Page 80 of Carver’s Crusade

“Min!”

Min dodges out of the way as Nancy swings wildly.

Min catches her wrist, but the knife flashes dangerously between them as they struggle. They slam into the kitchen counter hard enough to make the walls shake.

“Drop it!” Tanya yells.

Nancy snarls like a feral animal.

“You’re not taking her!”

Min twists Nancy’s wrist, trying to disarm her, but Nancy fights with desperate strength. The blade jerks violently between them.

Then suddenly—

A wet choking sound fills the room.

Everyone freezes as Nancy stumbles backward. The knife protrudes from her stomach. Her eyes widen in shock as the blood spreads across her shirt.

“Oh my God,” Caitlin whispers.

Nancy collapses to the kitchen floor as we all go silent.

Nobody moves or breathes as Nancy Filby dies on the kitchen floor. Her eyes stare blankly toward the ceiling.

Caitlin has both her hands over her mouth as if trying to keep from screaming.

“Oh God,” Ashlyn whispers.

Min stands frozen near the counter, chest rising hard from the struggle. There’s blood on her hands. On her shirt. Her expression is cold shock wrapped around pure adrenaline.

Tanya slowly backs away from the body. “She came at you with the knife,” she says quickly, almost desperately. “Everybody saw it.”

But her voice shakes.

Mine does too when I speak. “Should we leave? Or call the cops?”

Nobody answers.

Jackson already took Mia. They should be in his truck by now, driving away.

This nightmare should already be over.

Then the front door opens. We all jerk our attention toward the sound.

“Well, damn,” a familiar male voice drawls, causing my blood to turn to ice. Tony Martin steps into the house with a smug grin already spreading across his face when his eyes land on me. “Nancy said she had something for me. I didn’t realize she had two somethings. Where is the little bitch?”

For one horrible second, nobody moves as his words wash over us. Nancy has something? Little bitch? Could he mean, Mia?

We all glance at each other just as Tony sees the blood on Min’s clothes. He peers over the counter into the kitchen and spots Nancy on the floor.

For a second, I expect shock, panic, or fear. But instead he smiles—a sick and cocky smile.

“Well,” he says softly. “Would you look at that?”

Caitlin makes a horrified sound.

Ashlyn mutters, “What the hell?”