Page 29 of A One Woman Job

Do the job. Go home. Tend to her.

I’m going to give her a bath, feed her and finally figure out some clothes.

Maybe…maybe I’ll bring her to visit her family. I don’t know. I’m not sure yet. If she wants to return to them, I’m not sure I’d react well.

Stop thinking.Act.

Blade in hand, I step out of the shadows.

Etta catches the movement in her periphery and spins around with a gasp, backing into the kitchen and immediately reaching for a drawer.

“The gun isn’t there, Etta. You taught me better than that.”

She scoffs. “I have more than one weapon.”

“They aren’t there,” I enunciate slowly. “Anyway, we both know I could throw this knife end over end and bury it in your jugular before you manage to open that drawer.”

The jugular in question shifts with a heavy swallow. “Why are you here?”

“You know why I’m here. Her.” My stomach sinks with indescribable love. “Meg.”

Silence stretches. “Who?”

“I’ve decided to kill you quickly for sending her to me. Play dumb with me again and I won’t be so kind.”

Her face is white as a ghost. “You would kill the closest thing you have to a mother?”

“You’re not the closest thing I have to a mother. A mother doesn’t turn her son into a killing machine.” I flip the blade over in my hand. “I had someone closer to a mother. You had me kill her grandson while she slept upstairs. You’re the real monster.”

Understanding dawns in her eyes. “That’swhy you left.” She pauses, looking me over thoughtfully. “And now you’re going to kill me over some overzealous child who is too mouthy for her own good?”

Her words only inspire a searing affection inside of me. “Yup.”

Etta tilts her head and glee flits across her face, making my blood turn to ice. I know that look. She knows something I don’t know. “Do you truly love Meg, then?”

“Yes,” I respond, raggedly. She’s chained on my floor—

“Then you better hurry.”

It doesn’t occur to me until that moment that I never asked Meg why.

Whyshe deceived me.

What was the threat that caused her to do it?

She tried to tell me at the train station, but…I cut her off, didn’t I? Drowned her out with my fear of her leaving me? Not loving me as she claimed?

Oh my God.

Acid shoots from my belly to my throat, choking me.

She’s chained on my floor.

She’s…

I let her down. I’ve failed her.

She told me everything and I didn’t fixanything.

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