Page 91 of Monsters Carve Thrones

“Alright.” She nodded. “I can do that.”

I let out a slow breath, the pen still clutched tightly in my hand. “We get one shot, Olesya. Just one.”

“I understand.” Her voice was quiet but firm. Then her eyes flicked to mine. “You really think you can kill him?”

I nodded. “After what he’s done to me?” I grinned, feeling a sick, wild rage flare to life. “Oh, yes.”

She gave a slight smile before slipping back out of the room. I blew out a breath as if I had been holding it. I could kill Waylon. If I did that, I could run. I could find Rafe. Or maybe I’d die trying. Either way...I’d finally be free.

Chapter 17

RAFE

My body still ached like hell, but it wasn’t the kind of agony that made me want to claw my own skin off anymore. The worst of the withdrawal storm had passed, leaving me raw and shaking, but lucid. My thoughts were clearer. Sharper. And something inside me…clicked.

There was a way out.

It wasn’t guaranteed. It was dangerous as hell. But it wassomething.

I stared across the dim room at Laura, her back against the cold wall, knees pulled up, arms loosely draped around them. Her face was pale beneath the grime, but her eyes–those were still alive, staring at the floor.

“Laura.”

She looked up at me. “Yeah?”

I took a breath, nausea curling low in my gut. I hated what I was about to say. Hated that it had to be her. But we didn’t have many moves left. I rubbed a hand across my face, feeling the scratch of stubble and dried sweat. “I know how we can get out. But…” I paused, throat dry. “Laura, you’re going to have to trust me.”

Her expression tightened. “Why does that sound like the start of a really bad idea?”

“Because it is.” I forced myself to hold her gaze, even though it physically hurt to do so. “And you have to do it.”

Her brows drew together, suspicious. “You’re saying I should flirt with them or something?”

“No.” My voice was low. “I’m saying you need topiss one of them off.Make them angry. Make them come into this cell and do something stupid.”

“And then what?” she asked, tone biting.

I clenched my jaw and glanced toward Kieran and Nico. They both stared back, unreadable, but I saw it in their eyes. They knew what I was thinking. And they hated it as much as I did.

Laura’s face shifted again. There it was–the flicker of fear and realization. “Why, Rafe?”

I looked down, then to the door, jaw tight enough to crack. “Because you’re a beautiful woman,” I said, almost choking on the words. “And that… that gives you power. Power I don’t have.”

Her eyes narrowed, surely thinking I was condemning her.

I glanced towards the closed door and pushed on, slower now. “The men guarding us… they’re the kind of men who’ve hurt women before. Men who feel powerful when someone smaller cowers in front of them. I’ve seen that hunger in their eyes. They work in this dark world. I know them.” My throatclosed, and I looked away, hating myself for my next words. “I’vebeenthem.”

Laura went quiet. Real quiet. And then, her voice softened. “I don’t know if I can do it. What if I’m overpowered?”

I looked at her then, really taking in her appearance. Her cheeks were sunken from dehydration, and her lips cracked. Her blonde hair was matted, and her frame thinner than it had been days ago. She looked breakable. And here I was, asking her to walk into the mouth of the fucking beast.

I swallowed, shame clawing its way up my chest. My heart squeezed under the weight of it. This wasn’t a chess piece I was moving. This wasLaura.Adela’s best friend. My responsibility. And I was asking her to bait a monster.

“You can’t guarantee my safety,” she said, voice trembling, pulling me out of my spiral. Her blue eyes met mine, so full of worry it made something inside me crack.

“I can’t,” I admitted. My voice was rough, broken. “But I can be waiting. I’ll be ready. Kieran and Nico, too.” My heart squeezed under the pressure of what I was asking of her. This was a dangerous idea that could end with those men hurting her in front of our eyes. But I knew what it was like to be triggered by a woman as an emotionally unstable man. I wanted to turn a gun on myself just remembering what I had done to my ownwife.

Kieran and Nico remained stone-faced and silent.