AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I listened to him. I did. I listened to him talk, and it hit me: Tyler was absolutely fucking insane. Assuming I kept my mouth shut, it’d be a lie. A lie that bound us together in blood and death—and that wasn’t what I wanted.
I’d never move on from Brett. He was everything to me. Tyler had fooled himself into believing our relationship was fake; it wasn’t. Maybe at first, but now that man was all I could think about, all I could dream about. There would never be anyone else.
Maybe it wasn’t smart to speak, but I couldn’t stop myself, “If Brett and Claire are dead, what’s stopping me from telling the world the truth? What’s stopping me from killing you… or killing myself?” It was something I’d tried before, but I’d been too chicken. Too scared. If Tyler succeeded in his plan, why would I go along with it willingly when there was always another way out?
The smirk Tyler wore on his face right then was aggravating. Pure fury fuel. “Come on. We both know you don’t have that in you.” Spoken like he knew me. Spoken like he knew everything there was to know about me. I hated how confident he sounded.
I swore if I was given the chance, I’d prove him wrong.
Tyler opened his mouth to say more, but he stopped and cocked his head, listening to something I couldn’t hear. He grabbed the top of the gun and pulled it back—taking the safety off, I think—and then he strolled over to my side of the basement, so he was angled toward the door. “Showtime,” he mused, fixing himself right behind me.
He pulled me away from Claire, putting me on my knees before him. “Don’t worry,” Tyler whispered as he leaned the gun against the back of my head, “this is all for show. I’d never hurt you, Charlie.”
See—that time, I knew it was a lie. I didn’t believe him. There was something about that statement I could see right through. Uncle Dave had said he’d never hurt me too, and then he spent years doing just that.
I used to think I was the worst liar of them all, but no, that crown now rested firmly on Tyler’s head.
Chapter Twenty-Six – Brett
This was a stupid fucking plan. Honestly, I didn’t know why I couldn’t just wait until Tyler was alone. Fuck him. So what if he told the world I was hiding out here?
No. Doing that would make Charlie a criminal too. I didn’t want something like that hanging around her neck like an albatross for the rest of her life. Even if she got out of jail, she’d forever be the person that helped hide a wanted serial killer.
When I got to the park, I found her car, abandoned. It wasn’t locked. The keys sat inside the vehicle, along with her phone, which I was able to turn on. She left the app open, and her location was clear on the screen. She wasn’t here. She was, by the look of it, fifteen minutes away.
Time to get going. I didn’t have any time to waste.
I hopped back in my shitty old truck and drove to what looked like an abandoned farmhouse. No close neighbors, and a really, really long driveway. The whole way, the blood in my body pumped fast, adrenaline lining my veins like a drug.
If this motherfucker hurt her, I’d fucking tear him apart. I’d skin him alive. Let’s just say you could experience a hell of a lot of pain before finally passing out—in which case, I’d stop, wait until he was conscious again, and then continue torturing the ever-loving fuck out of him.
I got out of my truck, gritting my teeth as I stormed to the front door. It sat wide open, almost like I was expected, and I entered the dark house without hesitation. No lights I could see, nor could I hear anything. If I had to guess, I’d say they were in the basement. All good things happened in basements.
That was fucking sarcasm, because nothing good ever happened in a damn basement, take it from me.
The door to the basement sat beneath the stairs that led to the second floor. It was latched but unlocked, and I was able to open it and go right in. Had to duck my head some, since the stairs weren’t tall enough to accommodate me—definitely not to code by today’s standards.
And the damn wooden steps creaked under my weight, which told everyone in the basement that I was here and I was on my way down. Oh, well. Whatever trap Tyler had ready for me, I could handle it. I wasn’t afraid. I didn’t feel fear. True hunters never did.
At least, that’s what I thought, until I busted through the door at the bottom of the stairs and saw Tyler standing on the far side of the basement, holding a gun to Charlie’s head.
I didn’t get scared, but when I saw that black gun pressed so hard against the back of her head, something in me felt it. Just the faintest pluck at my heart, a twinge that made me realize: yes, I was scared. For the first time in my life I was scared.
I couldn’t lose her.
Locking eyes with Tyler, I called out to him, “You want me, not her, so why don’t you put the gun down?” Beside Charlie, who knelt in front of Tyler, another body lay on her back—Claire, her sister. This was the final showdown indeed.
“You’re right,” he admitted all too easily, and he removed the gun from Charlie’s head and pointed it at me. “I do want you.” His finger was on the trigger, and he was ready to shoot. His emerald eyes twinkled with glee; he thought this was it.
And it was, but not for me.
Charlie’s big brown eyes stared at me, but the expression she wore wasn’t how I thought she’d look. Those eyes of hers weren’t asking for me to rush over and save the day. No, she didn’t plead. She looked furious.
Furious and feisty, and that told me she was about to do something.
I opened my mouth to tell her not to; whatever she was thinking, it was best if I handled this on my own, but it was too late. Now that the gun wasn’t against the back of her head, she spun her small body around, lifting a hand while simultaneously curling her fingers into a fist. As she spun, that fist went straight for Tyler’s manhood.
I sidestepped in case his finger on the trigger squeezed, but I needn’t have worried, because the moment Charlie’s fist connected with his prized possession, the air was knocked out of his lungs and he caved into himself. The fool dropped the gun in order to cup his jewels, his face turning red.
