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He smiled down at her.
One of his hands covered her mouth. The other now rested at her waist. A grip that bruised.
“I was going to just take his money. Just like I took the money from the others. And if you’d followed along, been good, I would have let you go.” A pause. “Probably.”
Her left hand gripped the laces of one skate. Her fingers had gotten tangled in the lace when she’d jumped over the bench. Her hand had flown out and knocked into her skates.
Slowly, she began to pull up that lace. Bringing the skate up higher and higher.
“They deserved it. Your father. Hayden Thatch. Leopold O’Sullivan. More bastards just like them. They acted so clean and upstanding. But I knew their secrets. Their crimes. I’ve seen all their dirty deeds. Corporate espionage. Shady deals. Like they are any better than the common criminals that you find on the street.” His hand released her waist and rose to curl around her throat. “I’ve seen so much. I got tired of the secrets.”
She kept pulling up that lace. Bringing the skate higher.
“People are always pretending to be different from what they really are. You know who doesn’t pretend?”
Why was he asking her questions when she couldn’t speak? That stupid glove pushed against her lips with bruising intensity.
“Henry Monroe.”
She blanched.
“He tells the world he’s a monster. He revels in it.” A smile. “I watched him with your mother. I could have stopped him. I didn’t. I watched, and it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.” His fingers tightened on Alina’s neck. “He snapped your mother’s neck. Brutal. Fast. She was like a bird in his hands. He dropped her onto the ground. The snow was all around her. I-I must have made a sound then. He turned and saw me. And you know what he did?”
Tears slid down her cheeks. The pressure on her throat had cut off her air flow. He wasn’t snapping her neck. He was choking her.
“Henry smiled at me.”
She pulled the laces…Alina felt the top of the skate touch her fingers.
“And he left her there. He walked away. I ran to her. She was still alive, can you imagine? So, I put my hand over her mouth…just like I’m doing to you right now. And I watched the life fade from her eyes as—”
She yanked up the skate, and she sliced the blade over the side of his arm.
Bradford screamed and let her go.
She drove that blade at him again. This time, she pounded it into his chest. The blade sank past skin and muscle and blood spurted onto her.
He heaved back, howling in pain, and the blood seemed to be everywhere. Alina whirled from him. She kept the skate in her hand and ran for the door. “Help!” she yelled. “Someone, help me!”
“You bitch!” Bradford roared.
She yanked open the door. Raced forward even as she heard the pounding of his steps behind her. “Help!” Where was Dmitri? Would the guards outside hear her?
The rink waited in front of her. She could cut across it. Get to the other side and get to the front doors faster. She jumped over the half-wall. Slipped a little but shot upright.
Bradford’s hand flew out and grabbed her as he leaned over the wall. “You aren’t getting away!”
She brought the skate down on him. She cut right across the top of his forearm.
More blood. He cried out, but his other hand yanked the skate from her.
And then he was coming completely over the wall.
Blood covered the ice. His blood. It soaked the ice and her. Alina spun and rushed over the ice. Her breath sawed in and out. She had to get away.
“Alina!”
Her head whipped up. Midas. He was on the ice and hurrying toward her from the opposite side of the rink. His eyes were wide with horror and that horrified gaze made her look back. Alina tossed a terrified glance over her shoulder.
