Page 65 of Fear Me, Love Me

Husband and wife are standing side by side, her shaking and crying, him glaring at me with a mix of fear and defiance. And Stone’s beautiful daughter?

Vivienne is standing apart from her father and stepmother, her face a pale mask and her nails biting into her palms. She neither speaks to me nor looks at me.

I waited months and months for this girl.Months. And for what? Instead of running to me when the last of her bonds with her family were broken, she ran from me. Didn’t she realize that waiting for those bonds to break so I could have her was the only thing stopping me from killing them all?

I take several bullets out of my pocket and load them into the rifle, taking my time, letting them know that every bullet is for them. Mrs. Stone starts to sob harder, and I can’t help the smile that spreads over my face.

“Here we are again, Vivienne. In my labyrinth, you in peril of your life while Barlow is tucked up safe and sound in my bedroom. You remember my bedroom, don’t you?” I load a bullet into the chamber with an ominous sound and rest the rifle against my shoulder. “What a wonderful chance I gave you last time, and you wasted it.”

Vivienne keeps her eyes averted, but she doesn’t look tearful. She looks quietly furious. “Can I ask you something, Tyrant?”

“Ask away, angel,” I reply, mocking her with her pet name.

“You were the one who graffitied my house. You sent the pictures of us to Dad and Samantha. Am I right?”

I watch her through narrowed eyes. “You want to make me your monster?”

“I don’t have to make you into anything. For a while there, I—” Her face crumples and she takes a painful breath. “I really did think you—” She swipes angrily at her eyes. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter now.”

Precisely. None of that matters any longer.

“If you won’t love me, Vivienne, you can fear me instead.” I take a long look at the three of them. “I’m sick of the Stone family. Escape my labyrinth, or I’ll kill you all. The longer you keep running, the longer you’ll go on breathing.”

Samantha gasps and grabs hold of her husband’s wrist, but Owen Stone is glaring at me through hate-filled eyes.

“You’re not really going to let us escape. You’re going to hunt us down for sport.” Stone turns to his daughter, fuming at her, “This is all your fault.”

The words fly from my lips before I can stop myself. “Vivienne’s fault? Vivienne’s fucking fault? How much money is it you owe me, twenty-nine thousand, plus interest? The only person responsible for Owen Stone’s death is Owen Stone himself.”

For a moment I meet Vivienne’s shocked gaze, and I have to force myself to look away from her.

Samantha is wringing her hands, tears dripping down her face as she whimpers, “My baby. Please don’t hurt my baby.”

“Hurt him? I’m going to keep him. He’s my son now, not yours.”

Samantha cries even harder.

“Come on. We’re getting out of here.” Owen Stone grasps his wife’s arm and drags her off down a garden path before disappearing around a hedge, leaving his daughter behind. Vivienne watches them go without an ounce of surprise on her face that they’ve abandoned her.

Then she turns to me.

We gaze at each other across a narrow expanse of lawn beneath another silvery moon. Her words as I was kidnapping her from the bus station come back to me.

I’ve never taken anything from you. The only thing you ever bought me was one pregnancy test.

I watch her, my head on one side. Interesting that she brought that up. Because she’s taken the test, or because she hasn’t?

I stride forward and pull her backpack roughly from her shoulder and then step away, pointing the rifle at her. “Go. Or I’ll shoot you right here and now.”

She hesitates for a moment as if she wants to say something, and then she closes her mouth and hurries off in the opposite direction to Stone and his wife. Toward the house.

She’s going to try and rescue Barlow again.

When I’m alone, I prop the gun against a marble bench and go through her backpack, pulling out clothing, a toothbrush, and a pair of shoes. The pregnancy test isn’t here. Maybe it’s in her dorm room.

I glance in the direction that Vivienne disappeared. She’ll be trying to find her way through my labyrinth for hours yet. They all will. I have plenty of time to go in search of answers.

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