Page 102 of My Turn

“The one and only. Hearing a kid scream for their life might haunt me, but my soul has been irreparably damaged anyway. It’s funny how the more you kill, the better it feels.”

“Please, Jayce. Don’t do this. I’ll leave Alana alone. I’ll leave all of you alone.”

“Too late, Mike. Either I kill them both and you live or I kill you and they both live.”

“You can’t make me choose.”

I held the blade to the girl’s throat. Mike became frantic, but he nearly tumbled off of the stool, so he forced himself to stay still. The look that passed over his face told me everything.

“Wow.” I breathed a laugh. “Tell me something. Is it because she’s not yours? When did you find out?”

Tears streamed down Mike’s cheeks. “Not until Hailey died and Jake showed up at my door.”

I whistled. “That’s rough. If she was yours, would your decision be different?”

He turned his head, trying to hide. It didn’t really matter. He was a piece of shit and this experiment told me everything that I needed to know. He’d put himself above everyone else, which made him too dangerous to keep alive.

“Don’t make me watch,” he whispered.

Rolling my eyes, I pulled the hoods off of the two hostages. Mike paled as he looked between them.

“This is Mary,” I said, gesturing to the woman. “And her daughter, Sammy.”

“I-I don’t understand.”

“They’ve been living underneath a bridge down the road from my house. A couple thousand and a month in a hotel while they get back on their feet is a great motivator. Maybe they should go into acting. Don’t you think?”

I turned to Mary, who was looking at Mike with disgust. Really, no sane person would pity him after what they just witnessed.

“You guys can get in the truck,” I said. “I’ll bring you to the hotel.”

Mary’s eyes watered and she hugged me quickly before she took Sammy’s hand. The kid smiled at me, looking more nervous than her mom. Maybe this was a bad thing to put a kid in the middle of, but she’d be fine. Maybe it would teach her a good lesson about being careful who she trusted. Besides, they’d been unhoused for almost two years, according to Mary. She’d seen and been through her fair share of shit that was worse than this.

“I wish I would’ve met them before this,” I drawled as I circled Mike. “I would’ve made sure they were taken care of, but it did present a perfect opportunity in the end.”

“Y-you tricked me.”

“You can’t honestly think I’d hurt my girlfriend or my niece. I’m not you.”

“Please just let me go. Nobody has to know about this.”

“I might’ve let you go if you proved yourself not to be a complete waste of space. Probably not, but I would’ve at least considered it.”

“Fuck you,” he growled.

I stopped behind him and ran my fingers over the rope at the back of his neck. Leaning close to his ear, I let the mask touch his cheek.

“You’re a little bitch, Mike. I should’ve killed you the moment you touched Alana on that porch. Live and learn.”

I kicked the stool out from under his feet. He thrashed and kicked his feet as if that would save him. The sounds of his struggle seeped into my fucking soul- every gurgle, the clack of his teeth together as he fought for air, and the keening that came from his compressed throat.

When he stopped moving, I let out a breath. Coming around to his front, I looked at his bloodshot eyes. After committing the image to memory, I picked up the hoods and did a once-over to make sure there was no evidence of anyone else being here.

I would’ve preferred to draw out Mike’s death, maybe even tortured him, but this one had to be a suicide. It was the safest option. The note he left on his nightstand would inform the police of his fragile state of mind. He’d been a drinker and an abuser, which would line up with what happened the day I took Alicia. The death of his wife and the loss of his daughter, combined with the debts he was drowning in, were just too much for him.

From the interactions I’d had with Alicia, she didn’t seem to feel much of a connection with Mike, so I didn’t even feel bad about that part. She fit right in with our family and I had no doubt she’d be ecstatic to be a part of it. Something about thatkid told me she was tough enough to handle anything. Hell, a man in a creepy mask was in her room and she’d been pretty chill about it.

Yeah, she’d be fine. We all would. I just had to figure out this shit with Alana so that we could march straight into our happily ever after.

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