Page 24 of Toy

“I do, because I know my boyfriend will be home any minute, and you really don’t want to be here when he shows up,” I said stiffly. “You mentioned Tom a few seconds ago. Do you know what happened to him? More specifically, what happened to his head?”

Danny snorted. “Yes, I’m well aware of what your asshole boyfriend did to him. Why do you think your father sent me to get you instead?” he said, narrowing his eyes. “By the way, I know you’re full of shit. Mason won’t be home for a while yet. Unlike Tom, I was careful enough to make sure you’d be alone when I came for you.”

“You’re wrong,” I said, hands trembling. “He’ll be home any second.”

“Happy to call your bluff, darling.” Danny laughed again, but there was no mirth in his tone. “You know, I find your man’s last name very amusing. Ashwood.”

“Why?”

“Because of what happened to his family.” He grinned and shook his head. “Those mafia guys your dad hired will do anything if you give them enough money.”

My stomach turned over. I shook my head slowly. “You’re sick,” I hissed, narrowing my eyes. “You bastards might’ve killed his family, but you didn’t kill him. You failed at that, just like you’ll fail to kill me. He’ll save me. I know it.”

“Failed?” Danny’s eyes widened with surprise. “You think we meant to kill Mason?”

“You blew him up in his car.”

He snorted. “That was never supposed to kill him. It was only supposed to hurt him. Your father wanted him to wake up and spend the rest of his life knowing that he was maimed and his family was dead because he made the stupid choice to betray us.” He scrubbed a hand over his jaw and chuckled. “What would be the point in killing his family if he never even found out?”

I swallowed hard. As much as I hated to agree with anything Danny said, he had a good point. “What about me?” I asked. “Why didn’t my father hurt me eight years ago? You all knew I betrayed the Path of the Covenant just as much as Mason, didn’t you?”

Danny looked at his watch for a second, lips pressed flat. “Hm. I suppose I have a few more minutes to chat,” he said, flashing me another sadistic grin. “Have you really not figured it out yet?”

“Figured out what?” I asked. I risked a glance toward the kitchen window, hoping I’d see Mason pulling up on the street, but all I could see from this angle were the oak trees across the road.

“Your father planned on taking you with us when we escaped, so we could punish you and kill you nice and slowly. Like you deserved. But then you barged in on some sort of last-minute meeting and said something that gave him another idea. One of the Elders was recording the meeting, just in case someone forgot a minor detail of the plan, so everything you said was recorded. Your father took some of that recording and added it to a little card which was given to Mason with the bomb.”

“You mean the card that made him think I betrayed him,” I said. “Even though I didn’t.”

Danny sneered. “That’s right. See, your father slightly altered the plan when he had that new idea. He decided he wanted Mason to wake up and see what had been done to his family and blame you as well as himself. After that, he figured Mason would find you and kill you without us having to lift a finger. He thought it would be funny in a tragic, poetic kind of way. Death at the hands of the one you love. That would teach you all about betrayal, wouldn’t it?” He tilted his face forward and spat at me. “Traitorous little whore.”

Until a moment ago, I thought the card was meant to make Mason feel the heartbreaking weight of my alleged treachery in his last agonizing moments on earth, just to add some extra anguish to the pain. I had no idea that my father fully intended for him to survive the explosion, or that he had predicted Mason’s ensuing vendetta against me.

I set my jaw and shook the knife in the air. “You obviously think you’re a pack of Einsteins, but that’s the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard,” I said, keeping my head held high. “Did it never occur to any of you that he wouldn’t kill me? Or that I’d tell him the truth about that recording and he’d realize I didn’t betray him?”

Danny scoffed. “Of course it did. There was a backup plan. If he didn’t kill you within a certain amount of time like we hoped, we were going to come and get you ourselves,” he said. He let out a heavy sigh. “We waited, but he didn’t get you, so we started looking for you. You were in the wind by then, unfortunately. Changed your name, moved away. I suppose you aren’t as dumb as we thought.”

“No shit.” I gritted my teeth. “Although I guess you find it shocking that a woman might actually have an IQ over 50, huh?”

He chuckled again and cocked his head to the side. “Sure, it took us a long time to find you, baby girl, but we knew we would eventually, and here we are.” He waved the dart gun again.

My muscles went rigid. He’d been spying on me so much that he knew the most intimate details of my relationship with Mason, down to my treasured nickname. It made me want to vomit.

Danny looked at his watch again. “Look at that. It’s been five minutes and your man still hasn’t showed up like you promised. Fancy that.” He bared his teeth in a nasty grin. “I knew you were stalling, but I thought it would be fun to let you think you had the upper hand for a while.”

My stomach flipped. I was out of time. Danny knew exactly what I was up to, and he wasn’t going to let me get away with it anymore.

I dropped the knife and whirled around to the stove. The saucepan sitting on it was heavy and the contents were boiling hot, so I picked it up and flung the whole thing across the room, aiming for Danny’s face. It hit him in the chest instead, but that was good enough for me.

He grunted with pain and snapped his eyes shut as hot sauce from the pan splattered all over his face and torso. His hands reflexively shot up at the same time to protect himself, and he inadvertently dropped the dart gun.

I sprinted toward him and dived at the gun, but he recovered too fast for me. Before I could grab it, he wrapped a strong hand around my wrist and wrenched it away. “You little bitch,” he growled. “You’re coming with me, and there’s nothing you can fucking do about it.”

“No!” I screamed and kicked out, aiming for his chest. Then I squirmed out of his grip and grabbed a full bottle of wine from the table I’d set earlier. Whipping around, I turned the heavy bottle sideways and brought it down in a hard, swift movement, aiming for Danny’s jaw.

He blocked the attack with his left arm and shoved me backwards. I fell against the table and cried out as my hand landed heavily on a delicate wine glass, shattering it against my fingers. The bottle smashed on the floor next to me, splashing crimson liquid all over my feet.

Danny charged forward and grabbed me by the collar of my blouse, lips twisted in a cruel smirk. “Stop fighting,” he said. “It’s cute, but it’s pointless.”

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