that but obviously didn’t.

Which makes what I did that much more worth it because as long as I still have Maisie, I’m still human, and that justifies all three of those deaths in my eyes.

“Hold on,” she whispers as we get to the doorway of the kitchen, holding her arm out across my chest to stop me. “Let me go first.”

“Fuck that.” I go to take a step but she stops me again.