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‘She’s a lying shit. I fostered her. Spent money sending her to the best schools along with my own daughters, and she’s repaying me with her bullshit.’
At that moment, I saw myself in Eve. I too had been taken in by a wealthy man. My father’s attention had been every bit transactional, but how much worse was it for her? My father had pushed me into a lifestyle that I hadn’t wanted. He'd beat me and torn away any self-esteem I had possessed. But he’d never taken advantage of me in the way I very much expected Westley had with Eve. Despite my predicament, I began to hope Harriet gave him her worst.
‘Shame you’re an idiot. Did you think that we wouldn’t see the videos on your phone? She’s not even the only one, is she?’ Petros held the man tightly by the neck while Harriet bent down and locked the heavy metal shackles about his ankles.
‘Get the fuck off me!’ Westley screamed, lashing out without much effect. The chain began to move with a lurching creak, dragging the links back around a spool near the ceiling. Westley fell to his hands and knees with a crunch and a cry as his body was slowly upended. His feet ascended first, smushing his angry red face into the floor. The scrape of his skin against the stone made me want to toss up the crackers I’d just eaten. The mechanism groaned as he was lifted fully off the ground. His high pitched scream echoed throughout the room, so loud that it made me wince. Only a foot or so separated his head from the cold stone flooring below.
Suddenly, my own predicament didn’t seem quite so bad.
His face turned a deep crimson as he bobbed like a bloated worm while Harriet paced in front of him.
‘Admit to your treatment of Eve, and I might hand you over to the police.’
Westley coughed, sending him jerking on the end of the chain. ‘I don’t believe you.’
Harriet held out a hand, and Petros reached into his jacket, pulling out the knife she’d cut me with, and placed it in her upturned palm. With his eyes widening, Westley tried to swing at her, his arms flailing in the gap between them. Eve shrunk away, stepping partially behind Petros in a way that made my mouth sour. Terror filled her face at Westley’s fury.
‘The thing is, I can’t let you go, confession or not. You were supposed to be a safe haven for a teen, a place that could finally be home—’
Westley interrupted with a barrage of curses before angrily saying, ‘I gave her everything. A home. A family. The best schooling. She’s an ungrateful bitch.’
‘You didn’t give her what she needed. Safety and trust. A place where she could feel like she belonged.’ Harriet stepped in close and used her blade to cut the buttons from Westley’s shirt, his pale skin exposed from belt to neck. His hands tore at her legs, pummelling her and trying to knock her off balance, but she held firm. Without a flinch, she sank the knife into the area just above his groin as he let out an almighty howl. ‘And I’m never going to let you do that to another person.’
The tight muscles in her arm bulged as she dragged the knife downwards, cleaving a great cleft in Westley’s stomach. His yowls of pain sent shivers through me as I watched the crowd. Harriet with a look of determination on her face, her arm awash with bright red as blood sprayed outward like a grotesque fountain, the coppery tang filling the air. Petros stood by without any expression on his face. Either he had a kick-ass poker face or he’d watched Harriet gut a man often enough to not be fazed in the slightest. Harriet’s friend had turned to hold Eve in her arms, trying to hide the gore from her, but Eve watched with wet eyes as the knife tore his flesh asunder.
Fat, blood and guts tumbled from the hole Harriet had created while Westley spasmed on the chain, shock silencing his screams to a gargled moan. Harriet bent at the knees, staring into his face as his intestines dangled between them in long, bloody ropes.
The crowd either stared aghast or turned their eyes away as Harriet scooped up a handful without so much as a grimace. ‘How many times did you choke her, Westley? How many times did you force yourself into her as she begged you to stop? The last fucking thing you’re going to taste is your own pathetic guts.’
Reaching forward, she pinched his nose with one hand until he feebly opened his mouth, the blood loss clearly affecting him. She wasted no time in stuffing the pulsing organ into his mouth piece by piece as he heaved and shuddered.
He barely lasted for a minute of barely there struggling, before he succumbed to either the lack of air or the blood loss. His body slackened and stilled.
For long seconds, not a noise filled the room before Harriet turned and met my eyes. The threat was as plain as day.
The Viper was real.
And deadly.
ELEVEN
HARRIET
Blood dripped slowly against the floor, the rhythm almost soothing as I sat on the sofa, patiently waiting for the room to empty of everyone but Nancy, Eve, Petros and me.
A clink from the rear of the room brought another to my attention.
Alfie.
In the heat of brutality, I’d momentarily forgotten all about him. His eyes were ringed with dark circles as he met my stare. Had witnessing Westley’s demise been enough to make him relent in his claims of knowing nothing about his father’s ring of abusers?
I remained focused on him until he dropped his gaze. Crimson stained one of my arms to the elbow; my knife equally as decorated with blood. I should have felt something, but internally I was numb. The first man I’d ever killed had brought about my freedom, and it had devastated me despite knowing how much he’d deserved it. If Petros hadn’t been there to help me through the aftermath, I’d have likely thrown myself off something out of the guilt that gnawed at me. Eventually, the guilt ebbed away and left nothing. A gaping hole where my soul had once resided.
‘Sit.’ I indicated to the others. Nancy and Eve took chairs facing me, while Petros remained by my side. Eve’s eyes were ringed pink, and her hands trembled in her lap.
‘He deserved it,’ I said. ‘You didn’t bring that about, he did. You aren’t the first woman he hurt, but you are the last. Remind yourself of that when the demons try to pull you under.’
Eve nodded, keeping her head directed away from the eviscerated man.
