AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m thankful Quinn has removed the gun from my hands because I would have used it, punishing him for his threat alone.
“Polly, go downstairs and tell a few guests I’ve gone to bed with a migraine. Pass on my sincerest apologies for calling it a night,” Cynthia says, breathing through her pain.
“Then they’ll go home, right?” I ask, hopeful.
“No, Mia, they’ll stay until the sun comes up. They don’t care who’s here. As long as there’s food and brandy, they’re oblivious to anything else.”
“Rude, inconsiderate assholes,” I spit under my breath.
“Polly?” Cynthia coos, and I turn to look at a broken Polly who is still rocking in the corner.
Quinn gives me a small smile before he turns and crouches down in front of a comatose Polly. I’m hoping he can help her pull this off.
Tristan takes his spot beside me, and every muscle in my beaten body cramps in protest, but I won’t move.
“This one likes you,” Phil leers, looking at Tristan. “You’ve got your hands full, don’t you?”
He laughs while my temper rages.
How dare he think he knows me and talks to me like we’re friends. I may be forced to leave him here, but there’s no chance I’ll go quietly.
“Listen to me, you motherfucker,” I snarl, dropping to both knees in front of him. “You are a parasite, a bottom-feeder wishing you were a somebody, when, in reality, you’re a nobody. You’re a weak, pathetic loser.” Phil clenches his jaw, as I know how much he hates being called a loser.
But I continue as his face turns a fiery red and the muscles in his neck pop out in anger.
“The next time I see you, Iwillkill you. You will pay for what you did to Hank, and so help me God, if you so much as touch a hair on Abi’s head, you’ll pay in ways unimaginable.”
“Tough words, little girl,” Phil says, but he backs up against the wall when I hover inches from his face.
“I’ve learned from the best,” I state, displaying no fear. “Mark my words, this is the face of the person who is about to tear down your empire, brick by brick. You created a monster…Uncle.”
Phil’s nostrils flare.
“I won’t stop until I destroy the one thing you love more than yourself—power. You’ll watch it all crumble before your eyes, and then, only then, will I fucking kill you,” I conclude, slowly rising to full height.
“You fucking little whore! I’ll end you!” Phil screams, pounding his bloodied fist against the wall because he can hear the truth behind my words.
“Not if I end you first,” I reply, reaching for his discarded gun behind the desk. I pistol-whip him so hard across the temple his head snaps back with a sickening thud.
Not expecting the blow, he bobbles his head forward, and the fact he’s still awake pisses me off, so I drop to both knees once more, and I hit him again, and again, and again.
He’s scarcely conscious, but I yank his hand away from his bleeding shoulder and dig my fingers into the bullet wound, which has him gasping for breath and then passing out cold from the pain. As he slumps to the floor, I barely resist the urge to pound him till he’s a bloodied, beaten pulp on the ground.
Quinn bends beside me, whispering, “Enough, Red.” His soft lips touch my temple. “C’mon, we’ve got to go.”
My chest heaves from the force of my strikes, and my body hums with adrenaline, and although every muscle tells me to fight, I don’t. I allow him to help me up and watch mutely as he places his suit jacket over my shoulders, cloaking my bloody, disheveled form.
I blindly watch as he leads me into our room, where he packs me a bag as I sit comatose on the end of the bed.
I guess now I really do look like a punk Cinderella slathered in blood and gore. But fairy tales are for children because this right here, it’s real. Maybe I could write my own fairy tale, one with a modern twist of the girl who slays her own monsters and never looks back.
Idon’t remember getting into a car and driving for three hours.
Nor do I remember walking into a cabin in the woods—Cynthia’s secret holiday home—tucked away in a hidden nook of lush green bushland and remote open spaces.
And I certainly don’t remember the bullet in Cynthia’s leg being removed by a local, retired doctor friend, who swore his secrecy over what he saw.
But it happened.
