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I carve shallow lines into his skin, watching and enjoying the way the blood wells and drips. I break his fingers. I burn him with his own lighter every time he passes out, holding the flame to his arm until the smell of charred flesh fills the room.

He screams and cries. He pisses himself and then tries to promise me the world.

I don’t stop.

Not until he’s a wreck of blood and sobs and barely conscious.

And then I hack, deep, savage cuts with the knife, over and over, into his chest, his arms, his throat…until the chair is slick with him and his body finally goes still, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

I carve them out last, the gray eyes that haunted me for years.

And in that moment, with his blood cooling on my skin and the knife heavy in my hand…

I’m free.

CHAPTER 40

SIENNA

Mack had stared at me like I’d grown a second head when I’d burst into his shop, soaked in sweat and panic. He’d wiped his hands on a rag, glanced past me toward the street as though he expected Sterling to come charging in behind me, and frowned.

“Sterling was just here this morning,” he’d said slowly. “Checked everything himself.”

“I need it,” I’d told him as I clenched the strap of my bag so hard my knuckles ached. “Right now.”

That had earned me a longer, more careful look.

“Well,” he’d said finally, scratching his jaw, “it’ll start. But I wouldn’t trust it for⁠—”

“I don’t care,” I’d cut in, already moving. “I need it.”

He hadn’t argued after that. He just handed me the keys.

Now the rain was coming down in sheets, a hard, punishing downpour that turned the road slick and gray and endless. The wipers were struggling to keep up, thumping back and forth like they were as frantic as I was, the world beyond the windshield blurring into streaks of light and shadow.

My hands were locked tight on the wheel.

The engine rattled beneath me, a rough, uneven sound that made my chest seize every time it hiccupped. I pressed the gas harder anyway, making the tires hiss over the wet asphalt as Blackwood disappeared behind me, swallowed by rain and distance and everything I was trying not to think about.

Don’t stop. Don’t think.

Just go.

Wife Hacks Lawyer Husband to Death.

The words wouldn’t let go, flashing over and over, dragging his face with them.

Who was doing this to me?

Crack.

I sucked in a deep breath as thunder snapped overhead. That had sounded like it was right on top of me. Water streamed down the windows, the road narrowing into a dark ribbon ahead of me as the car shuddered again, protesting.

“Just keep running,” I muttered, to the engine or myself. “Please.”

Rain lashed the hood, the world reduced to motion and noise, and the pounding of my heart as I sped through it, chasing distance like it might save me.

Headlights flared in my rearview mirror, cutting way too close for these conditions. My breath caught as I squinted through the blur, and my heart started doing something painful in my chest when the shape behind me revealed it was a very familiar black truck that was tearing down the road like it had been unleashed.