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My jaw tensed at his remark. “You know, Hymen, this obsession you have with him is a little unhealthy.” My head whipped to the side as he landed another slap across my face. Obviously, he didn’t want to be reminded about his given birth name. The one he had been bullied over and changed in high school.
“Hymen?” Ryzen’s mouth twisted into a sneer. “That boy has been dead for a long time. He was too weak.” He chuckled.
“And you’re not,Ryzen?”
“Watch your dirty fucking mouth, Nova. Don’t provoke me so I’ll kill you faster. I wanted to take my time with you.” He trailed his thumb across my cheek and gripped my chin. “You’re supposed to be dead already, you know that? You were never supposed to leave that wedding alive. I had it perfectly planned out.” He paced in front of me, running his hands through his hair. “My men were supposed to kill you and that whore Juliet. And me? Well, I would be the devastated widower and Covington would have buckled then. Signed the hotels over.”
I raised my eyebrows, my eyes widening. What a bizarre fucking way to think. It just reaffirmed that he was on a whole new level of crazy, one that I had never seen before in my life.
My wrist burned as the rope dug into it. It was loosening slightly, but not enough. I had to keep him in front of me so that he wouldn’t see what I was doing behind my back.
“But you want to know what the best part would have been?” His eyes glistened and he chuckled. “Fucking Kaviathin was supposed to take the fall for the kidnapping. I was going to hand him over to the feds on a silver platter.” He pulled out the flash drive and showed it to me, then stuffed it back into his pocket. “You already knew that though, right? Because of all your snooping.”
Ryzen shook his head, clenching his fists. “But fucking Blackwood had to come save the day and ruin everything yet again. He just won’t fucking disappear, you know?” His voice was calm, too calm if you asked me. My body tensed as his gaze traveled down my body, every muscle screaming at me to break free.
“Iva did amazing, don’t you think?” He threw his hands up in the air and laughed like a maniac. “It was her idea to tell you she was sleeping with Cian. I’m just sad I didn’t get to see your face when she told you, although we had a good laugh about it after. And when you agreed to marry me… that was the real prize.”
Rage coursed through my body, and I twisted my wrists a little bit quicker now, the rope getting looser.
“You just couldn’t let him go, could you? He has this pull over women that I’ll never understand. Gretchen was the same.” Ryzen clucked his tongue on the roof of his mouth and rolled his eyes.
An image of the black box with her hair and necklace popped in my head, and I sat frozen for a moment. “Is that why you killed her? I assume that’s her grave out back.”
His face twisted in disgust, and he towered over me. “She was nothing but a whore, just like you. If she had just listened to me and done as I asked… but she didn’t want to leave Blackwood.” He made a tisking noise. The rope was loosening. I just needed to keep him talking.
“So what, you killed her and kept her hair in a box in your office? That’s low-level psychotic. You know that, right? Why would you even keep that? Ugh, I hope you didn’t touch yourself and play with her hair, Ryzen, that seems unsanitary,” I said all in one breath as the rope finally slipped down my wrist and I grabbed it before it fell.
He slapped me again and again, and I grunted at each blow, tears flying freely around me.
“I do thoroughly enjoy hurting women, Nova. Mostly mentally though. The physical hurting, well, that just tends to happen from time to time. It’s the only fucking reason I got involved with Voledetti. They helped me cover up the first one—a mistake, obviously.” He chuckled.
Nausea rolled through me at his confession. He’d actually killed someone. And not just one person, but at least two. This fucker deserved to die, and I was more than happy to be the one to put him in his grave.
He let out a deep breath and laughed. “God, that felt good to get off my chest. I’ve been wanting to tell someone that for a long time. Only Riddick and Voledetti knew.”
I dug into my cast, making sure I didn’t move my arms too much, otherwise he would see, and pulled the knife out.
He sat down in the chair in front of me and dragged it closer so that our knees were touching. “I’m sorry it has to end like this, Nova.” He pushed my hair behind my ears and then pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket. I sat completely still as he wiped away my tears and the blood from my chin. “I had high hopes for us.” He leaned closer and pressed his lips to mine, and I gagged, trying to recoil away from him. He gripped the back of my neck and held me in place, his lips crushing into mine. I bit down on his lip as hard as I could, and he pushed back, holding his mouth. “You fucking bitch. That’s it. I was going to just give you more benzos, but now, I think you’ll take a trip over the fucking cliff.”
His voice rose with every word, and when his hand whipped back ready to land another blow, I pulled out the knife and plunged it into his thigh. His eyes widened and he yelled out as I yanked the knife out. I lunged for him and pushed him, and he fell backwards onto the glass table. The glass cracked as he landed, and he bellowed as the little pieces cut into his arm. “You whore,” he screamed, but I was halfway down the hall by then.
I flung the front door open and ran as fast as I could. I didn’t know what direction I was going in, but when I heard him yelling not too far behind me, I pumped my legs faster. It wasn’t fast enough though, and even with a gash in his thigh, he caught up to me and tackled me from behind.
He flipped me over, his hands going around my throat and squeezing. I clawed at him, reaching for his face and pressing my thumbs into his eyes, but that just made him angrier. He cursed and shook his head, picking me up slightly and slamming me back down. The air whooshed out of my lungs, and panic started to set in. I was kicking and scratching, but he was relentless.
I didn’t notice the headlights of the cars that started to pull up, the flashing of blue and red lights surrounding me. Men were yelling and then someone tackled Ryzen off of me and I rolled over onto my side, gasping for air.
“I’m going to fucking kill you!”
Cian.
Cian was here.
I raised my head and looked over at him. He was on top of Ryzen, landing blow after blow to his face. Ryzen stopped moving, but Cian didn’t stop. He kept wailing on him until Delove ran up and pushed him off.
“Cian, enough!” Delove yelled.
Cian ran over to me, his chest heaving, and pulled me into his arms. “Nova, are you OK? Nova? Please, tell me you are OK,” he choked out, his eyes glistening.
