Page 785 of Coal Hearts

I slowed again. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying...” He grinned. “He managed to turn the scrambler off for a few seconds the other night.” He grabbed my elbow and squeezed. “We called your—”

“Stop. Stop!” a girl begged. “You’re killing her!”

The scream wrenched my head to the side.

My heart stopped.

Roland.

He stood over a jewel, his thumb punched on his electricity remote.

The girl on the ground twitched and jerked, white foam appearing on her lips.

Another jewel, a petite blonde, scratched and clawed at Roland, sobbing for him to stop. She weighed a fraction of what he did. To him, she was nothing more than an insect.

He laughed and backhanded her, his bulk jiggling with the motion.

I didn’t even think.

Swallowing a roar, I clutched my gun and sprinted toward the sick fuck who’d gotten me into this nightmare. All those dinners I’d had to pretend I liked him, getting his trust to be introduced to Victor. All those nights I’d had to sit in his basement watching snuff films where poor kids—

My stomach roiled.

Raising my gun, I aimed—

The blonde leaped up and threw herself on him again. “Stop hurting her!”

You’re in the fucking way!

Lowering my weapon, I ran closer.

With how shaky my arms were, I’d end up shooting her instead.

“No one can hear you. No one cares.” Roland smirked, grabbing the girl’s arms and wrenching her off him. “You’re going to die, and I’m going to fuck you while you do.”

“Help!” the blonde yelled. “Help us!”

Roland just laughed.

He didn’t see me, too absorbed with finally letting his fetish out to play. Removing his thumb from the remote, he shoved it into his pocket and unbuckled his pants. Smiling like a fucking monster, he punched the girl trying to hurt him and stomped on the leg of the one moaning and barely conscious on the ground.

A bone snapped.

The girl screeched.

Roland dropped to his knees and yanked his cock out, his hands reaching for the girl to rape her, suffocate her, fuck her into death just like all those films he’d made me watch.

I lost it.

Shifting the gun in my hands, I sparked with fire and surged with power.

All that pain Victor had given me. All that pain my father had made me deliver.

It twisted and mutated, and that phenomenon where a human being became something else gushed through me.

Hysterical strength poured free.