Page 10 of Last Hand

He didn’t make a sound. I lean back against the counter like I’m relaxed, though I can feel the tension in every muscle. He’s staring at me. I smile. Soft. Sweet. “You scared me.”

His gaze drifts to the phone on the charger. Then back to me.I move fast. Not away from him. Toward.

“I thought you were playing with the girls?” I ask, as his hands grip my waist too harshly.

“I came to get my phone,” he murmurs, peering down at me, and my heart thuds in my chest so fast I can almost hear it.

My hand slides up his chest, fingers grazing the edge of his collarbone. “I was just thinking,” I murmur, eyes flicking up to his, “maybe I could take the girls to the park today? Just for an hour.”

His mouth twitches. “I’m busy,” he says. “I can’t today.”

“I can take them.” I press, trailing my hand up his neck. “They’ve been stuck here all week.”

He grabs my wrist harshly. “No.” A gasp escapes me as his grip becomes crushing; his fingers, I know, will leave bruises; ones I will have to try to hide from the girls.

My chest tightens, so I nod. “Okay.”

His grip relaxes. Then his tone shifts. “But I have a job for you.”

I go still. “What kind of job?” I ask, moving away to my cold coffee, before I can reach for it, he grabs me, spinning to face him so he can press me into the counter.

His eyes darken. “The girl in the basement. She’s coming up today. You’ll sit with her, Leone wants proof she is alive.”

My stomach drops. Fallon. He is letting her out?

“What’s going on?” I ask too fast. “Why is she coming upstairs?”

His gaze hardens. “That’s not your concern. You’ll watch her. Or I’ll make you watch while I fuck her in her tight ass.” Bile rises up my throat at his words, and he reaches for his phone. “I will bring her up when I’m done.”

“Done doing what?” I blurt in panic, and within seconds, his hand is around my throat.

“You dare question me?” I shake my head, and he watches my face carefully before leaning down to press his lips to mine briefly. “Get the girls inside while I handle this; it’s almost time for lunch.”

THREE

Fallon

After the first couple of days, time loses all meaning. The days blur together, each one a repeat of the last. The only sign of life is the occasional tray of food slid through a small slot in the door—barely enough to keep me alive.

At night, when the cold becomes unbearable, and my stomach feels like it’s eating itself from the inside out, I sing. It’s the only thing that keeps me from losing myself in the dark, the only way to drown out the silence that threatens to drive me mad. Just like Grandma would drive me crazy, taunting me through the closed door.

“In the dark where shadows creep,

Little firefly takes her leap,

Wings aglow, she dances light,

Unaware of the spider’s sight.”

My voice is soft and trembling. Right now, it’s all I have. The words echo off the stone walls, filling the empty space witha haunting melody. It’s a song from my childhood, a rhyme my father used to sing to me when we played in the dark.

“Where shadows sway, and critters play,

A spider waits to snatch its prey,

Spinning webs, so soft, so tight,

Lurking there, just out of sight.”

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