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Welcome to your final night, Antonio.

When he doesn’t answer, I move on to step two, leaning over the side to scrape the blade jarringly over the glass. Antonio can ignore me, but I can do this all night, because while he’s focused on me, he’s not hurting Sasha or Sammy.

That knot twists tighter.

I hope.

Matt whistles from his vantage point in the trees, signaling that everything is still okay inside, and that helps me stick to the plan. Fractionally. Slow and steady. Mind games. Making Antonio regret that he’d ever come to the End.

The screech of metal against glass comes again and again. I ring the house with it, wanting him to think that I’m everywhere.

From behind me, Jeffrey’s phone rings, the tinny tune too loud and upbeat for the dark forest. It cuts off mid-ring, and the silence that follows it is somehow deeper than before.

There are heavy footsteps inside, and this time when Matt whistles, the warning shoots fear through me.

What the fuck is going on in that house?

A thump follows the footsteps, and my panic finally takes hold. No step three. No careful planning.

This ends now.

I drop from the roof onto the porch, pull out both of my knives, and then kick the fucking door in. It flies back with the sound of splintering wood, and almost instantly, a gun goes off, and a bullet flies right past my shoulder.

I don’t stop to take note of the room, just follow the beat of my steady heart in my ears as I bolt toward my target. He lines up his aim, and right as he gets his shot off, Sasha tackles him from behind. The sharp sound sends a full-body flinch through me, but I narrow in on him. See red. Watch the way he turns the gun toward Sasha … and kick it so hard out of his hand, I swear I hear something break.

“Motherfucker!” he shouts, turning to find his gun.

But he’s never touching that thing again.

Sasha’s looking at me in horror, and I think he gasps my name as I shove him aside and pin Antonio with my own body. He aims a punch at my head, but I knock his fist away with the kukri as my machete meets his throat.

Antonio freezes when he feels me break skin. “You don’t want to do that,” he chokes out.

The fear in his eyes makes me smile. “I’d lie and agree with you, but then we’d both be assholes.”

“I’m just here to get what’s been stolen from me. That’s all.”

“Should have let it go.” I press the tip of the kukri to his stomach. “I warned you what would happen if I saw you again.”

The fear increases as he works out exactly who he’s dealing with. And maybe that should make me happier. Maybe that should fill me with a surge of power that would help me finish this damn thing, but instead … dread twists around my windpipe.

When I look into his eyes, I see evil. True evil. The kind of evil I witnessed way too young and have carried with me every day since.

“L-Lynx?” Sammy gasps from somewhere across the room. “Are you going to do it?”

“Please leave.”

“But—”

“You did your part. Now you need to go.” Because there’s no way that I’m letting Sammy carry this evil with her too. I’ve trained my cubs all these years to be able to survive exactly the type of man Antonio is, but I always hoped they’d never have to.

But I know his type. They infect even the furthest corners of the world. The small, quiet, peaceful places are never left to be quiet and peaceful for long. It’s not fair. It’s not fucking fair.

“Lynx …”

“Out,” I snap. “Now.”

She leaves, and I should feel relief, but there’s nothing.