Page 109 of Bound in Ashes

Travis squealed, the sound inhuman in its horror.

No.

This wasn’t happening.

I told myself that, willing it to be true.

But this was happening.

I remembered Jack’s warning.

Knew he was a man of his word.

I should have expected this.

Prevented it.

Stopped Travis from gambling with his life.

Felt a flash of violent rage at his stupidly.

Hated him for this.

But the knife wasn’t in Travis’s hand.

Someone screamed, and I looked back and saw Ellie and Evie, faces that were bright, happy, just minutes ago, something else now.

Something they’d never be able to recover from.

Bridget put her arms around the girls, and turned away, but not before she caught my eye, the crease between her brows deeper now than I’d ever seen it before.

I saw something else in her eyes, too.

Disappointment.

Accusation.

Because I did this—had let him do it.

Jack pulled the knife out and plunged it in again—the squish, the twist, the low hiss that told me he nicked one of Travis’s lungs—the only sound.

He crumpled slowly, his blood gushing out, staining the hard-packed dirt. He lay there, gurgled, twitched, and then finally was still.

I looked at the others, all of their faces a mix of shock and revulsion.

Jack stood, the sun high overhead, and looked each and every one of them in the eye.

“If you think—if you’re even tempted to steal—you should leave. Because this is how we handle thieves,” he said.

He swept the group again.

“Any questions?”

Then he settled his gaze on me.

Looked at me like he had so many times before.

Save the knife that was still in his clenched hand, a dead man’s blood sliding off in a languid drip, drip, drip, this could have been any other day.