Page 141 of One Killer Night

My lips part to say as much to Noah, but he looks away toward the sound of heavy footsteps joining us. I follow his gaze to another man coming in behind Remus, who is looking down at his phone.

Ice-cold chills slice through my veins because I’ve seen him before too.

This man was standing in my doorway the day I forgot to lock it.

“Oh my god ...” I rush out.

Noah’s chest is heaving, and his muscles feel like stone as he stares past Remus at the man who still occasionally visits my nightmares. My eyes volley between the transient and Remus before finally landing on Noah.

“Do you know him?”

Noah nods. “That’s my father.”

Everything happens in slow motion. Remus looks up and smiles at me before the man steps in behind him and takes him by the chin. And the knife slices straight across his throat.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Noah

Goldie’s screaming, her hands gripping my shirt and digging into my back. But I’m unmoving as I watch the man she thought I was here for stumble a few steps. He gasps for air, but it’s only a gurgle as blood pours from his neck before he drops to his knees and falls dead.

There’s not a sound in the room as people look at each other, trying to figure reality from fiction.

Goldie’s crying, her face pressed to my side, making my body sway, as Billy wipes the blood on his knife over his sleeve before smiling.

My eyes bore into his, all my rage circling and gathering into a storm. He tried to kill my mother. He tried to kill me. And he came here to kill my girl ... I’m going to make him truly hurt for that.

A girl from the crowd close to the stage lifts to her tiptoes and stares closer at the dead body, then reaches out and touches the puddle of blood that’s pooled.

She rubs her fingers together before the horror of reality sets in, and she lets out a bloodcurdling scream.

People scatter.

They’re running and pushing each other out of the way, desperate to get to the exit, as Goldie and I stand on the stage. Five feet away from my father.

He tilts his head, his eyes landing on Goldie.

“The lovers,” he says, like it’s some kind of inside joke. “Aren’t you going to ask how I found you?”

I press my palm against Goldie’s hip, trying to get her to move back behind me, but her feet barely move. She’s frozen with fear as she clutches my arm, but I want her away from him and the blood on the ground, slowly creeping closer.

My eyes narrow as I watch the way Billy’s staring at her, taking her all in like he’s curious.

“Don’t fucking look at her,” I bark. “And I don’t give a shit how you found me.”

His eyes instantly meet mine as he points the tip of the knife at me, wagging it. “You know I’d almost like you if I didn’t wonder so much about what your fucking insides looked like.”

Goldie finally follows my silent instruction and moves behind me, burying her face into the back of my arm.

Billy takes a step forward, and I match it backward, moving her too.

“She has nothing to do with this. It’s between me and you ... father to son. So why don’t you just let her go? And we can battle it out right here.”

I glance at the room and see it clear out, and an ache begins inside me. I want to kill him, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Billy laughs with his head tilted back, his face to the ceiling. “Is that what you think? That I’m here for you?” His head drops back down. “Is that what your slut mother told you?”

My hands ball into fists as I press my lips together, breathing heavily through my nose.