Page 85 of The Circus

“You can’t touch me. He’ll sell your mother on the market like the cunt she is.”

My body lurches forward, and Eden squeaks in fright as Daniel stumbles in fear and fumbles with the revolver. Heart aching in desperation, I stop, contain my fury, and refocus.

“We’re already stuck here, isn’t that enough?” I shout, voice rising. The door upstairs slams open, and my face jerks in that direction.

“Down here, keep the kid alive but away,” Daniel yells, and the pummeling of heavy footsteps ricochets off the walls.

“Teddy?” Eden says, her voice soft but high pitched in her raw fear, a slight tremble in her delicate tone. The sound of someone begging for life while on the cusp of tears, knowing that death is what is imminent.

And it eviscerates me. I will never be able to scrub it from my skull, that desperate little plea wrapped up in my name. She will haunt me in life and in death, but the difference is, without her, when I relive these darkened moments, I may never resurface. Ineedher to exist. There is nothing else anymore.

Men grab at her, yanking her from Daniel’s arms as he points his gun at me, my ears buzzing. My knife clatters to the ground, and I raise my hands, needing to show I’m no threat.

If I am going to hunt my little ghost down, I need to be at my best.

After an eternity, they drag her screaming up the stairs, and the sound is enough to make me go insane from grief. But the moment they disappear and the doors slam closed, I swoop down to collect my knife and turn to sprint to the alley doors at the end of the hall. The moment I’m outside, Cash’s cherry red Mustang comes into view, ostentatious on such a dark, rainy day. He waves me toward him, pointing with his other hand the direction they have gone, but I’m still in a full-on sprint and don’t need any encouragement.

He throws open the passenger door for me, and I slide in, slamming it closed as he peels out, horns blaring from all directions, his car fishtailing on the wet pavement.

“Fuck!” I scream, slamming my fist through his dashboard, blood spurting from between my knuckles upon impact. He has the wherewithal to not say a fucking thing. “Car?” I hiss, attempting to reign myself in.

“Black Beemer, two cars ahead. You good, Tedster?” he says smoothly, winding in between cars like a snake whilemaintaining his speed. My racing heart gallops, but slows a fraction with every inch we gain on them.

“No,” I grit out.

“What—”

“Her fucking mom. Daniel sold her back to her fucking bitch of a mother,” I seethe aloud, the voices all chanting how they’d like to see her die. How cathartic that day will be.

In response, he simply presses down harder on the gas pedal.

“Enlighten me,” he says through clenched teeth, narrowly dodging a pedestrian as we near the I-5 corridor.

The Mustang purrs loudly beneath us, a steady rumble I latch onto, my eyes never leaving the taillights in front of us.

“Her mom is part of some cult. Tracked her down a few days ago, but fuck she was hard to find. I couldn’t place their compound, but she’s high up in their ranks. Tried to give Eden to some fucker when she was thirteen.”

Cash glances in my direction, but I refuse to look away. Night has fallen, and rain pelts the windshield, the wipers nearly flying off with the wind from the storm and the speed we’re currently traveling.

It’s still not fast enough.

Skin crawling in turmoil at not being the one in control, I’m about to mouth off when the car ahead takes a sharp left, fishtailing as it heads for the bay. Cash doesn’t hesitate to follow, tires squealing and slipping across the wet asphalt. We wind between warehouses and shipyards, past docks and shoddy, closed businesses, until the world I am familiar with melts away, and we are alone in a jungle of warped steel and broken concrete.

“Get as close as you can,” I demand, an idea sparking in my brain as I flip my knife out and settle the blade between my teeth. We’re on a straightaway, the beacon of the red lights dimming, when I hear the pedal hit the floor and we’re flying.Cranking down the window, I pull myself up by the frame of the car and seat my ass on the windowsill. One arm inside keeping me anchored, I pinch the heavy knife handle between my fingers gently like Vic taught me and focus my eyesight on the black circle.

Gritting my teeth, I reel my arm back, and the second Cash’s front bumper noses its way up to their driver’s side door, I fling it forward with every ounce of strength in me.

The explosion of air from the tire is deafening, and the car careens sharply to the left, directly in our path. Cash slams on his brakes, locking his arms and pressing himself into his seat. Both cars come to a stop, our bodies settling in the sudden hush.

My heart leaps into my throat the moment the back driver’s side door opens, and out tumbles Eden, rushing toward me and stumbling in her haste. Yanking myself out of the window, my feet hit the ground and I’m sprinting breathlessly toward her—my beacon on the jagged cliffs in our kingdom.

But the clicking of another gun has us both stopping in our tracks. Eden’s eyes widen and gloss over, and rain races down her pale cheeks, disguising the tears she cries. Her bottom lip trembles, her body poised as though to keep running in my direction, but slowly, incrementally, she changes her posture and turns her back to me, her long wet hair hanging in thick tendrils down her slender frame.

She’s only two of my strides away. I could reach her, pull her to me—but I have no weapon. And evenIam not skilled enough to beat a fucking bullet. I need to use my brain, and so does she.

The man who stands before us is familiar to me, though only through photos. Malachi Moreau. The man Eden was set to marry as a little fucking girl.

Malachi has three wives currently, I discovered. The youngest was eleven when their sick god told them she was to be the bride of their newest leader. I’ve only just unearthed thesedisgusting truths, but I’ve already made a thousand plans of just how I will torture him. He will be mine foryearsbefore I show him the mercy of death. A sneer curls my lip as I stare him down, but his eyes are on Eden alone, his bald head shimmering with rain.

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