Page 65 of The Hellkeeper

I don’t stop. I want her to break. I’m dead either way.

“You’re fucking miserable. Nothing more than a daddy’s girl with more money than you could ever spend. But all that money, and still you’re unlovable.”

I lean forward, spit the truth in her face.

“No matter what you do, or will ever do, Damien won’t ever love you.”

I bellow the last words. “And guess what, Linda. You aren’t just taking me to my grave, you dug yours too.”

I’m sure of it. If Damien can’t save me, if this is my last day on earth, then it’ll be Linda’s too.

That does it.

Her face twists, and rage floods her eyes. She lunges.

Her hands clamp down on my face so tight I’m sure her fingerprints will be branded into my skin. “You fucking bitch.”

But they made a mistake.

The chains are too long.

I swing my arm back and punch her in the face, so hard her head snaps to the side. The chain whips forward and slams into her forehead.

Linda screams, clutching her face as she topples backwards. Blood pours down her face, and a few seconds later, she’s unconscious.

“Oops.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Amelia

Idon’t know how long it’s been. Hours, maybe.

The truck rattles over the bumpy roads, making the chains bite harder into my wrists. My arms scream from being held in the same position for too long. Everything hurts. My legs, folded beneath me, have long since stopped tingling, they just ache, stiff and useless.

Across from me, Linda hasn’t moved. Blood mats her hair, a dark trail running down her temple where the chain snapped back into her skull. I did that.

I press my lips together, swallowing the swell of nausea. I can’t afford guilt. Not when she’s the reason I’m in this goddamn truck, being dragged into what can only be described as a nightmare.

This woman, this sick, pathetic excuse of a person, took everything from me. My freedom. My future. My goddamn life. She would have watched me burn.

What I did to her was survival.

I’d beg if I thought it would help. I’d scream and claw at the partition separating me from the drivers if I thought it would change a damn thing.

But I know better.

I know what’s waiting for me.

The truck jerks to a violent stop. I lurch forward, and the chains nearly rip my arms out of their sockets. It feels like my shoulders are being wrenched apart, like the bones in my wrists are grinding together.

I can’t take this anymore.

A sob bursts out of me before I can stop it. I break.

I don’t want to die.

I still haven’t told Damien that I love him.

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