Page 202 of The Darkest Chase

If I hoped to catch him off guard and run or something, my hopes are dashed.

“Feeling better now?” Xavier snarls. “Do it again, if you’d like. I won’t deny a woman her dying wish.”

I take half a second to catch my breath and look around.

It’s bleak, almost desolate here.

A broad concrete loading dock with a couple piers spearing out into the flat black expanse of ocean, the rocky gravel beach stretching to either side, a lonely lane sloping up to the empty highway.

The Jacobins’ trucks are lined up along the dock, and there’s a massive black-painted freighter dotted with orange and red lights at port. Dozens of people are busy off-loading crates from the trucks onto the crane that lifts the cargo onto the deck. There are tall area lights up on poles, but they’re off, leaving the place gloomy and black.

Off to one side, Eustace and Ephraim Jacobin supervise, standing with Chief Bowden.

Jesus, it’s all true.

Not that I ever had much doubt.

Everything was true, and it’s the most awful sinking feeling.

What’s worse?

Even if I got loose from Xavier, somebody else would tackle me before I got far.

Crap.

“What’s the point of killing me?” I ask. “It won’t change anything. The police have the camera. They have everything and all you’re going to do is add to the charges against you. So you might as well just let me go.”

Xavier’s smile is frigid. Cruel. Nasty. Knowing.

“And how will they charge me with the murder of a woman who’s simply disappeared?” he whispers. “Once you’ve been stuffed into a barrel, darling, you’ll sink fast. If you’re lucky, maybe I’ll shoot you first.” He jerks me closer, into a face full of teeth. “Or maybe I’ll simply seal you in so you can find out what happens faster—suffocation or drowning as the water slowly seeps in.”

I stare back in frozen horror.

“…Micah was right about you,” I whisper. “You’re sick. Everyone in your family. I can’t believe I ever pitied you!”

“When did I ask for your pity? If anything,” he sneers, “I pity you. Falling in love with that pathetic cop?” He smirks. “Oh, you thought I didn’t notice?”

“I don’t care if you did.”

“So defiant.” Icy, amused words. “Your little love affair is why you’re going to die, Miss Grey. Do you really think Officer Ainsley cares now that he got what he used you for? Love is always a mistake. Never make yourself vulnerable. They’ll only use it to hurt you.”

That hits a little too close to home.

So close I can only stare at him with my entire body feeling hollowed out.

Is he right?

I don’t know.

But I know Micah’s coming.

The sick doubt running through me feels like nothing compared to the revulsion as Xavier leers. “People are only good for money or pleasure, when you take love out of the equation,” he says, fingers digging into my arm. “I thought, perhaps, before I dispose of you, I could use you. And since you are rather short on money…”

His meaning sinks in as he grips my chin with harsh fingers, tilting my face up to his. I bare my teeth.

Holy hell, I’ll bite his nose off before I let him touch me. I’ll—

Xavier jerks back then.

---