“I’m—”
“Nope, I get it. Just try for me, okay?”
I lean back against his chest and look up at him. “I’ll try.”
“This warehouse is big enough to house whatever you need, and I’m more than happy to have whatever you want built. I’m so proud of you and what you’ve become.” Burke’s arms circle my torso, and he nuzzles my neck.
He kisses my head and follows as Curt passes us. I turn around to face George. He’s awake again, and I’m glad to cause more pain.
“Ready to tell me why Bailey?” I grab the drill again and enter through the open door.
George stares through me, so I advance and start putting a hole through his other knee. The cracking of bones might be my new favourite sound.
The melody of his cries mixed with it is on another level and layers over the memory of what he did to her.
“She was closest to you,” he spits out.
“Wasn’t so fucking hard, now was it, Georgie?” I flip him off as I walk back to the table and pick up one of the pairing knives. “Wanna play a game?”
He shakes his head, and I wonder how someone so weak can instill so much fear. Be a man if you’re going to try and act like one.
“Too bad. I have the perfect one—you answer, and I don’t stab or cut something off. You don’t, and Georgie pieces end up on the floor.” I grab the wire cutters and head into the glass room.
Slipping the clippers into my back pocket, I trace the knife over his neck as I circle him.
“She was closest to me, but why did you need her?”
He doesn’t say a word, and I tilt my head to wait for an answer. When one doesn’t come, I dig the knife under the shell of his ear.
It lands with a thud after I cut through. He whimpers and strains against the rope.
“Now?”
“She was easy to manipulate. It didn’t take much to have her eating out of my hand. She was a means to an end.” Hearing those words enrages me. Bailey is my best friend, and he used her for his own sick needs.
“Why?”
“What’s the point, you fucking bitch? You’re gonna kill me.”
I give a slow nod and a casual shrug. "There are two ways this ends," I whisper from behind him, my voice low. "You can die quickly, or you can take your time. And me? I have all the fucking time in the world."
Holding his chin tight, I slide the blade over his nose. Cartilage is harder to slice through, but soon it falls off. Cutting off his nose to spite his face—an interesting take on revenge.
“What was your plan? Why did you take us?”
“I was planning on killing you. You can get revenge in two ways, you know.”
Puzzled, I stare at his bloody face. “For whom?”
George struggles against the restraints, but Curt has him tightly wrapped up. A better job than I did with Ryan.
Moving behind him, I fold over his shoulder and cut near his eye with no real precision or care.
“My father.”
Swallowing the bile in my throat, I close my eyes to try to remember, but nothing comes.
“Andrew?” I don’t remember any boy in his life, and it didn’t look like anyone was living with him, but we assumed.
