Page 125 of Massacre Monday

Meeting his eyes, I swallow and nod. “Yes.”

He leans over to unlock my chains, and I wait for the right moment, the perfect time.

A silvery knife flashes across my mind from that night. The one in the woods on Massacre Monday. I watched a man die. I didn’t move. Didn’t scream. Didn’t save him. Didn’t sacrifice myself for Gwen.

And I’ve hated myself for it ever since.

My brothers would have fought. My father would have killed. But I froze.

Never again.

I’m not that girl anymore.

I’m not prey.

Not tonight. No.

Tonight,I’ll be the one who carves out hearts.

As soon as the click of the last lock hits, I strike.

forty

Mitch’s swingwith the bat knocked me out for a moment, my previously concussed brain jarring inside my skull. But it wasn’t hard enough to keep me as weak as he thought. I just knew I had to find my way to Pippi, and he was my best chance.

He makes a move toward her, so I explode into mine. I won’t let him touch her.

With a loud roar, I spring up and rush him like I’m at a game. Yeah, the pain surges through my ribs, but I ignore it while focused on my target. Thrusting him against the wall instead of the boards, he screams like a bitch as my much larger body crushes him into it. In one of his hands, he reaches for a knife on his belt. Frustration crawls out of my chest when I realize I don’t know where he’s put my gun. No matter.

As I grip his wrist and twist it, he drops the weapon into my other hand, and I press his chest against the stones, holding the blade against his neck. My skin sears as healing wounds split open again, but I’ve got him now, and I’m not letting go.

Pen sidesteps us and dashes for the professor, who fumbles with her robes in the far corner.

“Ryan!”

I freeze at Pen’s cry. Before turning around, I put Mitch in a headlock with the sharp end of the weapon pointed at his artery. Kicking his feet out wide, I shuffle us to face the room. Adrenaline turns every bruise on my body into armor. Every rip, a reason to grip tighter.

Amanda has her arm around Pen’s neck with my gun pointed at her temple.

“I’d release him if I were you. This won’t be as slow and painful as I’d like, but Iwillshoot her.”

My breath seizes in my lungs, fear striking me like doom for only a moment.

Until I meet her whiskey eyes…

I have full faith that my girl can take care of herself; she only needs the confidence to do so. With only a tiny nod, I encourage her to act.

She pops her hip to the side, loosening Amanda’s grip on her, then slips away and shoves her in the chest, just as I dig the knife deep into Mitch’s throat and slash across his neck in a steady motion. His scream turns into a gargling wail. Then silence.

Pen grabs Amanda’s gun and flips it out of her wrist, aiming it at her. Without a moment’s hesitation, she fires a bullet in the woman’s forehead. The professor’s body stiffens, then slumps onto the floor.

Heated crimson flows over my arm as Mitch bleeds out all over me. Saturating me with his life force. Now gone.

Primal urges overtake my frontal lobe at the sight of the dead bodies surrounding me and Pen. Understanding she’s safe. I’m safe. And we have defeated the enemies.

I must bathe in their blood.

Her chest heaves as rapidly as mine, stretching the black shirt she wears across her round tits. With a clang, I drop the blade to my side and open my bloodied arms wide as Pen rushesinto them. Pain be damned. I gather her up, spin us around, and lay her over the still warm corpse that oozes puddles of inky fluids. His dead eyes stare at the ceiling beneath her beautiful body.