Page 230 of Vile Boys

What’s taking them so long?

“I’m going back in,” I tell them. “Guard the exit.”

I run back into the hallway where Kai, Milo, and Nathan are, and lock eyes with a girl with long, black hair, covered in blood.

One of the Bonesmen comes out of nowhere, aiming at Kai, so I shoot him down. “I have you covered. Don’t worry.”

“Who is that?” the girl with the long black hair asks.

“Caleb. Long story,” Milo says. “We should run.”

Suddenly, more shots go off, and Nathan jumps in front of Lana, shielding her from the fire, and the bullet lodges in his body.

“Nathan!” she screams.

Kai and I fight off the Bonesmen with everything we have, and I chuck around knives like a madman while Milo and Lana focus on stopping Nathan’s wounds from bleeding out.

Suddenly, the girl with the long black hair pulls out her own knives and starts chopping up all the men in front of us like a butcher, cutting away at them with expert slices like she’s never done anything but kill since she was pushed out of her mother’s womb, and for a moment, I’m too flabbergasted to even fight.

My God, that woman’s got skills.

She kills the Bonesmen one by one, until only their leader, Romeo, is left and on his knees, blood pouring from a wound in his abdomen. He whimpers as she pushes a knife straight into his eye, and I wince from how disgusting it looks.

Jesus.

In the big open space behind Romeo, rows and rows of chairs are all thrown about as though the people who were here left in a hurry, and I look beyond at a stage.

What the … was this an auction?

To the left of the stage is a big door that’s wide open.

And two burly guards manhandle people into the van. Boys. Girls.

But one particular blond-haired girl with pink lips and rosy cheeks makes all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“Crystal?” I yell in disbelief.

CALEB

She turns to look at Lana and then me.

What the fuck is going on?

How is she here?

But then she’s shoved into the van.

I storm past Lana, headed straight for the door … right when the van races off.

“FUCK!” I scream, losing my goddamn fucking soul along with it as the van’s gone before I even manage to step one foot outside.

I try to run after it, but it’s no use.

I won’t ever catch up on foot.

“No, no, no!” I mutter, sinking to the ground outside, still clutching my knives, my only tether to this world before I tear it all to shreds.

These fucking Bonesmen have the only girl I ever loved, and now I’ll never fucking see her again.