Page 34 of A Christmas to Die For
"Stuff yous was lookin' into."
"About Romee Anderson?"
He nods, fast and eager, like I'm finally catching up.
"Does your son know what you've been up to?"
"That boy don't know a damn thing!" he shouts.
I flinch, my muscles seizing up again, bracing for the knife to pierce my skin.
But then, it's like a curtain drops behind his eyes, and whatever he was clinging to vanishes.
The knife falls between us with a dull clatter.
"Dawn, you came back for me?"
Oh, God, he thinks I'm my mother.
But pity won't save me now. The weapon lies useless at our feet.
I have to move. I sidestep him, shoving him as I go—harder than I mean to. And instantly, I know it's a mistake.
"Dawn, why you runnin'? Please, stay… with me!"
His voice is both pleading and possessive, crawling under my skin. He's already coming, too fast, closing the space between us in an instant.
The room is too damn small.
I slam myself against the locked door, hammering my fists into it, screaming—a raw, feral sound I don't even recognize as my own.
I'm not yelling for help. I'm howling like prey that already felt the teeth of its predator.
Albert's hands clamp around my biceps, his words frantic. "Dawn, I won't let you go again! I won't let you go!"
"My name isMara!" I scream.
He's strong for an older man. I don't want to hurt him,not exactly, but I need him to let me go.
Then his cracked, dry lips smash into mine, and I snap.
"Stop!" My scream splits the air in two as I drive both hands into his shoulders, throwing everything I have into it—panic, disgust, fear.
He stumbles backward, off-balance. It's like watching a tree fall in slow motion.
His head strikes the fireplace hearth with a sickening crack.
The sound doesn't echo, and he doesn't so much as move or react to it.
Oh my God, I think Ikilled him.
"Sabrina!"Her name tears from my throat that begins to burn.
No footsteps echo past the broken, locked door. No voice answers. Just me, my fists pounding against the wood, frantic, useless.
Even my breath feels too loud. The closer I get to the door, the more I feel it, the more I taste it.
Whatever Sabrina breathed in, I'm about to do the same. And I'll end up just like her.
