Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 121996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
My gut wrenches as I remember those scars on his chest. I had assumed they were collateral damage from his work, but this is much darker than anything I could have imagined. Then there are those portraits on the wall along the third level. I thought they might be his family, but it must be a shrine to what he lost.
“His mistress hired someone to come to the house in the middle of the night while she was fucking him.” Gwen waves the needle in her hand theatrically. “While Alessio’s father was balls deep in that woman, a stranger was busy shooting his wife right in front of their children. When he finished with her, he moved onto the kids, but Alessio’s a survivor. He always has been. He took three bullets to the chest at ten years old. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that going through something like that changes a person. He stopped feeling. He stopped being human, I think. If it wasn’t for me taking him in, I don’t know what would have become of him. He’s like a son to me. Whether he understands it or not, I will always do what’s necessary to protect him.”
I want her to stop talking. I don’t want to hear anymore. As I walk backward, I realize I’m slowly running out of dock. I’ll have to do something soon.
“Don’t you want to know what happened to the poor delusional woman who thought she could have the man she loved to herself?” Gwen asks.
I shake my head slowly, trying to formulate a plan. I’ve had years of training. I’ve kept in shape, and I’ve prepared for every scenario I could imagine. Gwen doesn’t know that. I want to believe it gives me an edge, but the truth is, I know nothing about her skills either.
“Alessio’s father sold her out in the end,” she says wistfully. “They hanged her in a courtyard full of spectators. Her love for him didn’t save her, and your obsession with Alessio won’t save you.”
Without warning, she lunges at me, and I topple backward, dropping the rock as I fall. She follows, launching herself on top of me as she tries to plunge the needle into my neck. I grab her wrist with both hands, holding her off, but she’s stronger than I assumed.
“Give it up,” she snarls. “You can’t have this life.”
The image of Nino locked in the closet upstairs compels me to fight harder than I’ve ever fought in my life. Gwen underestimates that I’m a survivor too. I grapple with her, kneeing her in the gut and punching her in the side of the head with one of my fists. Instead of weakening her defenses, it only seems to drive her harder. She grabs my hair with one hand, entangling it in her claws before she slams my head down against the wood planks. Darkness flashes in my vision, disorienting me. I need to get a grip. I need to get control before she punctures my skin with the tip of that needle.
I reach up and sink my teeth into her forearm, biting down as hard as I can until I taste blood. She screams in agony, releasing her grip on my hair, and it gives me the moment of distraction I need to reach for the rock. It’s slippery in my grasp, but I hold on for dear life, heaving it up with all the strength I can muster until it collides with her skull. The first blow stuns her, and the second disarms her. The needle falls from her fingers, and she tries to fight me off with her hands. The rage inside of me has returned with a vengeance, and I can’t hold back anymore.
It isn’t Gwen I see as I roll on top of her and smash her face in with the rock. For all intents and purposes, she may as well be him. She knew about me. All this time, she knew, and instead of feeling a shred of humanity for what he did, she came here to destroy me.
I beat her face bloody, and at some point, her hands grow weaker. She’s still trying to fight, but she can’t even see me. There isn’t even a second that I consider letting her go. When the rock becomes too slick with her blood, I toss it aside and grab her by the hair, dragging her to the edge of the dock, I heave her shoulders over the edge. She lets out one last gurgle before I plunge her head under water and hold her there. I don’t know how long it goes on, but I keep her there until her body goes limp and everything falls silent. I’m more animal than human as I pull myself away, retrieving the needle she brought for me. It isn’t necessary at this point, but I’m not taking any chances. I stab it into the back of her neck, staring down at what I’ve done with an emptiness I haven’t felt in years. It isn’t him lying there, but I wish it were.