Page 81 of Love You To Pieces

“You killed my friends,” I breathe, impatient and wanting to jump to the heart of the matter before I die or Deacon and Fox show up. “Y-you killed them. We didn’t do anything to you, and you killed them.”

The man behind me snorts and takes a long inhale of his cigarette. At my side, Pearl is snarling, clearly displeased with me being grabbed. But I keep a hold of her collar, needing this to happen in a way that lets me get answers, instead of the way we talked about it going.

By now, I’m supposed to be running. And preferably, one of them should be dead and half-eaten by my dog. It was never part of the plan to let this man get close enough for me to smell the stink of his breath when he wheezes a chuckle.

“Didn’t need to do nothin’ to us, stupid bitch,” he insults, yanking me forward and off balance. He turns and shoves me against the logs, and I can tell that he enjoys my gasp of pained surprise. Thankfully, Pearl still doesn’t attack, and I wonder if they know just what she did for me before. That all it’ll take is her deciding she’s had enough before she tears their throats out.

“You’re all just meat. Just product to be sold. Your little friend was gonna get us a nice price,” he goes on. “God, Harrison is one fucked-up bastard, but he pays well. You know what you cost me? I already put in all the work on her. I had Jim here video it. She screamed and cried and begged. Not that you knew,” he adds cruelly. “You were still takin’ your little nap. But oh, your friend cried. She told me she’d do anything. Promised she’d be good, that she wouldn’t tell anyone. I thought that was real funny.” His smile grows, making my stomach churn.

“Gave me the idea to cut out her tongue. I don’t get to do that much. God, she screamed and screamed. Thought she’d choke on her own blood, but⁠—”

“Stop.” I can’t listen to this. With my back pressed to the logs, my entire world has narrowed down to the pinprick of him standing in front of me. “Stop it. Don’t talk about her like that. She didn’t do anything to you, she didn’t deserve⁠—”

Without warning, he hits me. His slap is hard enough that I taste blood, and it takes everything in me to lunge for Pearl so she doesn’t rip him apart right there. My fingers curl in the collar Deacon found for her, but I can practically feel her anger in the way her muscles are tight and ready.

“You ain’t listenin’,” he says. “Don’t those ears work?” he spits on the ground between us. “Stupid bitch. That’s all you’re good for, you know? A bit of entertainment before we get our money from you. All of y’all are the same.”

His words make my lip curl in disgust, and my nose scrunches at his clear disdain for women, or just people not related to him, maybe.

“You’re monsters,” I can’t help murmuring, and I mean it more than I’ve ever meant anything in my life. “You’re awful, terrible people. Who does this to other people and thinks it’s okay?”

The man suddenly barks out a laugh, and his brother, who’s on his second cigarette now as he eagerly watches his brother like he’s getting off on it, snickers. “You think we’re bad? Your sheriff and his bastard brother are almost worse. At least we don’t pretend we’re something we ain’t. At least we don’t pretend to be good.” The way he sneers the word shows me his disdain for them, and I shake my head slowly.

“They’re not like you,” I murmur. “They may be monsters, but they aren’t like you.”

A sound in the woods makes them look up, and a scream echoes through the surrounding forest, followed by another. It isn’t Fox, and it isn’t Deacon.

But if I’m going to guess, I’d say it’s their other brother.

“Then again…” my words draw the man’s attention back to me, his eyes narrowing. “I suppose there’s a pretty obvious difference, huh?”

“Difference?” he asks, not quite following. “Between us and them?” He gestures at his brother, nodding his head toward the woods, and the smaller, slighter man slinks away after grinding his cigarette out under his boot.

“They may be monsters too, but their family tree has branches. Though judging by your face?” My smile turns sweet, and I know I’m going to regret these words if I’m not fast enough.

“No one ever told your parents they shouldn’t fuck their cousins just because no one else wanted them.”

His face contorts, first with shock, then with rage, but I’m ready for it when he lunges. I turn and take off, my strides long, arms pumping, as I run for the building that’s shrouded in darkness and half fallen down.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

My legs burn by the time I’m at the building, and I catch myself on the doorframe, the actual door long gone, and swing inside. The building is dark, and I don’t expect there to be any power, though when the Hill brother lunges in behind me, he flips the switch and proves me wrong.

Light floods the small building, showing me ramps and pathways meant for logs to be pushed through. More than one large electric saw sits menacingly in the building, though they’re crammed together in the tight space, their blades rusted and not kept up with.

The man catches me before I expect him to, slamming me into the wall and snarling in my face. “Should’ve killed you first.” His words are full of indignant rage, and saliva lands on my face when he speaks.

“Yeah,” I agree. “You should’ve.” I shove him backward just as Pearl lunges, and she grabs onto his wrist, her jaws tight and crunching down on bone. The man howls in pain and whirls, kicking at her, forcing my dog to let go.

I expect him to run, but he turns on me again with murder in his eyes. Once again I take off at a dead run, scrambling over machinery and dodging old rubble to get away from him. I can hear Pearl panting, and I know after the last few days she must be exhausted. The idea of facing this man without her to literally eat him horrifies me, but I don’t have much of a choice now.

Just as I’m jumping over another of the machines leading to a giant saw blade, the man grabs my ponytail and yanks me to a stop. I want to scream, to let Fox and Deacon know I need help, but the air is knocked out of my lungs when my back hits the surface of the conveyor, my mouth open and gasping for air my lungs can’t take in. The only sound that leaves me is a low squeak, and the grin on the man’s face turns cruel and predatory.

“Stupid little girl,” he pants in my face. When Pearl lunges for him, he somehow tosses her aside, causing her to yelp and circle him, limping, as she tries to shake it off. My heart clenches for her, and I tell myself I’m going to invest in dog body armor for my man-killer. “You really thought you could, what? Come kill me? Kill my brothers?”

I laugh at that, struggling against him. “You dumbass inbred bitch,” I sneer. “Your brothers are already dead.”

His face contorts, confused, concerned, and he glances toward the door, one hand still fisted in my t-shirt to keep me where I am. “Yeah,” I jeer. “You haven’t wondered why they haven’t come back? It wasn’t just an animal in those woods.”