Page 70 of Tempt Me

Fallon wasn’t fighting me anymore. Her form of mania had completely stalled because of the sound of that cry in the distance.

“Xavy!” She shouted, running at the muddy wall mound where we were trapped. Her feet kept sliding down, but she kept trying over and over to climb up the terrain.

“Stop,” I said in a calmer tone that I had felt all night.

It still killed me to look at the bruises on her body, knowing my own fucking hands were the cause.

“Let me help you, Little Voyeur.”

She looked back over her shoulder and glared at me. “Fuck off, nut case.”

I deserved that.

After a few more failed attempts, I couldn’t take it anymore. I judged the height of the hole. I could see the ground at my eye level, but barely. Sighing, I picked up the manic woman and accepted her flailing and smacking my body.

“Hold the fuck still before your ass is slammed back into the mud, and that baby has to wait even longer,” I said, my tone not leaving room for argument.

I was so damn tired.

She stilled for a minute while I adjusted her over my head.

“But w-wait!”

I threw her back onto the solid ground, her body sliding on the mud like a water slide.

I couldn’t get out.

I was stuck in this fucking hole.

She wasn’t strong enough to pull me out, and there was zero chance of me getting my seven-foot four-inch ass up the mound.

The best I could do was watch her from the grave and nod my head in respect to the body of her fallen family member.

That killer was a fucked up individual. I knew‘crazy’. I ate potato surprise withcrazyfor six fucking years, but not even Hospital Twelve housed whackos that cut babies out of people and then killed the mother.

We may all be criminals, but even nutballs had a code of honor-well, except Kristiyan, Everett, Joe, and all the other fucked to hell fruit loops in the sensitive unit. They were barely even human beings anymore, so caring about a soul would mean having at least a hint of one.

Joe…

That fucking asshole made my head spin. To imply that Ariah…and my sweet Little Flower weren’t one of his many trophies was asinine! He was never shy to brag about his kills. Hell, he whispered the fucking names in my ears as I slept.

Every damn person he’d touched for the six years I had known him, he would list off in my ear! Joe was practically born at Hospital Twelve. He was there before, and a good majority of even the oldest staff was there. It wasn’t like I could call up ‘four-one-one’ and inquire who he disposed of while he was alive.

“I hate you.” I breathed into the wind. I don’t know if I was talking to Joe…or myself.

To admit that the fuckhead was telling me the truth was unthinkable. If he didn’t kill the love of my life and my wife…then who did?

The thought chilled me even more than the crying in the night that increased in volume.

I called out to Fallon, angered that I couldn’t get out of here and fucking help her.

What if the killer was using the baby as bait?

What if it was a recording or some other baby?

Did they know we were here?

She had been yelling my fucking ear off, so it wasn’t like anyone within a close distance couldn’t hear us.

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