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I slammed the door, climbed into the driver’s side, smiled at the cop who waved farewell, then drove away to kill him.
Chapter Forty-Two
*
Aslan
*
(Moon in Romanian: Luna)
WAVES SLAPPED AGAINST THE HULL AS I pushed The Fluke to its limits.
Ethan lay slumped at the front of the boat, his arms and legs bound with plastic ties from the tackle box, his head nodding on his chest as we rode the ocean.
He hadn’t woken up.
I’d hoisted him and the speargun over my shoulder from the back of the Jeep, hauling him down the pier like a sack of fish guts. I hoped to hell no cameras had recorded me carrying him aboard and no automatic logs knew we’d untethered from the mooring and cast off into the dark.
Neri.
My heart clenched as my eyes found her through the salt-streaked window. She stood at the side of the boat, her hair snapping in the wind, my favourite dress in her hands, destroyed by the knife that she used, ribbons of it flying behind us as we sailed.
I’d found her cutting up her dress when I’d tossed Ethan on board.
She’d changed into a red bikini and one of Jack’s hoodies from the box of spare clothes below. Her hands white in the night as she hacked away at the pretty dress with single-minded determination.
I hadn’t stopped her.
I’d barely talked to her.
I understood that her pain would manifest in different ways and make her do whatever she needed to cope.
She’d padded after me as I secured Ethan and propped him against the front of the boat, glowered at him with memories I wished she didn’t have, then drifted back to her spot to continue shredding her dress.
I’d disappeared into the captain’s cabin, unable to be near her without breaking apart.
I didn’t trust myself not to burst into tears for what she’d endured or tear into Ethan like a beast. Using my teeth and fingernails, ripping him apart until nothing was left.
I wanted to be far out to sea before that happened.
The Fluke had bleach for washing away his blood. I could toss his remains overboard. His body would be eaten, just like my family had been.
No one would know.
Neri’s nightmares would be over.
And there would be one less monster in the world.
I added more speed.
The boat complained.
Dropping my stare from the black horizon, I fiddled with the controls, raising the engine a little to skim faster over the water.
“What the fuck is going on?”
My head ripped up as Ethan exploded into awareness, fighting his binds, glowering at Neri who stood over him. In her hand rested the knife she’d been using to cut her dress, the tip glinting red.
