Page 86 of Cyber Revenge

“You made me like this.”

“Patrick…” I breathe out.

“You ruined me.” I don’t see the blade until it’s too late. The cold steel pierces my side, sliding between my ribs with sickening ease.

The pain is instant.Blinding.

I gasp, my body jerking as the blade twists, the searing heat spreading through my veins like fire. Patrick’s face is close to mine, his eyes wild, his breath ragged.

“Now…” His voice barely above a whisper. “You can ruinhim,too.”

The world tilts. The ground feels so far away as I crumple, my legs giving out beneath me. Patrick lets me go, and I hit the concrete hard, the pain blooming through my body as my vision blurs.

Blood.

So much blood.

It pools beneath me, warm and sticky, soaking into the cracks of the patio. I blink, trying to stay conscious, but everything is slipping.

Patrick crouches beside me, his eyes cold and detached as he drags his finger through my blood.

“Almost forgot,” he murmurs, his lips curling. I watch, helpless, as he smears the words across the concrete.

“You always cause them to die.”

My body is numb. My thoughts are fading. But the last thing I see… The last thing Ifeel…Is the distant hum of an engine.

Trip.

Coming home. Coming back to me. But it’s too late. Patrick’s already gone.

And I’m fading.

THIRTY-THREE

TRIP

The blood won’t come off. No matter how hard I scrub, no matter how much I drag my nails across my skin, her blood clings to me like it’s part of me now.

Embedded.

Permanent.

It soaks into the cracks of the concrete where she bled and bled and bled, and I can still see it there in the back of my mind. Every time I close my eyes, I see her lying there, fading.

Slipping away from me. Her skin pale, her body growing cold. Her blood on my hands.

It doesn’t matter that the paramedics had gotten to her in time. It doesn’t matter that she’s alive, that I held her while she whispered my name and begged me not to leave her.

None of it matters because he touched her. He almost took her from me. And for that, there’s no forgiveness.

No mercy.

I stand in the garage, the dim light casting long shadows across the weapons I’ve laid out with meticulous care. My gear is ready. I’ve been ready for this moment since the second I found her bleeding out on that fucking patio.

I’m not holding back anymore. Not this time.

The mask is first. It slides over my face like a second skin, molding to me, transforming me.

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