Page 76 of Vengeance of Childhood Proportions (Till Death Do Us Part #7)

Chapter Sixty-Six

Holly

I owed Jason a lot, but his ruthlessness and his continuation to kick me when I was down is what saved my life now.

The moment something hard connected with the back of my head, I went down.

I didn’t lose consciousness. My body tried as my brain screamed in agony, but I pushed through it.

I hit the blacktop of the parking lot hard, crumpling like a rag doll.

No amount of training gave me back my senses right away. I was still discombobulated, my vision going fuzzy as my ears rang. I could think —I just couldn’t move for several precious seconds.

I knew exactly where I was and what had happened.

Master Mal and I were walking to the car.

We were on a date. I’d been shocked, surprised, and elated when he hadn’t taken me to a fancy outing or to a movie theater.

Not my Master. He’d taken me to a strip club for our first date.

It was amateur night on stage with a contest that awarded the winner a fifty-dollar gift certificate to a local pizzeria.

Master Mal had even brought my owl mask.

I no longer questioned my feelings for my man. I was beyond in love with my Master. He knew me better than anyone else. Maybe even better than Jason.

There was no competition. I obliterated the others who’d danced on stage tonight.

Maybe my experience gave me an edge others lacked, but the rules only specified that you couldn’t be currently or previously employed as a dancer or pole dancer so it wasn’t cheating.

My winnings then purchased our dinner. There was even enough after the pizza and our salads for ice cream.

I could still smell the oregano and bread coming from the building we’d just exited.

We hadn’t gotten far. An older couple had left the restaurant the same time we did.

Master Mal had held the door open for them when he saw them behind us.

I remembered thinking that I wanted that to be us in fifty years.

Still walking on Master Mal’s arm, looking up at his wrinkled face and gray hair with the same devotion and love I was feeling tonight.

We rounded the corner and… Something hit me. It was too deliberate a strike to be anything other than an attack. The older couple were too far away, so it had to be someone else. Muffled voices filled my ears. I forced myself to breathe through the pain, to stay in the here and now.

Had someone escaped? Emmet was the only one left.

Jason had staged the bodies of Kaylee and Rachel last night.

Kaylee had been found in the middle of the night by the janitorial staff, and mere hours later, Rachel had been discovered when the radio station opened for their morning show.

Even if Emmet had gotten out, he couldn’t have known where I was.

He couldn’t have followed me from the fishery.

Principal Hagley? No, it wasn’t possible.

The weasel had run. Jason had tracked him to a motel in the lower forty-eight.

He’d declined police protection after we’d abducted the last four on my list from the FBI safe house.

Let the little mouse run; he would not get far.

I had a tracking device on his rental car as well as his suitcase.

Sheriff Renfrew was in no condition to leave hospice. And even if he did, neither he nor Hagley would know where to find me. No one knew I was alive.

The cold, wet blacktop under me helped to bring me around. I didn’t make a sound. I didn’t cry out in pain or moan. Jason had trained that instinct out of me. “Silence is your best weapon until you know all the facts, Hols.”

I opened my eyes, hoping the blurriness had passed. My vision was fuzzy, but I was able to make out and understand the shocking scene above me.

Master Mal was standing to my left with his hands raised.

His stance was defensive and his expression stern.

In front of him, in high heels and a long trench coat, was Dominique.

The gun in her hands explained the large, throbbing bump on the back of my head, as well as why Master Mal was not at my side caring for me.

The two seemed to be in a standoff of sorts. My ears were not clearing as quickly as my eyes. I held still, resisting the urge to work my jaw. I knew how to read lips, but my current angle was wrong. I was getting maybe every other word.

Despite not being able to hear the entirety of the conversation, I could see how upset Dominique was and how in control Master Mal was.

From the untrained eye, one might think Master Mal had the disadvantage.

He was unarmed and held at gunpoint. And while I did not deny that Dominique posed an immediate threat, Master Mal had obvious influence over her.

He was stepping ever so slowly to his left, away from my prone form. Dominique, likely on instinct, followed him. Master Mal was not looking at me. His entire focus was on Dominique, so there was a good chance he did not even know I was still conscious.

I took a deep breath. Two more steps and I would be out of Dominique’s peripheral vision. My ears were starting to clear up, the ringing lessening. Dominique was saying something about needing ‘it’ from Master Mal.

I didn’t know what ‘it’ was, and I didn’t give a flying fuck.

The woman was holding a gun to the man I loved, and he was currently drawing her attention away from me in a stupid desire to protect me.

My head hurt, my ears were ringing, and my stomach was currently contemplating having my dinner make a second appearance.

The moment Dominique was turned enough where I knew she couldn’t see me out of the corner of her eye, I moved. Master Mal hadn’t just turned her away from me, but had also gotten her to step away from me. Silly, overprotective man.

Adrenaline pumped through my veins, lending me strength. Jason did not train me in traditional martial arts. He trained me in survival . Take every advantage, every opportunity. There were no fancy moves or rules to be followed. It was kill or be killed, and I’d already escaped death once.

It was quick and instinctual, but some subconscious part of me still understood that my priority needed to be to get the gun away from Master Mal.

I rose, trying to hold myself steady on my heels.

Though I loved my boots, right now I was wishing I’d worn practical sneakers on my first date with Master Mal.

A quick kick to the side of her knee caught her by surprise.

The barrel of the gun went up as her leg gave out.

I registered the shock on Master Mal’s face as well, and his recovery was faster than Dominique’s.

He rushed forward. His focus was getting her gun, but before he even reached it, I’d already snapped Dominique’s neck.

She fell lifeless at my feet.

It had barely been ten seconds since I stood up.

Master Mal halted in front of me. The haze in my head finally cleared up. My vision was back to normal and my ears stopped ringing the longer I was vertical.

I looked down at Dominique’s body on the pavement at my feet. I honestly didn’t care that she was dead. I didn’t particularly like her, but I also hadn’t hated her. She wasn’t anyone to me. She died for pointing a gun at my Master.

I stood by that decision and did not regret her death—until I looked up to see the expression on Master Mal’s face. He was clearly horrified, but I could also see fear. The threat was gone, so the only logical conclusion I could come up with was that he feared me.

Time seemed to unfold, going too fast and entirely too slow at the same time. My heart pounded in my chest, increasing the throbbing in my head. I knew in that moment how royally I’d fucked up.

It had been instinct. I had seen a threat and exterminated it. I didn’t care why Dominique had hit me or why she’d held a gun on my Master. It hadn’t mattered then, and it didn’t matter now. She was dead and could no longer hurt him or me.

But seeing the fear on Master Mal’s face?

The horror, the uncertainty? I realized my error.

I’d killed quickly and proficiently. He now knew who I was—or rather, what I was.

A killer. He wouldn’t know me as Holly Marteen.

He believed her, me, to be dead. But he didn’t need to know my name to now know who I truly was.

I took a step back. How had my world come crashing down so quickly?

It was supposed to be over this week. I was supposed to be finally free.

To put my past behind me and move on . But now Master Mal knew.

He was a cop. He might be suspended, but he was still a cop at heart.

Jason was right: he’d never accept me for who I am, what I am.

“I’m so sorry,” I managed to say. “I never meant for you to find out like this.” And then I did the only thing I could think to do: I ran.

My heart shattering into a thousand pieces, I turned my back on my Master, the man I loved, and I ran. Tears streamed down my face. Not for the life I’d just taken, but for the life I could have had and wanted beyond comprehension.

A life I would never have. I’d been a fool to think I could.