AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m fine. Just get the car.”
Castle shakes his head. “Where to?”
“Home.”
I take a final drag of my smoke before stubbing it out in the metal dish next to the operating table. When my hand comes away, it’s holding her blade.
Idoplan on going home, of course. I’ll spend at least a day sinking into whiskey and painkillers. And the memory of her moans. Her submission. The taste of her lips.
And what I’ll do to them when I catch her.
Because Iwillbe catching her.
It’s not just for revenge, and it’s not just because of what happened tonight. It’s because of the twelve words she breathed right before she left me to die.
“The blood of the innocent washes away the sins of the wicked.”
It’s not the first time I’ve heard those words. But I would very much like to know wheresheheard them.
So I’m going to find her.
And bind her.
And pull her secrets from her piece by fucking piece.
4
UNA
There’sa monster in each of us.
At least, that’s what my father used to tell us. Or should I say, what he used topreachto us. This went hand in hand with uplifting remarks like “we are all already in purgatory, and the job of the righteous is to send the wicked to Hell so the rest may go to Heaven.”
Seamus fancied himself a man of God. A redeemer. A prophet. And for a long time—so,somuch longer than I should have—I believed that. For years, I chose to overlook the reality that was staring me, and usually screaming at me, right in the face.
My father wasn’t a man of God. He wasn’t a prophet, or great savior.
Hewas, however, the monster he claimed was inside each of us.
And tonight, you took one giant step closer to becoming him.
I wince as I climb the last flight of stairs to the top-floor landing of the crumbling Hell’s Kitchen apartment building I’ve called home for the last year.
I hurt.
A lot.
All over.
Gritting my teeth, I open the three locks on my door and slink into the apartment. When it’s safely locked and dead-bolted behind me, I groan as I sink against it, my heart racing.
My mind whirling.
My entire body still—oh God—throbbing and tingling.
And aching.
With an effort, I push myself away from the door and drag myself through the tiny studio apartment. I shed my coat and my flimsy porno-dress, letting both drape across my bed against the wall as I gratefully kick off my heels. I slip my underwear partway down, and grimace as I examine the black lace, spotted darker in places.
