Page 126 of Muted

“Look at you,” I rasp out, angling my body to fall as easily as I can onto the ground. Groaning, I blink the blood out of my eyes, still flowing freely from the gash on my head. “Big man brought down by trash.”

I know I don’t sound threatening, but it feels good to get the words out. For once, my anxiety isn’t keeping me mute. I can say whatever the fuck I want to this man, crying from one measly hit.

Rolling away from him, I moan again at the pain radiating throughout my entire body. Fuck, he really did a number on me when I was passed out. But I keep talking.

“One kick and you’re down. I’ve endured more from you just this year than I’m sure you ever did in your entire life. And I’m. Still. Here. You couldn’t evenrapeme, you piece of gar-garbage.”

Forcing my legs under me, I push my body to my hands and knees as I glare at him. Gasping for more air, completely exhausted from the beating I took along with the chemicals he drugged me with, I don’t give up.

“Even in his drug-addled state, my father could still get it up. Long enough to knock up my mom. But you couldn’t, could you,Grandpa?”

I bare my teeth at him when his eyes lock onto my face with nothing but my demise written in them. That’s all he wants. Nothing but to watch me take my last gulp of oxygen before I rot in the ground next to my mother.

Looking around, I see a small pile of dirt about fifteen feet away. Nodding my head toward it, I ask him, “Is that where I’m going? Is that where my mother is?”

“Yes,” he hisses out, agony tearing through his throat, and I find nothing but joy in that fact. “She was so much easier to lure away. I only had to shake a little bag of flour in her face, and she was foaming at the mouth for her next fix.”

Nodding solemnly, I attempt to stand, but fail. I’m stuck on my hands and knees, hanging my head as I stare at the way my strands drag in the dirt. “Maybe. I bet dad would have followed just the same.”

Screeching in fury, he shoves his hand behind his back and pulls out a gun, pointing it directly between my eyes as he releases the safety.

“I don’t give a fuck what you have to say about him. You know nothing of him.Nothing!” he screams.

Whatever he has to say doesn’t faze me, not when I have my eyes lasered on the tiny black hole at the end of the piece of metal he’s got trained on me.

With a low grunt, he stands up, wincing as he takes a step toward me. “I don’t want to shoot you. Not because I wouldn’t love to see the destruction it would do, but because I don’t want anything leading back to me. But I promise you, child. If you don’t crawl your ass over to that hole, I will. Damn the consequences. I’m sure I have enough money to drag out a trial until I die.”

Jerking his hand toward my shallow grave, I glance over there again. A shovel is standing in the center of the dirt, and fear begins to trickle in once more. Shaking my head jerkily, I ignore the blood and sweat as it stings my eyes before dripping onto my roped hands.

“No,” I whisper, then choke on a sob.

Tsking me, he slowly steps next to where I’m shaking violently to keep my body upright. “No, Susanna? What if I told you that if you don’t start crawling, I’m going to take out the men you’ve been fucking one by one?”

My arms weaken and I drop to my elbows, shaking my head again profusely.

“Chester Ahearn. Owner of Sonority, the absurd dueling piano bar. Middle class family, simply mediocre in my opinion. Nothing to write home about. Theodore Gatlin. Army veteran, honorably discharged after an injury overseas. Quite the hero you nabbed there; wouldn’t you agree?”

I feel him place his foot on my backside, gently urging me forward, but I can’t move. My eyes are rolling back with dizziness, the forest floor spinning around me. He uses his foot to roll me onto my back. Finding his eyes with mine, I wince at the way he’s glaring down his nose at me with disgust.

“What about Vance Stoll? Nowheis a keeper. Good man from great stock. What he ever saw in you, I’ll never know. I’m sure his mother, Margot, would be just devastated to learn that her son was killed in such a violent way.” Squatting down, he grips my hair and keeps my eyes locked on him. “And it would be violent. I’m a man of my word.”

Silent sobs wrack my body and I feel like my body is convulsing as I picture the life fading from their eyes. I can’t bear the thought of it. It kills me to think that I could ever be responsible for their pain.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I open my mouth to promise I’ll go without a fight, but his fingers cover my mouth. The weight of his hands split the inside of my lip against my teeth, and I taste the metallic tang of my blood.

“Quiet,” he whispers to me before dragging his hand over the side of my head, brushing my hair from my face like he cares. “Do you need help?”

Craning my neck back, I look toward my grave and force my body to turn. The low hum he sings to me as I inch my aching body forward will haunt me in the afterlife. Arthur doesn’t rush me, acting like he’s giving me the dignity of walking to my death without cowardice.

But I am a coward. If it was just me, I’d sob and beg for him to show me some sort of mercy. I’d make any promises to save my life. The risk to theirs? I can’t do it. That fear is far greater than whatever he’ll do to me here.

My skin is clammy with sweat by the time I’m only a few feet from the hole he’s dug. Peering in from where I’m lying on my belly, I see something white protruding from the ground.

With absolute horror, I realize I’m looking at a bone barely unearthed and I know, I justknowI’m looking at my mother. My mouth drops open on an ear-piercing scream and I start to scramble away.

Why seeing that is what does me in, I’ll never know. Maybe it’s the reality that this is truly going to happen, but it’s impossible to will my body forward. I fucking can’t do it.

His foot slams into my back, holding me still. “Stop being so goddamn dramatic, Susanna. What do you need to hear to get into that hole? Pensacola? Will that work? Because that’s where they are, isn’t it? I’ve known for months where Ronald and Elaine have been hiding. I’ve had eyes on them from the moment they moved into that shithole they call an apartment.”

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