Page 52 of Rat Race

Naw, I wasn’t just goin’ to hell. I was chasin’ hell like the bats that came from it. Failing a test like that? In front of God and everybody?

Ma was going to cuff me so hard around the ears I’d be lucky if I didn’t need one of them fancy hearing aids after.

I could still taste her on my lips, the smell of Aubrey washing over my nose and settling onto my taste buds. It was just a tease, allowing myself a delectable morsel of her sweet nectar. But it was enough to get me addicted. I reckoned when this was over and I finally sat that naughty little bitch on my tongue, she wouldn't be getting off for hours.

Well, now that I'd thought about it, maybe not for days, if I had anything to say about it.

The easy glide of the bat through Aubrey's slick center made it difficult to look at the weapon head-on. Well, at least not without considering how easy it'd be to get her onto her back, cursing my name through her clenched teeth. Never met nobody who could look so beautiful while angry as a rattlesnake.

And the way she said my name?

It was hard to care about tests and trials and the paths set out over lifetimes of training when a beautiful woman was purring your name.

If I was off to hell in a handbasket, might as well enjoy the ride.

Ain’t nothin' in this world guaranteed, no amount of prayer or offering sure to get me through those gates. But down here? Couldn't I make a bit of my own heaven? Steal a sliver of happiness for myself?

Not like Pa was here to bark at me to do nothin' else. If what he said was even true. I reckoned he believed at least seventy-five percent of it—hard to spend your whole life lying to yourself. But was this really the only way we'd be saved?

Or, like in the maze, was there another path?

There was a chance to be better than the Westons that'd entered the maze before me.

Mercy by an angel whose little pink skirt fluttered with every step she took, offering a glimpse at the tight shorts hugging the curve of her ass. Briefly, I wondered if she was cold without her stockings—long since discarded after I’d ripped them from her body.

The other? Vengeance. That was the name of the game.

Remember your values, what ya were made for.Pa’s voice was strong in my head, driving home the family ways I'd already made fools of. Didn't he tell me not to get distracted, not to waste my time with beingnice? My failures were quickly stacking up, a living reminder walking ahead of me on the path.

And then there was Elijah. He shouldn't've even been here, and yet there he’d been, standing tall as the day was long with an offering already under his belt.

Why would Pa even send him anyway?It was just another blow below the belt.

The way he'd desecrated a safe zone to appease our holy master? It was perfection. Pretty as a damn peach to see the dull lifeless stare of his victim as we rounded the fountain.

A warning to the rest of the Runners that there was a predator amidst the flock of sheep.

And he had that damned Architect, Hiram, too. Elijah was too smart for his own fucking good.

It made a person think, my choice to take the path less traveled by the Westons—peace—weighing on me, heavy as a bunch of bricks.

But this was my show, my chance to prove myself to Pa and get out for good.

My fingernails bit into my palm where my fists clenched at my sides, jaw tense.

Didn't they trust me to get the job done? To bring home the win?

With the way you behave?Pa’s voice sneered.You still have time to fix this. Kill the girls, make a show of it. Prove that there is nothing more important to you than the glory and power of your God. Show the world your devotion. You still have time, Camil?—

“Fuck off, I can do this my way,” I hissed at the demon lurking in my mind, the sound of my own furious voice bringing me back to the real world.

"What?" Ella asked, looking over her shoulder at me, her fingers still lightly tracking the wall as she walked.

Aubrey paused, shooting me a look that warned she was angry as a wasp's nest that I hadn't sent Ella off. Clearly she was still too furious to bother talkin’ to me. But what did she expect me to do?

Drop Ella just because I'd made her come?

Okay, yeah, that’sexactlywhat she'd expected me to do.

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