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“Stay. Here,” I warned him while my heart resounded like a bass drum in my ears.
Noah’s panicked eyes, already flooding with tears, met mine as I opened the front door. Then, before I could warn him again to stop, he ran.
“Fucking hell,” I gritted through clenched teeth, and I took off after him.
Thirteen steps from my stoop to her porch. Up the stairs. Through the broken front door, splayedwoodand splinters everywhere. Past a knocked-over chair and a broken lamp. I searched for Ray, but I couldn’t find her at first. All I saw, all I could focus on, was a man, standing near her kitchen table.
Seth.
The bogeyman had returned.
Through the sound of whooshing blood pumping past my eardrums, I could hear Noah.
“Get away from her! Get off! Asshole,getoff ofher!”
Noah lunged at his back, and I yelled for him, “Noah!” His name tore through my throat as Seth wrestled with him, pulling at the skinny boy’s arms around his neck.
That was when I saw Ray. Bent over the kitchen table, her dress torn. A small pool of blood puddling beneath her face.
A soul-rendering rage overcame my body at the sight of her shaking. Frozen. Eyes squeezed shut. I had no idea where on her head the blood was coming from—it didn’t matter. Just seconds after entering the house, I stormed forward, eyes on nobody but the piece of shit who had dared to infiltrate the happy bubble we had built for ourselves.
“You little bastard,” Seth growled, unlocking Noah’s arms from around his neck and throwing the kid onto the floor easily. “I’ll teach you not to fuck with me.”
He raised his clenched fist and crouched, ready to strike Noah’s face, but he didn’t get the chance. My arm was around his neck, his back to my chest. I lifted him away, his feet barely scraping the carpet as I pulled him backward toward the door. He gasped and sputtered. Choking, clawing at my arm with frantic fingers.
Kill him, kill him, kill him, kill him, kill him kill him kill him,a voice in my head chanted as my arm tightened around his throat.
Seth’s strength was waning. He was about to lose consciousness.
Just a little longer. Just a little tighter, and he’ll never come for them again. He’ll never come back.
“Mom!”
Noah’s voice pierced the red fog, and my eyes dodged toward the table where I’d last seen Ray. But she wasn’t there now. She was on the floor, cowering against the kitchen cabinets. Smeared blood coated her cheek, her nose, her lips, down her chin and onto her chest—a dark contrast to the pallor of her colorless skin. She was in shock, and Noah was beside her, wrapping his arms around her and calling her name. Thinking about nothing but making sure she was okay.
“Noah, call 911!” I shouted, drawing his attention to me.
His stare was on me now, immediately blank, as though he couldn’t understand what I was saying.
“Call 9—fuck!”
I’d been too distracted. I’d put my guard down. Seth slipped from my grip, holding on to my arm and getting the upper hand. Noah screamed as my arm was pulled behind my back, my body thrust against the wall beside the door.
“And who the fuck are you, huh?” Seth growled, pressing his forearm to the back of my neck. “I’mgonnateach you to mind your own fucking business, asshole.”
“The hell you are,” I replied, my voice muffled against the wall, before kicking my foot back, knocking Seth’s leg out from under him.
He cursed and released me from his hold, falling to the floor as I turned. I gave him a second to look up at me, to see my face, to allow the recognition to settlein, ifit were to come at all. And, of course, it did.
“Ho-lyshit,” he uttered, a giddy, fascinated smile stretching his ugly features. “Soldier Mason. So, this is where you ended up, huh? You’re the new guy next door.”
I said nothing as he rose to his feet, the top of his head reaching my chin. He sneered up into my eyes and pointed at the scar stretching the length of my left cheek.
“That’s a nice little souvenir you got there,” he said, nodding at his handiwork. “Too bad it wasn’t a fucking hole in the head.”
My expression was unmoving as I said in a flat monotone, “Get the fuck out of here before I kill you.”
He barked a sinister laugh. “You don’t have it in you to kill me, Mason.”
