“You stupid bitch!”
I’m blind with rage.
My chest heaves, racing heart pounding against my eardrums as the gun seems to vibrate in my hands. The heaping pile of shit on the floor is bleeding from the bullet graze at his thigh. My own blood trickles from my swelling nose and busted lip. There’s a ringing in my ears that’s wormed its way into my soul, and I know I’ll never get it out of my head.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wonder if the shot alerted the other trailers around us. However, I’m so entirely fixated on this bastard thatI. Don’t. Care.
And he’s going to admit everything he did before he takes his last breath.
“Say it again,” I utter, stepping forward.
Rad spits blood onto the ground, holding his arm. “Stupid fucking whore—”
My finger curls against the trigger again. The gun goes off, bullet lodging in his shoulder.
“Say why you thought you deserved me,” I go on.
Rad shouts in agony, cursing and clutching his shoulder, his chest heaving with every shortened breath. He glares my way,and I see it. I don’t know how I ever forgot it was him, his eyes, his voice. I can see him as clearly as I’ve ever seen anything now. There’s no denying it. Loathing stares back at me when our gazes meet, and only the fact that I want to hear him say what he did to me and to all the others stands between me and finishing this.
“Tell me that you thought I deserved to hurt,” I go on. “Tell me how you blamed me for your mistakes.”
Rad rolls his eyes. “It doesn’t matter what I think because you don’t matter. It was years ago. It isn’t like it actually hurt you. You couldn’t remember it anyway.”
I’m shaking.
“It didn’t… are you fuckingkidding me?!” I shout. “What about the other girls, huh? Did you think it wouldn’t hurt them either? Did you think that because they were wearing dresses that they were asking for it—”
“Those drunk slutswereasking for it—”
“No one ever asks for that!” I screech. “Tell me they were drunk again. Tell me they were nice to you, so you thought they wanted it. Tell me they were mean, and so they deserved to hurt. Tell me how they didn’t say no because they were barely conscious.Tell me their names.”
Rad scoffs. “I didn’t ask for their names. What does it matter now? They don’t remember—”
“We remember,” I say through my teeth, tears falling from my eyes. “We fuckingremember. You don’t have to have vivid descriptions to know how it felt to be violated like that. To have your safety ripped away. There’s always something in the back of your mind that you can’t shake.”
“You’re fucking dramatic,” he grunts.
“All of those women weresomeone. They all had names, friends, family. They were someone. And you collected and raped them like they were owed to you. Because you thoughtthere would be no consequence. So, here’s your fucking consequence.”
I press the barrel tip to his temple, making him flinch.
All the women he hurt… I channel all of that rage as I glower at him one last time and press the tip into his skin.
And just as I open my mouth to deliver the last words he’ll ever hear, he spits in my face.
Everything happens at once.
His blood and saliva hit my eyes. He snatches the gun from my hand with his good arm and pushes me backward. My back hits the table. I scramble to wipe my face. He’s on his knees. I see the barrel rising from the corner of my eye. I grab anything within my reach—a glass plate, a porcelain bowl—
I swing.
The bowl collides with the side of his head, shattering against it. He cries out, the noise shrill enough that I shudder.
Yet I can’t stop.
I take the plate and deliver a backhanded blow. It sends him off balance for a long enough second that I grab one of the broken shards from the ground and, as he loses his balance, I kick him in the chest.
“Sit down.Shut up,” I snap. “It’s just glass.”
