Page 48 of Queen of The Reapers
“Stop fucking lying!” I scream, pressing my hands against my head. This is all too much. There’s no way Alex died that night. There’s just no fucking way. Tears well in my eyes and I don’t even bother trying to stop them. Alex can’t be dead. She just fucking can’t be.
Jessie laughs, and the sound of her heartless cackle causes something inside of me to snap.
I leap across the table and pounce on her. My body slams against hers and we both fall to the floor with a loud thud. Wasting no time, I climb on her chest and wrap my hands around her throat, stopping her laugh in its tracks. Jessie smiles at me, and it only makes me want to squeeze her throat tighter. This is all a fucking game to her.
Squeezing her throat tighter, I jerk her head up and slam it back down. If she doesn’t want to tell me the truth, maybe I can beat it out of her. With her arms and legs still cuffed, Jessie is powerless to fight back. “Tell me the truth!” I scream, smashing her head against the floor again. She winces, but the gurgling laugh doesn’t stop. It only grows louder.
“I have.” Jessie croaks, flashing me a mocking smile even as her face is turning bright red. “You just refuse to accept it.” I release her throat and Jessie gasps, greedily pulling more air into her lungs.This bitch is absolutely unhinged.
Dimitri steps forward and crouches down beside me. “She isn’t scared, Kroshka.” He says, gripping her chin in his hand. “Look at her. Mocking you. Openly laughing about killing your sister.”
“She’s lying.” I hiss, staring back at him. “Alex is alive, and she knows something. She’s covering for someone.”
“Get the truth out of her.” He says, pulling a knife from his pocket and sliding it to me. “Make her tell you everything.”
I look down at Jessie and for the first time tonight; I see the look of fear in her eyes. He’s right. She wasn’t scared of me, that’s why she didn’t take my threat seriously, but thanks to the knife in my hand, she is now.
I dig my knees into her shoulders and press the icy blade against her throat. She whimpers and tries to wiggle out of my hold, but Dimitri grabs a hold of her legs and the fight within her dies. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t slit your fucking throat right now.” I hiss, looming over her.
“I didn’t kill her!” She exclaims, her chest heaving as tears well in her eyes. “I swear. I didn’t. I was fucking with you.”
Her words reek of desperation, but I finally feel the sincerity in them. Tears stream down her face as her desperate sob turns hysterical.
As pathetic as she looks, I don’t feel bad for her. She caused this, caused all of this. She lied to get a rise out of me and she should suffer for it.
“Where the fuck is she?” I hiss, digging the blade into her neck. It would be so easy to kill her. The knife is insanely sharp and even slight pressure will make it slide through her skin like butter.
Jessie flinches, and a trickle of blood seeps down her neck. “I don’t know.” She wails, trembling underneath me. “I swear to god, I don’t know anything.”
“Liar! You know something.” I scream, sinking the blade even deeper into her skin. More blood is seeping down her neck, but I don’t care. Even if she doesn’t know anything. I want her pain, I want her blood, and I want her fear. “Tell me what you know or so help me god —”
My words get cut short as the door crashes open and I see at least three sets of legs enter the room.Fuck.Time’s up.
I move to climb off of her, but before I can, I feel someone behind me yank me to my feet and painfully twist my wrist, forcing my knife to fall to the floor. Everything turns into chaos around me as the other voices around me rise, but it isn’t until I hear one distinct voice call out from the chaos that I realize just how fucked I am.
“Get her the fuck out of here.” Cyrus yells, glaring at me as he tends to Jessie’s throat. “Now.”
I assume he’s talking to Dimitri and I lock eyes with him for a brief second before a large chest blocks my view.Tristan.Tristan picks me up and roughly throws me over his shoulder. I don’t want to leave yet, but I can feel the anger radiating off of him, and I can’t bring myself to say anything to him. There’s nothing I can say.
As he pulls me from the room, my eyes linger on Jessie. She’s not moving, and the blood pooling underneath her is only growing larger.Shit. What did I do?This is bad. This is really fucking bad.
* * *
Tristan throwsme into the backseat of his Maserati and firmly slams the door. He refused to say a word to me as he escorted me out and, as he slips into the driver’s seat and shuts the door, it’s clear he still has nothing to say.
“How did you know where I was?” I ask, numbly staring at my stained hands. There’s blood all over them. Jessie’s blood.
Tristan clenches his jaw and lets out an exasperated sigh. “A t… tracker.” He says, glaring at me through his rearview mirror. “All of our cars have them.”
I say nothing in response. If I was thinking clearly, I would’ve figured as much, but everything happened so fast.
The passenger door opens, and Cyrus slides himself in before slamming the door shut behind him. He ignores my presence all together and looks at Tristan. “Did you get the text?” He asks, pulling out his cellphone.
Tristan gives him a quick nod.
“Good.” Cy replies. “I spoke with Winston. He said it’s fine if I leave the jeep here overnight, so we’re all good. Atlas is waiting. Let’s move.”
Tristan throws the car in reverse and pulls us out onto the main road. We drift past the lively streets of downtown and even though I’m shuffling around in my seat, neither of them bother to give me a second glance. I’m sitting behind them, but with how distant they’re acting, I may as well be on the other side of the planet.
