Page 148 of Mercy (The Sins Trilogy 3)
Chapter Fifty-One
Anthony
I keep my gun steady, refusing to look at Ivy. Need to keep my eyes on the target.
The bastard is standing exactly on the spot where Katherine was before she lost her life. Unlike her, he’s defiant, full of “you can’t touch me” arrogance.
Ivy whimpers, and flashes of memory insert themselves into the scene before me.
When my bullet tore through Katherine’s small body.
The wind sweeps through, rustling the branches heavy with leaves above. Like that day. It was so sunny, with a pleasant breeze. Katherine laughed and giggled as we wandered through the woods.
More wind weaves between trunks, scattering the laughter from the past. My heart is racing, palms slick. My heart raced back then too, palms damp with sweat. Deer hooves hit the ground, the thumps vibrating through the soles of my feet.
Couldn’t see it, couldn’t see it. But I heard it. I swore my heart knocked, synced to the deer’s leaps.
I shift, and my foot hits the low stump, hidden in the tall grass. My whole body turns icy, and my teeth want to clatter. It’s the same stump I stood next to when I pulled the trigger. Has to be.
“Tony… No.”
The small sob brings me back to the present. There’s dirt and grass in Ivy’s hair, scrapes on her shoulders and legs. Her face is almost bloodless.
Like Katherine’s when she bled out.
“Let her go,” I say, but my voice feels distant. Far away. There’s a child’s giggle crawling in my head. It echoes, over and over again. Endlessly. Maddeningly.
“So you can blow my brains out? Don’t think so.” An arrogant, superior laugh. “You know, when I overheard my dad talk about you killing your sister, I wondered how it felt to kill and get away with it. Now I know. Feels good. Powerful. In control.”
Except I wasn’t. I was at my most helpless. Out of control, full of terror. One wrong shot. One mistake. Irrevocable. Irreversible.
“Once you and your loony-tunes whore are in the bayou, that’s it for you. I’ll use the sympathy people have for the loss of my poor little wife. Use it as a stepping stone to greater and better things.”
No. Don’t you fucking let him win. Save Ivy. Save her the way you couldn’t save Katherine.
“Now if you don’t want me blowing her head clean off, you’d best put the gun down.”
No. Can’t. He’s going to shoot. Spill her blood. I have to find a way to stop him. Stop the killing.
He jams the end of the gun into her jaw hard enough to make her gasp.
Christ. Katherine made the same sound when she drew her last breath. A sheen of clammy sweat coats me. I shake the memory off. Focus.
“Well, all right, then. You want to see her brains all over the forest floor, I guess I can accommodate.”
“Wait!” My gut knots until I feel queasy with terror. I point the gun toward the sky. “Don’t!”
He gives me that “I’m in charge” laugh. “I said down, not up, partner. Do it slow.”
I crouch down, my eyes on him, and place the pistol on the ground. Grinning, he positions Ivy in front of him and rocks against her lewdly. Her expression is torn between terror and disgust.
Barely hanging on to rationality, I flex my knuckles, judging the distance. Too damn far for me to jump him.
“Stand up,” Caleb says. “I’m a fair man. I don’t shoot folks who are squattin’ down, unarmed.”
“Because shooting an unarmed man who is standing is better,” I say, disguising my fear for Ivy’s safety. But I know deep inside it doesn’t matter how the other person is positioned. When a bullet goes through…it makes a big, messy hole no matter what.
“Well, obviously.” He grins. “Here’s how this is gonna go. I shoot you first, then fuck this bitch over your corpse. Never have done that before. Think it’ll be hot.”
