Page 48 of Wolf.e

Tears come. They’re burying that man out there right now. His brain matter splattering against the wall behind him flashes through my mind and I feel instantly sick. I move to the toilet and hang my head over it, waiting for my stomach to empty any second.

“Ax went back to the party. We told him to. He can’t be absent from his own wedding,” Jake says.

“Good,” Gabriel says. I hear the amusement in his voice as he adds, “Give him the night off.”

“We’ll put him in the ground. See you back here in two hours, yeah?” Gabriel confirms.

“Yeah, man, give or take a few, depending. I’m gonna take the backroads in the van, and hey, uh, you gonna take care of that in there? Need any help?” he asks.

Fear ripples up my spine with another wave of nausea when I realize he’s talking about me. I’m that.

“I’ve got it covered,” Gabriel answers.

I hear Jake chuckle. “Fuck, it’s not like you to let pussy cloud your judgement. She watched you pull the trigger and she’s a prim and proper little sprite. She’ll go straight to the cops.”

“Enough,” Gabriel snarls angrily. “I said I’ve got it.”

“Yeah, yeah, gotcha, bro. Just gonna have a little fun first?” His laughter booms, but I don’t hear Gabriel’s response.

I throw up violently. I could make it off this island alive, but what I’m hearing is that they still want me dead. They don’t trust me at all, and I know that means I’m a threat.

I flush the toilet and lean against the cool bathtub. It soothes me.

Fire like I’ve never felt rises in my belly.

I will not go down without a fight. I will figure this out.

I stand and brush my teeth, then take a deep breath as I hear the rumble of Jake's van or truck or whatever is out there.

I swipe my tears from my face and smooth my hair, holding my chin up as I exit the bathroom. When he sees me standing in the doorway, Gabriel looks up from placing a rather scary looking gun into a holster at his waist. He pulls out his phone and focuses on it, speaking to me without looking up.

“Stay here. I’ll be back. Chris will be outside the door.”

I speak in monotone. I shouldn’t ask him, but I need to know. “How do you not think about it? The image of him dying plays in my mind over and over. I can’t unsee it,” I bite out.

I close my eyes as it comes again. The way the back of his head opened up. The sound his body made when he hit the sticky floor. It’s not like the movies. It was like his face exploded. I open my eyes.

“I’ll never forget it,” I tell him, my eyes wide in horror as one tear slides down my cheek.

Gabriel moves to me in two quick strides. He pulls my head forward by the hair at the nape of my neck and swipes my tear away with the other hand.

“You choose to be stronger than this,” he pushes out. “People live and people die. Understand right now that he was a waste of skin. Never give him another thought and don’t you dare shed a tear over him. You just make the choice. Got it?”

I reach up to his hand in my hair and grip it as hard as I can while tears fill my eyes. “It’s not that easy—”

“Stronger,” Gabriel says in the deepest, calmest tone.

He’s holding me so tightly, I can’t look anywhere but into his eyes, and the rest of my body is held with no hope of getting free. I try to claw at the hand holding my hair, he’s pulling it so hard. He smirks at me with a sadistic grin.

“If you’re trying to make me hard again, it’s working,” he says.

My breath increases and I squeeze my eyes shut. He releases my hair.

My captor. I want to hurt him and savor him all at the same time.

The cabin door isn’t even fully shut before I pick up a vase and toss it against the wall in frustration over the impossible situation I’ve found myself in. It shatters. Good. I hope Gabriel slices himself open on it when he comes in, maybe that will make him hard too.

The back of my head still aches from where he held my hair, but I simply take my tights off, turn the light out, and crawl into bed. Then I let the tears fall.

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