Page 185 of Sin Like the Devil

Another.

Inching ever closer.

“Nox?”

He groans in response.

“If this is it… I just want you to know that I forgive you.”

His reply is drowned out by the sound of our cell door flinging open. Three figures step inside, all barefoot and clothed in rags. My eyes bounce from the misshapen caricatures of human faces until I spot a familiar sight.

“Ripley.”

Rick pushes past the other two, stepping farther into the cell. Blood drains from my face at the gun clasped in his hands. It sure looks a lot like Harrison’s gun, the one he jammed into the back of my head.

He takes one look at Lennox, half-dead and slumped over, then focuses his attention on Craven’s caved-in skull. All eyes seem to be locked on that sight with varying looks of satisfaction.

“What are you doing here?” I hiss.

“Getting out.” Rick lifts his gaze to me. “Some dude who isn’t a dude let me out. You?”

“The same.”

“Well, now’s the moment. You need a hand with him?”

I tighten my grip on the scalpel. “You’d help us?”

Clothes dripping like he’s only just been pulled from his icy tub, Rick shrugs. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Ain’t that the saying?”

“We aren’t friends.”

“Doesn’t mean we both can’t walk out of here,” he counters. “No one’s stopping us. I handcuffed that sick fuck in the tub when he came searching.”

“Harrison?”

“He’s taking a little dip now.” Rick grins to himself.

“Alive?”

“I didn’t care to check. You coming?”

I’m hit by indecision. Even in the best of health, I have little hope of carrying Lennox’s massive, over-muscled body alone. But certainly not like this. He’s going to take some serious handling.

Resolved to my fate, I reluctantly place the scalpel down then pull the keycard from my bra. Rick lifts a brow.

“I can get us out,” I explain.

“Well, no time like the present.”

He gestures for the two others to help. Neither speaks nor meets my eyes. I recognise the woman, despite her bruises and sliced-up skin. She’s Patient Three. The one Harrison and Craven were reconditioning.

The other patient is male, his hair long and untamed. I don’t know how he’s maintained his muscles in here, but his arms are corded. Enough to lift Lennox’s dead weight with a bit of help from Patient Three.

“You know the way out?” Rick asks me.

“You don’t?”

“They pounced before we even had a chance to poke around the building. Never saw them coming. That professor asshole told me the others are already dead.”

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