Page 64 of Slay King

Rumor

I had taken the fork that had been brought with my meal and slid it underneath the blanket before putting my napkin haphazardly over my plate after I finished. When the maid came to take my plate, she didn’t even notice the missing utensil. Sitting on the bed, I kept my hand wrapped around it, reminding myself I had something, that I wouldn’t be helpless.

I considered hiding it and going in search of something more, maybe a knife, but I hadn’t worked up the nerve just yet. The thought that I might do something that would make Falcon start beating me sooner kept me here.

There was a strange sound in the hallway, and I tensed. Had they realized I’d kept the fork? A loud thud startled me, and I shot up from the bed where I was sitting with the fork gripped tightly in my right hand. I started to run to the bathroom when the bedroom door swung open, and a man came stalking in with a bloody knife in his hand. I froze, staring at him in horror. There were two red sprays over his shirt that could only be blood.

“Rumor?” he asked with a cocked brow.

I glanced at the bathroom door again, knowing I couldn’t get there in time. So, I held up my fork, which was ridiculous, considering he had a terrifying knife that he’d used recently on someone’s vital arteries, if I had to guess.

The man’s face was misleading. If he’d walked in here without being covered in blood and a knife, I’d have thought he’d come from a photo shoot. He didn’t look like a man who sliced people open, but then what did I know?

His smirk as he looked at the fork in my hand didn’t surprise me. It was rather pathetic.

“A fighter. That’s good,” he drawled. “If it makes you feel better, keep your fork, but I’ll handle anyone who comes at us, yeah?” He nodded his head toward the door. “You ready to blow this joint?”

I lowered my hand. “Who are you?” I asked, afraid to be hopeful.

“The calvary. Let’s go,” he said, then turned and headed for the door.

I glanced back at the room and decided I was going with the crazy knife man. When I got to the door, there was a man lying on the ground with a slit in his neck and lifeless eyes staring at nothing as blood pooled on the floor around him.

I lifted my horrified gaze to the man who was responsible for it, and he grinned, then winked at me. Was this man insane? Perhaps I was making a mistake. He started down the hallway, and I jumped over the blood and hurried after him. Insane or not, he was clearly getting me out of here. I’d worry about who he was and why he was here to get me once I got out.

When we reached the stairs, there were two more dead men, and one was missing eyeballs. I covered my mouth to silence the scream I couldn’t stop.

Oh God. Oh God. Where were his eyes? I was going to be sick.

“Don’t look at it,” the insane man I was following called back to me as he kicked the first dead man out of the way and continued down like this wasn’t a living horror show.

I almost cried out in relief at the sight of Storm as he walked into the foyer.

He took in the dead men on the stairs and gave the man with me a disgusted look. “His eyes? Really?”

The man who I was following shrugged. “He pissed me off,” he replied, then pulled something from his pocket and tossed two eyeballs into the air before catching them with a chuckle.

“Jesus, Gage,” Storm muttered, then turned to me. “You okay?”

He knew the psychopath that I was with. Thank God!

I nodded, fighting back the emotion clogging my throat.

He walked over to me and held out a hand as I hurried down the stairs, passing the man he had called Gage. They had come for me. This was … this was the family’s doing. For me.

“Where’s King?” I asked.

“He’d be here. That’s on me. But I found you,” Gage said behind me.

He wasn’t here? My heart sank, and the burn in my eyes only got worse as a tear broke free and rolled down my face. Was he still with Scotlin?

My hand went to my stomach, and I tried to take a deep breath to calm down. I was okay. We were safe.

“Where are the others?” Gage asked.

“Blaise put a bullet in Falcon’s head and chest. Huck broke Tabor’s neck. The others that you didn’t slice up have been taken down,” Storm informed him. “I’m taking her with me.”

Tabor was dead? They’d broken his neck? My stomach rolled, and I turned before bending over and throwing up the food I’d been fed earlier.

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