Page 233 of Ruin My Life
I clutch the knife to my chest, smearing blood across my shirt as I half-crawl to the wall. I press my back against the plaster, positioning myself just beyond the hallway’s mouth. My breath rattles in shallow pants. The stench of lighter fluid claws at my throat, thick and caustic.
Then I hear him.
Heavy footsteps. Unrushed. Confident.
A hunter returning to finish his kill.
I steel myself. Count the steps.
Three. Two…
He steps into the living room.
I lunge.
My blade slices through the air, aiming for his shoulder—but he’s fast. Faster than I gambled. He catches my wrist mid-swing and yanks me forward, flinging me to the floor like a rag doll.
My body slams into the carpet. Pain detonates through my gut. A scream tears out as he pins me down, both wrists wrenched above my head, his weight crushing the breath from my lungs.
“Still as feisty as the day we met,” he murmurs, voice slick as spilled oil. He presses the barrel of his gun to my chest—right over my scar. “Don’t forget whomadeyou what you are, Brie.”
I bare my teeth, my chest heaving.
“You did.”
And I slam my knee into his groin.
He grunts, folding forward. That second is all I need.
I twist, ignoring my own agony and rolling us over. I claw my way on top of him, slam his arm to the floor—gun and all—and pin it down with every scrap of strength I have left.
“You turned me into a monster,” I hiss, blood dripping from my stomach onto his shirt. “But you know what? I think I’ve learned tolikebeing a monster—especially when it means I get to kill people like you.”
He laughs—a raw, ragged sound, more animal than human. “Try,Black Rose. We both know you’re no match. I could’ve ended you six months ago. Iletyou live.”
“You had your chance to shoot me,” I snarl, my eyes burning into his. “I won’t give you a second.”
His eyes spark—rage, delight, madness. All at once. It chills me to the bone.
“Good thing I don’t need to shoot you to kill you,” he rasps.
He wrenches his wrist sideways.
The gun jerks up—
BANG!
The shot blows out the wall sconce above us. Glass rains down in a shower of sparks. I roll off him just in time, shielding my face.
The fire catches instantly.
The sparks kiss the lighter fluid trail like it’s been waiting just for them.
And the roomerupts.
Flames race up the walls, crawl across the carpet, swallow the furniture whole. Heat slams into me like a freight train, and smoke coils thick and fast, choking out the air.
Within seconds, the entire front of the house is burning.
