Page 88 of Riff

So I waited, knowing he was too far away to strike yet.

It wasn’t until he planted his arms on either side of my shoulders, caging me in, that I lifted the thing in my hand.

I didn’t even know what it was until I was whacking it into the side of Marshall’s head.

A wrench.

It hit with a sickening crack, making blood bloom from his temple as he let out a howl.

There was a second where hope swelled, but he didn’t move away from me.

He grabbed for the wrench, wrestling it out of my fingers, and tossing it toward the far corner of the van.

“You’ll pay for that,” he vowed, one hand pressed to his temple, a little streak of blood slipping from under his fingers.

A strange little sound escaped me, too quiet to be heard over the music, but I hated how weak it sounded.

It wasn’t over, damnit.

I could still get away.

I had to get away.

My hands felt around the floor around me, but there was nothing but dirt and grime.

Desperately, I reached for my own pockets, praying I had something in there. A key, maybe. Or a pen. Something that could be gouged into Marshall’s eye.

It wasn’t until my fingers closed around two tiny things that I remembered.

Judge and Delaney had brought their toddler over to the clubhouse when I’d just gotten in from a trip to the grocery store with Riff and Detroit.

The baby had rushed toward me, arms outstretched, wanting to be picked up.

I’d reached up, grabbing at my ears, pulling out the earrings, and tucking them safely in my pocket, so the baby didn’t grab them, didn’t somehow manage to open them.

And access the poison.

Poison.

Morgaine’s words came rushing back to me.

Each vial could kill a fucking elephant, she’d told me as she’d given me them.

I had to get it in an orifice, though, I recalled. The mouth, ideally. But the eyes could work in a pinch. Neither seemed easy, especially given our positions.

But I had it. I could use it.

Before anything got too bad.

I needed to get up.

Ideally, get him under me.

That would give me the right position to drop the poison in his mouth. Even if I just got it on his lips.

If a tiny vial would take out an elephant, a drop would have to be enough to make him sick or slow him down.

I had no idea what the poison did.

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