Kiera grabbed it at once.
Cold metal burned her palms but she didn’t let go. Instead, she gripped it in both hands, awkward because of the rope around her wrists, and held it out in front of her like a weapon.
“Stay back,” she said in a trembling voice. “Stay away from me, you sick fuck or I swear I’ll use this on you!”
Higgs just laughed.
“Oh, that’s cute, girly–real cute.”
“I mean it!” Kiera said, though her voice shook. “Stay the hell away from me!”
He took another step forward waving the rusty knife.
“Now why would I do that? You and me are gonna have some fun together–lots of fun before I hang you on a meat hook with the others.”
Kiera swallowed hard. Threats weren’t working–she had to try something else.
“Higgs,” she said, forcing herself to keep talking because if she stopped, she thought she might scream. “You don’t want to do this.”
He snorted–white vapor coming from his wide nostrils.
“Oh, don’t I?”
“No,” Kiera said quickly. “No, you really don’t. Because people know I’m missing.”
That was probably a lie, but she said it anyway.
“Iyanna–my friend–is coming to get me. She’ll be at the sanctuary any minute and when she finds out I’m gone?—”
Higgs rolled his eyes.
“Oh, please. Nobody’s coming for you, girly.”
“They are too,” Kiera said, tightening her grip on the hook. “And if you hurt me, Commander Rarev and the whole Monstrum Mother Ship will come down on you like a ton of bricks.”
That made him hesitate for the tiniest fraction of a second. It wasn’t much, but it was enough–Kiera saw it and lunged.
It wasn’t a graceful fight move like you saw in the movies–she had a PhD in Zoology–not in martial arts and she wasn’t trained in self—defense, although now she wished she’d taken a few classes back on Earth. She was half—frozen, tied up, terrified, and working on adrenaline and the pure refusal to die in a slaughter freezer.
It wasn’t elegant, but the hook in her hands had a sharp point, and she drove it at Higgs with everything she had.
He jerked sideways with a curse, and it scraped across the front of his overalls, tearing fabric and scoring a line in the bumpy green skin beneath.
Higgs roared.
“You bitch!”
He came at her then for real, the rusty knife flashing in the flickering overhead lights.
Kiera tried to swing the hook again, but he caught her wrists in one huge hand and slammed them down against the steel table. Pain shot up her arms and the hook slipped and clanged to the concrete floor.
“No!” she cried, and threw a knee at him.
Her knee connected with his thigh…which might as well have been a wall.
“Oh yes, girly,” Higgs snarled and shoved her hard.
Kiera lost her footing on the slick, freezing floor and went down, striking her hip and shoulder against the concrete with a cry.
