Page 128 of Kings & Carnage

It should have filled me with despair, but instead I felt a strange kind of relief. I finally knew what had happened to Emma, to all the girls from Bellepoint, and now Neo would know too.

I would die, and because of that, Neo wouldn't let Roberto live to hurt anyone else. My mom would be safe, and at least she'd have my body to bury.

"If it isn't my dear old dad," Neo said. "And bydadI mean the psychopath who donated his sperm.”

"Boo-hoo," Roberto mocked. "I was the best kind of father to you. You're just too stupid to know it.”

"Yeah, they should've awarded you Father of the Year for locking me in the dark and beating the shit out of me," Neo said. "Maybe you would've gotten a special prize for all the girls you killed like Emma.”

“They should have," Roberto said. "I was the best kind of father, the kind who taught you how to be strong, how to be a man.”

He was getting animated, his knife digging deeper into my throat, and I felt a trickle of blood drip down my neck.

"How to be a monster you mean," Neo said. "You taught me that well.”

I heard the bitterness in Neo's voice, and the sadness too.

"You're not a monster," I said to Neo, staring into his eyes across the darkness. "You never were. That's just another lie he told you.”

"Shut up!" Roberto yelled, the knife scraping along my neck, his voice growing calmer. "Shut up, little rabbit. You're just like your sister. You never know when to stop.”

Neo's throat rippled as he swallowed, trying to hide his nervousness as Roberto became more unhinged. "Put the knife down before I blow your fucking head off.”

Roberto laughed. "You think I'm afraid of you? I'm not, and the reason I'm not is because you don't know yourself. You think you’re a monster, but deep down you're still just a little boy crying in a closet.”

I felt like my heart was being ripped to shreds. I wanted to take the knife in Roberto's hand and stab him until he stopped hurting the man I loved.

I wanted to tell Neo right now, wanted to shout it across the distance between us just in case I didn't get another chance, but I knew it would just distract him, and that was the last thing he needed.

Neo raised his gun and pointed it at Roberto's head. "Says you.”

I stared into Neo's eyes, trying to send a message.

Do it. Put a fucking bullet in his brain and let the cards fall where they may.

And then, behind Neo, movement in the trees. I didn't know if Roberto saw it or if he was too fixated on Neo, but a second later a face came into view and I knew I wasn't imagining it.

It was Oscar.

Chapter65

Oscar

I'd run north like Neo had ordered, then looped back, crossing over the narrow path and back into the woods, hoping to find Willa, or at the very least to cut off some of the men chasing her.

It was like running through molasses, the cold slowing my movements, the dark making it impossible to see anything until it was right on top of me.

Which was why I was shocked to hear voices coming from the woods up ahead, and then, when I slowed my steps, I saw Neo's back visible through the trees.

I moved cautiously forward, and Roberto came into view.

But not just Roberto: Willa, held at the point of his knife.

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck.

If I tried to move around the area where they stood to get behind Roberto, I was almost certain to alert him to my presence, but if I stayed where I was, there wasn't fuck all I could do to help Willa.

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