Page 4 of Blade

“I’m sure I’ve dealt with worse,” I replied with a careless shrug.

“Why do you care anyway? You think I don’t know about you guys and the shit you do? You can’t pretend you’re the good guy,” he scoffed.

It was my turn to smile. “Oh, I’m definitely not the good guy.”

“Then what the fuck is it to you?”

My nostrils flared slightly, and my teeth clenched through my grin. No, I was definitely not a good person, but I hated pieces of shit like him. I didn’t believe in harming women and children. The thought made my stomach churn as little flashesof memories popped into my head like shitty movie clips I didn’t want to watch.

“Next letter,” I brightly announced, and he groaned.

I slowly carved the letter L.

“L!” he cried out.

“You’re catching on! Very good,” I praised before I moved on to the I. “Do you have any idea what the word is going to be?”

“No,” he bit out.

“Hmm, you’re a little slow, huh? That’s okay… I’m very patient.”

“I!”

“That is correct!” I half-assed clapped my hands. It was a little hard to do with the knife in my grip. “Next letter.”

“S!” he shouted through clenched teeth.

Pausing, I stepped back and cocked my head as I narrowed my gaze on him. “Have you played this before?”

He glared at me as he panted. I’d already moved on to the next letter.

“K,” he bit out.

“Are you cheating?” I asked as I propped my fisted hands on my hips.

“No! I swear. No,” he babbled.

I pretended to ponder the truth of his words. “Hmm, okay, I believe you.”

As I carved the last letter, I did so with more force. He screamed, and it took everything in me not to simply thrust the knife between his ribs.

“A,” he sobbed out as snot ran down his lip and into his mouth. It was all rather disgusting, and I was glad it was him and not me.

“What’s that spell?” I stared at him with every ounce of my twisted soul clamoring to rip him to shreds with my bare hands.

“Eliska?” he mumbled with a sniffle.

“Do you remember Eliska?” I asked him in a tone that was deceptively casual and calm.

“Who?” he asked, generally confused. That infuriated me more because it meant he either didn’t bother to remember her name or had exploited innumerable women. From the things I’d found out through digging, I was pretty sure it was the latter.

“You took her on a vacation from Tennessee to Florida, then sold her off? Ring a bell?”

“What the fuck does that bitch have to do with this?” he practically snarled.

My vision practically went red. I slid the tip of my knife over and rammed it between his ribs like I’d been dying to do. The painful shout that burst from him fed the beast within me. Without pause, I ripped it from his chest. The sucking sound from his punctured lung sent adrenaline rushing through my veins.

He coughed and blood spewed from between his lips and spattered my hand, forearm, and chest. His face was ashen as he struggled to breathe. Instinctively, he jerked at the cuffs that fastened him securely to the overhead beam. He had to know he wasn’t getting loose.