Page 60 of Crimson Tears

That’s my blood on his teeth!

Green’s tongue darts out, licking up the crimson droplets that run freely down my pale skin. I cannot stop myself from screaming like a banshee as he grips onto my arm.

“Mmm, you tastedelicious.” He licks me again as vomit threatens to spew from my lips, but nothing could prepare me for what comes next.

Green takes out his knife and just above the bite mark, he filets my skin, carving out a thin slice. Horror fills me when he lifts it from his knife with his thumb and forefinger to hold it in the air, examining it like it’s a piece of fine carpaccio. Just when I think it couldn’t possibly get worse, I watch in terror as he puts it in his mouth andfeckin’eats it.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

I can’t stop the vomit from coming up as I watch his teeth grind down on my flesh, a thin layer of my blood still coating his lips. He jumps back just in time to escape the mess, but my eyes can’t look away from the morbidly atrocious scene in front of me. Green looks like he’s savoring a piece of fine sushi as the muscles in his jaw tense and flex.

Nope. This cannot be real right now. What the feck kind of drugs or mental disorder makes a guy think it’s okay to just go around eating people?

I choke on bile as I gag.I will never be able to eat sushi again.

My breath escapes me as Cillian and Boris begin to yell. But Green’s unhinged eyes are trained on me as he licks his lips andswallows. I try not to imagine the feeling of flesh as it slides down his throat, or the iron taste that must linger in his mouth, but I can’t help it.

“Delectable,” he says without a hint of remorse, tapping the knife he used to carve my skin on his chin. “You taste of fear and broken dreams,” he pauses, lightly smacking his lips as if contemplating something before he speaks again, “and a hint of strawberries.”

The menacing grin Green shoots back at me while licking his lips has the spot on my arm throbbing, causing chills to break out along my flesh. I refuse to look at the damage he’s done or take my eyes off of his crazy ass.

I’m used to my father hiring insane men, but this is a whole new level of deranged.

People like him should not be allowed to exist in our world. Or in any world for that matter.

The door opens behind him and Gray steps in, his face as pale as I’m sure mine is.

“Time to go,” he says. “Lunch is here.”

I swallow, trying not to think about eating anything.

“I think I’d rather have a different meal,” Green says, taking a menacing step toward me, carefully avoiding the mess on the floor. His knife is angled, prepared to take another piece of me, but Gray stops him.

“Let’s go. Boss’s orders.” Gray grabs his shoulder, forcing him back towards the door.

Green watches me intently as he bites his lip, mulling over Gray’s words. “I’ll be back for more soon, mysweettreat. Don’t you go anywhere.”

It has been a long time since true terror has consumed me like this. Not only am I in a state of shock from what he just did, but I have no doubt in my bones thatthat manright there is wishing he could eat me alive. He would do it too, and not in a good way.

Green spins on his heel as he walks away and Gray returns to me, undoing the leather cuffs around my hands and feet. I’m still in a minor state of denial when I realize the door was left wide open. I glance down at Gray as he unhooks my leg and moves to stand.

Maybe this is my shot.

I take a chance, praying my body will support itself as I drop my shoulder in Gray’s chest and push him into the wall as quickly as I can.

He crashes into the plexiglass with a thud, startling Boris who stands just behind it. The wind is nearly knocked out of my lungs as my surly broken ribs press into him. But I set the pain aside and focus on one thing, getting the feck out of here.

The second I’m out the door, I realize my mistake. I have no idea where I am going, and Green is only a few feet ahead of me. I try to run to one of the other cells to escape him, but I don’t know the code to the door.

Arms wrap around me, crushing my sternum as tears form in my eyes.It can’t be over this fast. It just can’t.

There is no fight left in me as I am thrown onto my cot in the back of my cell. Green hovers over me, fury laced into every feature. I think I prefer this over the way his eyes roamed my skin, but it’s in this moment that I know he is only getting started with me.

“You think you can just escape so easily? Just run out of here blindly without a plan?” He laughs maniacally. I’m so busy watching his face that I fail to see his boot lift up before stomping down on my hand, but I sure as hell feel it.

When I try to scream, the sound gets caught in my throat. I choke and sputter on air that’s trapped in my lungs until he lets up.

Evie and Havoc taught the team a trick in the case any of us were to be captured. They taught us to hyperventilate so that we could purposefully pass out. Not only will that help give a break to your body from torture, but it can help reset your brain so that you aren’t as willing to give up information as you were before.