Page 104 of Sinners Retreat

Then, like a guardian angel, Kindra appears from the tree line.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Kindra

“Drop the fucking knife!” I yell, and I hate myself for it. Ezra should fall to his death. He deserves it. But I can’t let that happen. Despite everything, the urge to save him overrides my need for vengeance.

Especially after hearing him say he loves me and that he’s sorry. I don’t forgive him, but I still can’t watch him die.

The woman stops sawing and turns to me with a sneer. “You should have killed me when you had the chance, you fat cow.”

Okay, shots fired.

I pull a throwing knife from my belt and launch it at her chest. She dodges it, just as I hoped she would, which sends her closer to the cliff’s edge.

“You throw like a girl,” the bitch seethes through gritted teeth.

“Thanks,” I say, then launch another knife her way.

This one doesn’t miss. It lodges itself in her left shoulder, and the handle’s weight knocks her off balance. She realizes hermisstep too late. Her eyes widen as rock crumbles beneath her shoes, and she slides over the edge.

As she falls, her intestines snag on a rock. I watch and wait for some comical ending where she’s stuck hanging by her entrails, but the thin tissue snaps when she’s fully unspooled, and that’s the last I see of her. Seconds later, a loud splash breaks the silence.

Ezra pulls himself to the end of the rope, then uses his feet to walk up the side of the cliff until he’s standing on a ledge. Using his powerful arms, he then pulls himself onto solid ground and flops onto his back.

“Oh, thank god you were there,” he breathes. “If it hadn’t been for you, I would have fallen.”

Don’t fucking remind me.

I turn to walk away, but I hear him getting to his feet behind me. Like a stray dog, he thinks he can follow me home and crawl into my bed. Well, he’s about to learn something today.

In one fluid movement, I turn and slide my hand into a pouch on my belt, then launch a throwing star at his feet. “Donotmistake this for something it isn’t. I didn’t save you because I want to rekindle whatever relationshityou thought you had with me. I never want to see you again.”

“Kindra, there’s more to this than you realize. Your brother wasn’t a good man.”

I pull another star from the pouch and fling it toward his nuts. The spinning blades slice the fabric on their way past.

“Don’t! Fucking don’t, Ezra! I’m done with the lies. For once, can’t you just tell the truth? Why did you kill him?”

He runs his hands through his dark hair and pushes his glasses up his nose, then folds his arms over his broad chest. “There is no easy way to break this news to you. I’m sorry. I wanted to have some proof before I told you, which was one of the reasons I wanted to wait until we were back in New York.”

“Proof?” I pull another star from the pouch, but I don’t throw it. Not yet. “What proof would you have? Are you saying my brother was a rapist?”

Ezra shakes his head.

“Then what? What did he do that was so terrible that he had to die?”

The look in his eyes answers my question.

“No.” I shake my head and launch another throwing star at Ezra. It goes wide. I can’t aim with all these tears in my eyes, but I try again. And again. “No! He wasn’t a child molester! You’re lying again! Stop lying to me!”

Like a flailing man on a tightrope, he dodges everything I throw. A star finally slices across his right cheek, but it’s not enough. I need him to hurt just as much as he’s hurting me.

“My brother was a good man. He taught little league in his free time, for fuck’s sake! He mentored underprivileged children and even sponsored a kid who couldn’t afford to play in the recreational leagues. And you murdered him, Ezra!”

I clear the tears from my eyes and pull the bowie knife from my thigh. It’s weighted differently than my throwing knives, but it’s also more final. And I won’t miss.

Ezra doesn’t move. He doesn’t try to get away or overpower me. He just stands there, awaiting his fate as I prepare to toss the blade. I want him to stop me. If he’ll just tell me the truth, it doesn’t have to be this way.

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