Page 32 of Kiss Slay Replay

The kitchen knife sticks out of his calf.

Evan stabbed him.

“Go!” he tells me. “Run, you dumb cunt.”

The ultimate term of endearment coming from him.

I stand on shaky legs. “Not without you.”

The man removes the knife from his calf without hesitation. He flips the knife into the air and catches it by the handle.

Evan looks up at me with his wonderful, handsome face, his smart mouth frowning, and just shakes his head.

I don’t see what happens next. Danny has me. His arm is linked through mine and he’s running so I’m running. We get up to the path and step right into the yellow glare of headlights.

It’s Luke and Cassie in their van. Engine on. They’re not driving it, though. It’s just stopped there a few yards away, growling at us.

“Tires are slashed,” Danny says as we get closer.

“Of course they are,” Evan says. Only he doesn’t, because he’s not here.

“I left him,” I say. “I…I left. I left him. And Stephanie. I left…I left them.”

Luke pulls the van forward. The hubcaps scrape the ground, making the most heinous racket. Cassie opens the side door. “Where’s Evan? Where’s Wyatt?”

“They didn’t make it,” Danny says, pushing me toward the van. “What’s the plan? We get as far away as we can on hubcaps?”

Luke puts the van in park and opens the driver’s side door.

“Where are you going?” Cassie says.

“Back for Evan and Wyatt. Danny, get Cass and Willa out.”

Cassie takes off her shoe and throws it at Luke’s head. “Theo. Our son. I’m not explaining to him that Daddy’s not coming back. Get in the fucking car.”

Luke stops. He sniffs the air. “Do you smell…”

“Smoke,” I say.

“Where’s it coming from?” Danny asks. “Do you see it?”

I think of the burners in the kitchen. The gas stove left on.

I think of Ravi’s frustration that time we were in the car on the way to the airport, and I asked him to please turn around and go back home, because I couldn’t remember switching the burner off after I made my tea, because what if our house blew up like that beloved West Village chicken spot? Because my anxiety was too loud. Because it always has to ruin everything, and to save me from nothing.

“We have to get everyone out,” I say.

“Shit,” Danny says.

“Where’s the guy? The guy in the mask?” Luke asks.

Great question.

“Get back in the van!” Cassie says, throwing her other shoe at him.

He does what he’s told.

“You two go,” I say. “Maybe you can get far enough that you’ll have cell service. Get to the road and flag someone down.”