Page 25 of Beautifully Shattered
She has put way too much thought into this.
“You want to kill your sister?”
She nods. No hesitation.
“Mags is too far gone. Her first instinct was to drug me at that chapel so I’d stop fighting when my mum wanted to shove me into a wedding dress. Shehelpedthose men hold me down so my mum could get it on me.” Her voice is low, fast, and dripping with venom. “I tried to tell her the church is a cult, but she wouldn’t hear it. She’s just like my mum. Doesn’t see what Daniel and his friends did as rape. And then…” She throws her arms up in the air, her eyes wide in disbelief. “Then she offered herself up to marry Daniel instead of me after they found out I was already married. There was this whole weird discussion on bloodlines, and who the real father is… like they need to know who he is becauseonly hecan marry Maggie in my place, since Maggie shares the same blood as me.”
“The fuck?”
“I know, right?” she snaps, eyes blazing.
As fucked up as this conversation is, my heart fucking thrashes just knowing she’s finally talking to me.
“None of what that church has done is right,” she says, voice shaky but gaining strength, “but it wasn’t until I heard that conversation that I really realised it’s truly a cult. And they wanted my baby, Ringo. They wanted her for whatever fucked-up ceremony they were talking about. And I don’t think it was a wedding.”
“What?” I frown, shifting to my knees, moving to the edge of the mattress. And fuck, when she doesn’t shift away, that gives me hope that what we had is still there. “Do you think they were talking about… some sort of sacrifice or something?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice trembles as her gaze falls distant, like she’s trying to recall the memories. “Maggie said she’d sacrifice herself for the family…” Her eyes go wide and her breath catches. “You don’t think she meant… I mean, I thought she was referring to becoming a wife, but what if it was more than that? What ifIwas meant to be the sacrifice… or Bobbi was?”
I stare at my Angel for a long beat, my eyes wide with the horror of what she’s saying. It’s just too unbelievable to even consider, but fuck, isn’t that exactly how cults work? Twisting the sickest shit into some kind of holy order?
“I want to say it’s absurd,” I admit quietly as our eyes meet, “but the truth is… I don’t fucking know.”
She nods. “Same.”
Her brows pull together as she sinks into thought again.
“I wonder why they’re still after me,” she murmurs. “They came to the hospital to take me, not kill me. But why?” Her voice cracks. “Do they know Bobbi is…”
She doesn’t finish that sentence, and I don’t blame her.
Even on the best days, saying the words out loud is like a fucking knife to the centre of your chest.
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter,” she mutters, voice flat. “They are bad people. And they must die.”
Staring into her caramel gaze, I watch as whatever light had flickered in there moments ago, snuffs out again.
“I agree.” I nod. “They must, which is why I have a proposal for you.”
Her brows lift slightly, the smallest spark of curiosity catching in her eyes.
“I know you want to kill them yourself, but it’s too dangerous. So here’s what I’m thinking. You usemeas your weapon. We hunt them downtogether. And you watch while I make them pay. Every last one of them.”
She’s silent for a long beat, just staring at me. Her caramel eyes remain fused to my face like she’s trying to read between the lines. Trying to figure out if there’s a lie in them.
Then she speaks.
“I want to be the one to kill Daniel, Donny, Darnel and Ian Allenmyself.”
“But—”
“Take it or leave it,” she cuts me off, and I frown.
“I get Daniel, Donny and Darnel. They raped you. But why Ian? Whyhimtoo?”
The moment her eyes cloud over, glassy and distant, my gut fucking sinks.
Dread barrels into me like an eighteen-hundred-pound bull.
