AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I couldn’t connect the two realities in my mind. The Kat who I loved, and the Kat who had betrayed Holly to torture and terror. They couldn’t be the same person.
I had spent the last eight months trying not to picture my brother being tortured, and I had thought there couldn’t be anything worse.
This wasn’t worse. It was just more of the same, multiplied by infinity.
Freya followed and leaned on the railing next to me. I couldn’t look at her.
“I just hate it,” she said. “It’s so wrong. The minute you finally let down your guard, the very first goddamn time in my life that I ever see you do it, you get stabbed to the heart. That just hurts me.”
I nodded. “Yeah,” I whispered. “Me, too.”
CHAPTER37
Kat
Idrifted in and out of a nightmare-studded haze of exhaustion that couldn’t really be called sleep. Not when every time I dozed off, I was jerked awake by the image of my sisters. Gabri, curled up on the floor in the fetal position, a pool of blood spreading fast. Raffi, with the bullet wound in her chest. Blood sprayed all over the kitchen tiles.
Holly was sitting in my lap, also fitfully asleep. We couldn’t use the bed, since it was in a grisly state, so we had opted for the cold concrete floor in the corner. Holly’s weight had put my ass to sleep, but that was a small price to pay. I wasn’t shifting her limp, warm weight for anything.
Holly had come to represent everything that was good in the world. Everything worth fighting for…or even dying for. I would have made that sacrifice for Gabri, or Raffi if l had been given the chance. Who knew, maybe I’d get another shot. Real soon.
So, yeah. These were the things I aspired to. A glorious death, traded for the life of someone I loved. What a weirdo I was. Almost funny, if you thought about it.
Well, on second thought, not really.
Holly stirred, and looked up at me. I smiled at her, and she tried to smile back.
“Hey,” I said, “You were too stressed out before to tell me what happened when Nicole took you away. Did you send that message, like we talked about?”
“I tried, for sure. Hope I got it right.” Holly sighed, snuggling closer. “But everything she did was super creepy and gross.”
“That doesn’t surprise me one bit,” I said.
“She put on a pig mask for the video,” Holly said. “Which is super insulting to pigs. Pigs are nice. She’s horrible.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” I said. “And? What did she tell them?”
“She said you were the one who drugged the guys. That you worked for her, and that you’d tricked Uncle Ethan. She said a whole lot of mean things. Like, that you were a terrorist, and stuff.”
“Well, I’m not,” I said. “She’s a big liar.”
“I know that,” Holly said. She gazed over in the direction of the blood-spattered cot. “I was thinking about Mick.”
Hah. She wasn’t the only one. “What about him?” I asked.
“I think I understand why he did it,” Holly said softly. “If they were hurting his poor uncle. That old guy we saw. I wouldn’t be able to stand it if someone was hurting Uncle Ethan or Auntie Frey. Or you. So, like…I get it.”
I harrumphed. “Thanks, honey. That’s very charitable of you, but you’ll have to excuse me for still being mad as hell at him. Especially since they’re pinning it on me right now. Everyone back at the Mountain House thinks I’m the villain. Not fun.”
“Well, I don’t think you are,” Holly assured me. “I know you’re good. And when they save us, I’ll tell them the truth, so it’ll all be okay in the end.”
I gave her a tight hug, wishing I could share her innocent faith.
I was under no illusion that I’d be able to protect her from anything here, and she was used to her uncle’s strength and agency. God knows, the kid could be forgiven for thinking Ethan was superhuman. He seemed like one to me, too. Disillusioned, prickly, cynical scold that I was, he still seemed like a goddamn superhero.
At that moment, the lock rattled. We jerked upright, cringing back to the wall.
Nicole walked in, followed by a huge, shaven-bald guy with a thick, heavy face and vacant eyes. He held a gun on us, his expression utterly blank.
