AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Our eyes meet for a moment, for the briefest of seconds before Wyatt grabs my ankle and tugs me down. I fall hard and watch as Hoxton’s fingers reach for the hunting knife. He keeps his eyes on me and is ready when I draw back and attempt to slam my fist into his face. He moves out of the way in time, so I just manage to brush his jaw. Then he’s got the knife, and he grins, wielding it in front of me as he hauls himself to his feet.
I do the same, both of us out of breath.
“I gutted your brother like a fucking pig,” I tell him.
His grin vanishes, all malice in his eyes as he circles, Blue dangling between us.
I keep my eyes on that knife. I need to get him away from her.
“He bled like one too. Ruined my tux,” I tell him, moving toward the wall of whips.
He strikes but I jump out of the way, drawing him farther from Blue.
“He bled out on a bathroom floor. Screamed like a girl.”
He jabs again, but again, I’m faster.
“You going to scream like a little girl too?” I ask and watch his face as he grows angrier and angrier. “Did you scream when you got your face carved out, clown?”
With a roar, he lunges, and this time, when I jump out of the way, the tip of the blade imbeds itself into the wooden cross. Hoxton tugs to free it but it sticks. He shifts his gaze to it. It’s the moment I need, the instant to grip one of the thick stake-like nails hammered into the wall to hold up one of his toys and yank it free. I hear Blue scream when I lunge for him, but I don’t look at her. I can’t. Instead, I stab the nail right into his eye.
I was right. He screams like a girl.
He screams louder than Blue as I draw it out, the wet squelching sound it makes turning my stomach. I do it again this time burying it in his other eye, my rage blinding me as I physically blind him. I stumble backward, panting for breath. He still doesn’t let go of the hunting knife though, even as he screams and pulls the nail out of his eye.
“Here, let me help you with that,” I say, hearing how eerily calm my voice sounds. How mentally controlled I am even as my heart pounds hard against my chest.
With a grunt, I tug the hunting knife out of the cross and turn to Wyatt. He’s got his hands over his eyes now. I should let him suffer. Let him lie here and die slowly. But then I hear her again. I hear her say my name and I bury his own knife in his gut. “You’ll die like your piece of shit brother,” I say and tug upward once, twice.
Hoxton stands still, a choking sound his last breath before his hands close over the hilt of the knife and finally, finally, the goliath topples to the ground.
7
BLUE
Iwatch in shocked horror as Zeke blinds Hoxton using the stake-like nails he’d hung his whips from. I watch as he calmly stabs one eye, then the other before drawing the hunting knife out of the cross Hoxton managed to embed it in and finishing him off, slicing his stomach open, forcing a rush of blood and guts to the dirt floor.
The giant man stands for a moment, blindly looking down at his stomach. His hands come to the knife, he stumbles, then, finally, crashes with a force that rattles the walls of the room.
A strange silence settles around us. The only sounds are those of Zeke’s panting breaths and the dull ringing in my ears. Zeke watches Hoxton on the ground and I see how the dirt floor darkens as it absorbs his blood. Then Zeke turns to me, slowly, and those gray eyes meet mine. Hoxton was a hulk. Zeke is tall and lean. I know he’s strong but the strength it took to beat and kill Hoxton, I think that was rage.
I lick my lips, swallow. My throat is so dry. And then, the shaking begins, adrenaline and terror making their way out of my body and I just sob.
Zeke blinks, animated, and moves toward me. Wrapping an arm around my waist, he lifts me just enough to relieve the pressure on my wrists as he reaches up to undo the buckles on the leather restraints. He doesn’t speak. He works quietly, and when I’m free, he sets me on the ground but keeps his arm around my middle. He looks down at me and I look up at him. I reach up to touch him. To make sure he’s real. This is real.
“I’ve got you,” he says.
I open my mouth, but I can’t speak just yet.
He came for me. He came for me. He killed the man who hurt me.
He killed for me.
With a shudder, I bury my face in his chest and close my eyes, hugging my arms to myself as he wraps his around me to stop me from shaking.
“It’s over,” he says, pulling away to look down at me. “You’re safe. I’ve got you.”
I’ve got you.
