AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hang on.” She shifted again. “Is this enough?”
I could only imagine how ridiculous we must have looked in that moment. Her sliding into a fetal position between my legs on the ancient linoleum floor. Me hefting a solid metal oven door like I was attempting a dead lift. It was like a bizarre game of Crack House Twister.
Just as I managed to get the door out of the hinge, Janie gasped. “Watch out!”
I turned just in time to see my dad coming from the hallway with a piece of thin pipe in his hand. He must have come in through one of the broken windows at the rear of the trailer, probably wanting to sneak up on us after seeing Paulie’s car out front.
Paulie reacted too slowly. Dad struck him across the back of the head, and he went down hard, screaming and clutching his split scalp. “Burt! What the fuck?” He looked up at Dad, blood running down his face like a waterfall. “I brought her like I said I would!”
“Yeah, you did.” Dad swung again, this time connecting so hard with Paulie’s skull that I could hear the sickening crunch of bone. Paulie made a horrible sound, a mix of a scream and a wail of pain, and fell forward onto his face.
“Why did you do that?” I screamed, horrified and shocked. “What is wrong with you?”
“There’s nothing wrong with me that a million dollars, a new passport and a boat ride to South America can’t fix.”
“That’s your plan?” I spat angrily. “To kill us and make it look like Paulie murdered us so you can get the life insurance money?”
His eyes narrowed. “How did you—?”
“I have the policies. You forgot to pay your box rent, and they forwarded the mail to me.” Desperate to buy some time, I lied. “I cancelled mine. Yesterday. Every single one of them.”
“Liar,” he snarled, but I could see the uncertainty in his beady eyes. “I’m the owner of the policies.”
“I did it online. You should know how easy it is to lie about your identity online,” I needled, thinking of the pile of credit card bills with my name on them. “The way you did with all those credit card bills.”
“Well, you just have the answers to everything, don’t you, Macy?” He sneered and pulled a rag from the pocket of his jeans. “That’s all right. I’ll go with Plan B.” He wiped down the pipe and then used the rag to grip it. Stalking toward me, he ordered, “Take it.”
“No.” I didn’t want my fingerprints or DNA anywhere near that thing. “I won’t!”
“I swear to God, Macy, you have always been the most stubborn and obstinate fucking child!” He shook the pipe in my face. “Take it now.”
“No!” I smacked at his arm. “Get away from me!”
He backhanded me so hard and so fast I never saw it coming. My head whipped sideways, and I staggered back a few feet, banging into the biting edge of the countertop.
“You leave her alone, Burt!” Janie shouted, half-standing, her back hunched from the chain restricting her movement. “You are not going to hurt us anymore.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Dad struck her with the pipe, first on the shoulder and then on her side. She crumpled, and I screamed at him to stop. He kept striking her, slamming the pipe into her back and hip. I rushed him like a linebacker, wrapping my arms around his pudgy gut and biting his arm as hard as I could.
He roared in pain, but I wouldn’t let go. I bit down even harder, so hard my jaw hurt, and clawed at his belly. I was like an angry cat trying to shred its prey. He was so much heavier and taller that I didn’t stand a chance. He managed to throw me off, and I stumbled over Janie, falling face first toward the floor. I caught myself before my nose connected with the linoleum and scrambled to stand again.
I was too slow.
Dad shoved me, and I tripped over my own feet, clambering backward into the shell of a stripped refrigerator. He pushed the pipe against my throat, and I panicked. I gripped the pipe, desperately trying to get it off my windpipe. Every time he pushed down, I pushed back up. The pipe pressed against my throat, and I knew it would only take another half inch to completely cut off my ability to breathe.
Why are you doing this?I silently plead with my terrified gaze. There was nothing of my father remaining in his eyes. He was a madman. He was some raging lunatic in a murderous fugue state.
He’s going to kill me.
It was the final thought in my mind as I felt my feet slipping under me and my legs starting to go weak. My grip faltered, and everything went blurry.
And then, suddenly, I could breathe again.
The pipe clattered to the floor, and I dropped like a rock, hitting the ground so hard I knocked what little wind was left in my lungs right out of them. I gasped for air, dragging it in and clutching my aching my throat.
As my brain finally saturated itself with oxygen, I lifted my gaze to see what was making that horrible scuffling noise.
Danny.
