Page 82 of Burn Me Down

“I didn’t even know you had a son,” I said. “The fucker tried to mug me with a gun to my head. He was lucky that all I did was burn him alive. Good parenting there, Adam. Maybe if his father hadn’t brutally killed his mother, he wouldn’t have been the butt of everyone’s jokes and bullying, and he wouldn’t have ended up in that park with me that night.”

Adam’s smirk fell. “You’re pretty arrogant considering the circumstances.” He pulled a knife from behind his back and pointed it at me.

“Can’t handle the truth?” I took a step forward. “You think I went looking for a child I didn’t know you had? Why would I do that, Adam? I had no interest in laying eyes on you ever again.”

“It doesn’t matter how it happened. It only matters that you killed him. I had plans to fix what I’d done. He was my son,” Adam said with a growl.

“What? Help him into an early grave? Do you really think he would’ve wanted anything to do with you after everything you did? The kid was a junkie,” I snarled. “I saw it in his eyes. He’d already given up but didn’t have the balls to take his own life. I helped him. I finished what you started when you killed his mother and got caught. You sealed his death certificate years earlier, I just happed to be the executioner.”

“Are you trying to make me angry? Get me to attack you instead?” He lifted the lighter but didn’t spark it.

“I’m only telling you the truth. You can smell a lie. Look into my eyes and tell me what you see.” He didn’t say anything, his nostrils flaring. The only emotion Adam ever showed was anger, and I was getting under his skin regardless of what he said. “Besides, you won’t kill her.”

Adam narrowed his eyes at me. Did he really love his son? Or was he getting back at me simply because? I couldn’t tell. I’d always assumed he was a psychopath and couldn’t feel love. Then again, he could be bored and wanted a challenge. Who really knew with Adam?

“I will play along. Why is it you think I won’t kill her?” He looked down at the barrel, and years of torment bubbled to the surface, my lip pulling up in a snarl. “I agree, she wouldn’t be as pretty burning as covered in blood…let’s hear it, what is your reasoning?”

I took another step toward him. The blade from my long knife pressed into the back of my arm, reminding me that killing him was the goal, but it wasn’t the only goal. Beck needed to remain safe. That came first. Begging him would do nothing. It would be a sign of weakness, and he’d kill us both.

“I know because the one thing you made clear in group was that you had kept all of your promises, but one, and it still ate at you. I’ve done a little digging and I’m going to take a guess that you promised your wife that you’d never kill her. She held all your secrets, and kept her word, but you did keep yours. In a fit of rage you lost control and murdered her in front of your child, and then you couldn’t take it back.” His eyes shifted from Beck up to me, and I’d definitely hit a nerve. I’d read over every news article I could find and pieced together what I figured happened. Whether he’d been able to love his wife or not was irrelevant. The important fact was that he had things he valued, and his word was one of them.

“Your son had to suffer the wrath of the public justice system before his mother’s body was in the ground because you didn’t keep your promise. Your word binds you, and if broken, there are consequences. Isn’t that right?”

“I don’t see what any of this has to do with me killing her,” Adam said.

“Because the night I set you free from this very spot, you promised me that you would do one favor for me. You said that you owed me one for setting you free.” I held up my finger. “And I’m calling in that favor. You don’t hurt her.”

“Son of a bitch,” Adam said, the sound like a hiss as he pushed the air through his teeth. “You knew that no matter what I did, you’d call in the favor.”

“I know I will always choose her life over mine. Make it an exchange since you only owe me one favor. I’m the one you really want anyway. I took your son’s life. I watched him burn as he begged me to help him. I did that. It was all me. So my favor is you don’t hurt her, but I will give myself up to you, and you can do whatever you want to me instead.” I looked at the can, and Beck was yelling at me not to do it. Her eyes were frantic and furious with me.

The sound was muffled, but I understood every word, and no matter what happened, I would remember how she didn’t want me to swap with her. She was an incredible person, and I was lucky to have her for a single minute, let alone the time we had together. My heart was finally unshackled from all that had held me back, marked me, and tied me to an abusive past. The ghosts the held on tight were finally set free.

“Burning people isn’t your thing. I’m offering to go willingly, to do whatever you want. Put me on display and show the world that you caught the notorious Dragon that killed more than you ever could before you die,” I said and lowered myself down to my knees. “My soul will be yours, and I’m a much more worthy adversary than her,” I said, trying to play on his ego. He still looked torn, and I needed him to lower his arm before I could act. “If you think you’re hurting me by hurting her, then yes. I can’t lie. It would hurt for a time, but this is me, Adam. You know my heart blackened long ago, and I’m incapable of love so deep that it would destroy me.”

“And yet you are on your knees,” he said, and I smiled.

“Because I don’t want yet another person's death on my soul before I’m dragged to hell. In the end, I’ll walk away and make a new life. Even if you try to destroy that one, I will smile in your face and move on. That’s who I am, and at some point I’ll see you coming and it will be you in the barrel,” I said and prayed that Beck didn’t believe me and saw through my act. She was the only one who could, and it took everything in me to keep my eyes firmly on Adam’s face.

I could tell that he was thinking it over even as he rolled his thumb over the igniter wheel, little sparks jumping with every touch. My heart lurched in my chest as the seconds ticked on. I dared a glance at Beck, her soft grey eyes shining at me in the darkness.

“You know, I think it’s time I gave all that shit up. It never got me anywhere.” His eyes turned dark as he looked down at me. “I’ll kill you both now.”

As his thumb went for the igniter, I flicked the knife in my hand and threw it at Adam. Leaping up, I ran the remaining distance following the path of my blade and watched as it hit his hand, sending the lit lighter flying just before I tackled him.

There was a woosh and a roar as the lighter hit the ground, and I realized he had strips of accelerant in long lines. I watched it streak away but knew there would be more.

Driving my knee up into Adam’s gut, I winded him long enough to roll and kick the can Beck was in over on its side.

“Go! Before the fire comes back this way, run Beck. Get the fuck out of here,” I yelled before Adam wrapped his arm around my throat. I drove my elbow back and into his side but caught the glimmer of a blade as his hand came for my face. I grabbed his wrist and held him off as I stared at the barrel, watching as Beck wiggled herself out.

He’d taped her legs together with her arms bound behind her back.

“Fucker.”

For Adam’s wiry build, he was very fucking strong, his arm like a boa constrictor around my neck. I grabbed one finger on the hand by my throat and yanked back as hard as I could. The snapping sound and yell told me I’d broken it. His arm loosened a little, and I grabbed the next one and did the same. My other arm shook with the effort trying to hold off the knife and the awkward position.

“Ah!” I pried his arm off my throat, only to have him wrap his legs around my waist. That was enough of this shit. Giving up the arm around my throat, I sucked in a deep breath and concentrated on the hand with the knife as I stood. He clung to me like I was giving him a piggyback ride.