Theo laughed and pulled away a little to see my face. “Sure, beautiful,” he said. “When we’re done here, I’ll buy you the biggest ice cream they have.”
I nodded. “I think I want to go home. To the UK.”
“Anything you want.” He kissed me firm on the mouth, soaked me in for a second, then walked back out of the utility room, his hand wrapped around my wrist. We needed to look upstairs now.
We continued through the hallway where Rafael had made me lie prone, but I felt nothing, only a tug in my belly from how Theo had wiped that bad memory away. His hackles ruffled too, and I remembered he’d told me he saw it. That he witnessed a lot of it.
“How well do you know the layout of this house?” I asked in a low whisper. “From the cameras?”
He turned to me for a split-second to answer, but that was all it took. As if from the shadows themselves, as Theo opened his mouth to reply, Rafe appeared, a knife wielded high above his head as he grabbed Theo and tried to plunge the blade into him.
“No!” I screamed, diving forward, uncaring of my safety. I had a weapon too, the knife I’d taken from Gabe, and it was going right into Rafael’s head. Where was his gun? He was rabid, frantic in a way that just made him seem broken.
Theo twisted at the last minute and managed to punch Rafael in the stomach, sending him back a step, but the man was manic. He came again, wide-eyed and foaming at the mouth.
“You’re all going to die!” he screamed. “I’m going to kill this fucker and take that baby!”
He was demented, insane. And both Theo and I grappled with his large frame. But the more I saw him like this, the smaller he seemed. A pathetic man through and through. It worked to wash away the last of the fear I felt toward him.
In the chaos, I lost track of myself, of Theo. It was dark, manic, and despite it being two on one, Rafe kept getting the upper hand on us. The only light came through the windows — flashes of moonlight, shadows cast by swaying trees outside.
“Violet!” Theo shouted when I tried to grapple Rafael on my own after he was thrown back.
Rafael’s knife sliced into my arm, gouging just under my inner elbow. I screamed and pushed, the sharp sting shocking me into distraction. Then Theo’s body was between us again, and he was raising a gun to fire, point-blank, into Rafael’s chest. A gun.
“Where did you get that?” I asked as I panted.
“Fucker had it shoved down the back of his pants,” Theo responded without looking at me. “Now, why would he do that? Maybe it isn’t loaded.” His tone was light, goading.
But another shove, another glint of a blade as Rafe waved it in front of himself. Somehow the man grappled the upper hand again, and lunged.
“Fuck you!” Theo shouted out in pain.
“Theo!” I screamed, trying to pull the men apart. This was supposed to be my fight, my devil to kill, my marriage to destroy.
Theo staggered back, taking a knife with him, the hilt sticking out right below his shoulder. Just a flesh wound, please, just a flesh wound. Our eyes locked, and he winked, yanking the blade free with a gush of blood. I grinned.
“Nothing to worry about,” he huffed to me before taking another step towards Rafael. But the man was defenseless now, and he was mine. No knife. No gun. What more did he have up his prissy white sleeves?
I stepped closer.
He waited until I was in his space to pull another gun from somewhere on his body and aim it at my head. I stammered to a stop, my heart halting. I could go, I could die, but if I did, so did Theo. So I would fight back for him, for his precious life.
“Don’t forget about the baby; it won’t survive if its incubator has no brain,” I lied. I lied my ass off, hoping that whatever triggered him before still worked. This man and his desperate need to spawn…
“Vi…” Theo croaked, scared to move. Still behind me.
Rafe’s eyes flickered from mine to my stomach and back before he scowled. “If it worked once, it can work again.” He adjusted the gun, pushed the barrel against my forehead, smirked, then turned it towards Theo.
“Which one first though? Who will suffer the most watching the other expire?” he mused.
He had to die; he had to. It was either me or him, but I didn’t know how to make it happen. I was so weak, my legs wobbling, my mind on fire, every little thing this man had ever done to me rolled around in my head as I tried to get that damned gun pointing away from me, away from Theo. Is that all he had? Two guns? No other plan?
I met Rafael’s eyes, heated and strong. No fear. No submission. He wasn’t better than me; he wasn’t scarier. He was stronger, but that was all. I could win. I had to.
But I didn’t. The gun turned back towards me, the barrel almost completely lined up with my face again.
I sucked in a deep breath.
