He’s about to round the corner when I jump him, a hand across the mouth to stifle any screams or grunts. He fights back with a swift punch to my gut which startles me, but I don’t release hishead as he throws another, and another, his hard punches aimed at my ribs. After the fourth slam of his fist, I feel something crack.
I can’t breathe and my grip on him slackens.
He lunges away from me, swinging true at the same time, landing a hit against the side of my face that splits my lip. He goes for his weapon, but I manage to shake out of the fog and tackle him to the ground, his gun scattering across the dry earth, and thumping against the logs stacked in the hold at the side of the house. My hands wrap around his throat as I straddle the motherfucker, pressing down onto his windpipe. He stops trying to hurt me and instead tries to escape. But I was bigger than he was, weighed more and he can’t throw me off as I slowly strangle the life out of him.
It feels like forever passes by the time his body stops moving beneath me and his hands fall lifelessly away.
I drop at his side, my breath wheezing from my lungs as my ribs pull and throb. They are at least cracked, if not broken, and I can taste blood from my split lip.
But I can only rest for so long. The body can’t stay here.
I dropped him in the middle of the ocean. IborrowedTorin’s boat, the one that had been neglected in favor of using the newer one which was now destroyed, and took the body out to sea, throwing him overboard far enough away from the island, no one would ever see me do it, and I weighed his body down.
Now I’m on my way back to Ravenpeak, but I don’t plan on going back to the usual spot Torin hooks up his boat. The boat creaks and groans beneath me, making me wonder if it’s even seaworthy, and head for the dock where I know Vanessa will be.I’m so late. And the last thing I want is for her to think I’m not coming.
The light on the boat shines on her lonely figure, sitting cross legged in our normal spot.
The moment I’m able, I’m out of the boat and closing the gap between us. She stands up, “Kolten?”
“I’m late,” I grunt.
Her eyes widen, “You’re hurt!” Dainty fingers ghost over the split in my lip without ever touching, “What happened?”
I shake my head and grasp her small fingers in mine, “I’m fine.”
“Kolt,” She turns her whiskey eyes up, looking up at me from beneath her lashes and genuine concern shines there.
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
“Sit,” She orders softly.
She grasps my fingers and takes us a few short steps to the edge of the dock, but then she lets my hand go and the loss of it feels as painful as my ribs. She sits and dangles her feet off the edge, waiting expectedly for me to join her.
How quickly can addiction start? I wonder to myself as I gently lower myself down, expertly hiding my pain as my ribs jolt and pull with every move of my body.
Can it begin this quickly?
She turns to me, her eyes falling to the split lip and the dried blood. “Did you get into a fight?” She asks.
I shake my head. It wasn’t an answer as such, but a plea for her to drop it. I couldn’t tell her. I could never tell her.
She smooths her finger over the sting and my eyes close at the contact of her fingers on my lips. I wanted to know what her mouth would feel like, how she would taste.
Her hand drops but her eyes remain on my mouth. I can almost taste her, can almost feel her.
She leans in, her breath whispering against my lips. But then she shifts and places her hand against my injured side. It’s a shock, one I’m unable to stifle and my breath hisses between my teeth.
She jolts back, eyes wide, “There’s more!” She gasps, instantly going for the hem of my shirt.
“Vanessa,” I try to stop her but she’s persistent and drags my tee up, exposing the swollen and quickly bruising skin over my ribs. That motherfucker really did get me good.
It was worth the pain for my brother’s life, but the look on her face right now, guts me.
Her hand flies over her mouth to cover her gasp of horror.
If only she knew what I had done. This sympathy and willingness to spend time with me would soon disappear.
“We need to get you to a doctor!”
