I ran for the door.
Almost made it.
His hand caught my hoodie, yanking me back so hard I fell. Hit the floor. The air knocked out of my lungs.
“You bitch!” he snarled, grabbing me, flipping me onto my stomach. His weight came down on top of me, pinning me. “You think you can tease me for months and then kick me? Nah. I’m taking what’s mine.”
His hands were at my jeans, yanking at the button, pulling them down.
“No! Stop! Please!”
“Shut up!” One hand pressed my face into the cold tile while the other worked at his belt.
This was it. This was how it ended. Raped on a kitchen floor by a man who’d been waiting for his chance.
My hand scrabbled across the tile. Searching. Desperate.
My fingers closed around something.
The knife. The one I’d been using to cut dough.
I grabbed it and twisted, swinging blindly behind me.
The blade connected with something soft. Something that gave way with a sickening resistance.
Larry screamed. A high-pitched, inhuman sound.
His weight lifted off me and I scrambled away, turning to see him clutching his face. Blood. So much blood. Pouring between his fingers.
The knife was still in my hand. Still covered in red.
I’d stabbed him in the eye.
“You crazy bitch!” he staggered backward, his hands over his ruined eye, blood streaming down his face.
He hit the side of the counter. Hard. The sharp corner catching the back of his skull with a sickening crack.
He dropped.
Just dropped like someone had cut his strings.
Hit the floor and didn’t move.
I stood there, frozen, the knife still in my trembling hand. Watching the blood pool beneath his head. Watching it spread across the white tile like spilled wine.
“Larry?” My voice came out small. Broken. “Larry, get up.”
He didn’t move.
“Get up. Please. Just get up.”
Nothing.
The knife clattered from my hand. I backed away, hitting the counter, my legs giving out. I slid down to the floor, my eyes locked on his body.
He was dead. I’d killed him. Oh God, I’d killed him.
My breath came in short, panicked gasps. My vision tunneled. My hands shook so violently I couldn’t make them stop.
