Page 88 of The Pretty Psycho

"Vega," the man underneath me croaked, but I didn't want to hear his wretched voice. I didn't want to hear a single word coming from his filthy mouth.

He'd had enough time to poison not only my mind but the minds of those that decided to follow him. I didn't even want any answers—I didn't need to know. What I needed was revenge.

What I needed was to remove every trace of him from this world.

My hand wrapped around the hilt of the knife I'd hidden inside my boot, pulling it out swiftly before pressing it to his throat. Dain's eyebrows shot up, surprise evident on his face,because somewhere in his sick mind he actually thought I still cared about him.

Somewhere in his sick mind he thought what he did to me was okay.

"I used to love you," I bit out. "I loved you more than I had ever loved anyone else, because you were my family. You were the only person I had in my life."

"Vega," he mumbled.

"I used to dream for the days when you would come home, just so I wouldn't be alone anymore. Just to keep the monsters at bay because you were my favorite person. You were the only one I needed all those nights and days. I fucking mourned you!" I thundered just as a gunshot went off.

My head swiveled to the side, seeing Adrian standing above the guy whose name I'd completely forgotten, but it didn't even matter. He betrayed us. He decided to work with Dain instead of Gabriela and us.

Adrian breathed heavily, holding his side, but when he turned toward me, when he looked at me, I knew we would be okay. I knew we would survive all of this.

Dain tried moving away from me, but if he thought my momentary lapse of concentration meant he could run, he thought wrong.

My hand gripped his hair, pulling harder than when he had pulled mine, earning a yelp from his fucking lying lips.

"You were my brother," I gritted out, uncaring if Adrian wanted to finish the job or if we needed to keep him for questioning. "You were my family."

"V-Vega," he whimpered like a motherfucking bitch, showing me what a weak man he truly was. "Please. I didn't mean to. Please."

"You didn't mean to rape me?" I asked, laughing maniacally. "You didn't mean to chain me to a fucking wall, leaving me thereto die? You didn't fucking mean to destroy what little sanity I had left with your reappearance and all those murders?" I was breathing heavily, as if I had run a marathon, but I couldn't stop.

I wouldn't fucking stop.

"I cried a thousand tears over your death. I promised myself I would destroy those who dared to harm you. Years, motherfucking years, spent in agony because I had no idea what happened to you!"

The blade of my knife dug into his skin, breaking it, letting the blood flow, and I welcomed it with open arms because we both knew where this was leading to.

"You do not deserve to live, Dain Zylla." He cried out the moment those words tumbled over my lips. "You do not deserve to breathe this air. You did not deserve the pain I felt over you." I leaned down, right toward his ear, smiling for the first time since he caught me. "I was never yours, Dain. My body, my mind, my soul." I chuckled. "They always belonged to me and me only. It is my choice who I share them with. It is my fucking choice who I give them to, and you were never even an option."

I pulled back just in time to see the craziness seeping into his eyes, and just as he opened his mouth, I pulled the knife back and stabbed him straight through the eye, relishing the sounds of agony tearing from his lungs.

I pulled the knife out of his eye socket and aimed for the other one, while my other hand held his throat, choking him, cutting off the air he never deserved to breathe. He took parts of me that weren't his to take.

He stole what little innocence I clung to, shattering everything I had. He stained my soul with his tar and I would never forgive him for that.

My arm went up and down, stabbing him, destroying the face that haunted my nightmares, when a strong pair of arms wrapped around my chest, pulling me away from him.

"No!" I screeched. "I need him gone! He needs to pay!"

"Shhhh," the voice I would recognize even in the darkest pits of hell soothed. "He's gone. He's finally gone, Bambi."

Adrian's voice felt like a balm to the wounds Dain had inflicted, but my brain still couldn't register that the threat was gone.

I fought against him, trying to get back to Dain, even though I knew, I fucking knew he was gone.

His face was completely destroyed. His chest was flat, no longer rising with breath, but I needed to make sure. I had to make sure.

Adrian turned me around, but my mind couldn't recognize him. Not yet.

My body knew who he was. My heart survived all of this for him, but my mind…

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