Page 118 of Cruel Lies

All the eyes in the room now tracked me as I paced back and forth in front of Bonnie, and I could only guess at what was going through their minds.

Crazy.

Unhinged.

Killer.

Asshole.

Suicidal.

They’d all be right.

"She started putting her nose in places it didn’t belong. So I told her if she didn’t stop, she’d be gone." I blew at the opening ofthe barrel as I pointed it straight at my own face. I laughed at the danger. If the gun went off right now, who would it really hurt?

I didn’t care if I lived or died now as long as Harper was safe. As long as I got revenge for her for what they’d done to her.

"If you’re gonna kill me, fucker, then justdo it!"

I backhanded her with the hand holding my knife, and it left a nice, red line across the bridge of her nose in its wake, stretching across her cheeks like someone had garroted her and the damn thing had slipped.

I laughed out loud. The sound was a horrible, manic thing that felt like a mix between a wounded animal and a lost soul from hell. It ripped at my insides and tore at the very lining of my esophagus like a million tiny daggers, all forcing their way up and killing me in the process.

"She went a little insane, she did. Started obsessing over this other woman she’d never know. Never meet. Never live up to the memory of. So one night, she snuck out of bed and grabbed a kitchen knife. She zip-tied my hands and feet to the headboard, and she carved this permanent smile into my face as I screamed and flailed and bled out on the sheets of the bed I’d made. And do you know what she told me when she was done?"

I bent at the waist and gripped Bonnie by the chin as she cried now, snot and tears mingling on her cheeks and lips as she pleaded for me to let her go.

Oh, Bonnie. We’re so far past letting go at this point.

You’re going to die here with me, a part of me I’ll carve out and lay at your feet, so that I never have to feel again.

"She laughed and admired her handiwork, and she said,‘Now we’rebothsmiling!’"

With the cackling derangement of a dead man, I slammed the knife blade home in her fucking eye socket, putting every ounce of force into it as I pushed on the hilt with the palm of my other hand, the gun an afterthought, dangling from one fingerprecariously as Bonnie and Clydebothshrieked. Bonnie fought to free her hands so she could reach up and pry me off.

She wouldn’t succeed before she bled out, though.

The blade made a sick, wet, squelching noise as I jerked it free of her face. It was so deeply embedded in her thick skull, though, that I had to shove my boot against her chest and give myself leverage. When she finally popped free, the chair holding Bonnie tipped over, and she smacked into the concrete with a dullthudand stopped moving.

"Aw, shit, Ro, I think I killed her."

FORTY-EIGHT

ROWAN

The common areawas quiet when we strolled in, so I made for Lilly’s quarters, hoping she hadn’t decided to head off to sleep just yet. She was like a slumbering bear—if you woke her up, you were in for a very angry interaction.

Nash, still covered in blood, stared straight ahead, as if he wasn’t bleeding from the fucking jaw on both sides like a damn river of red.

And the fuckstick, Clyde, dangled limply over my shoulder, still reeking of piss—thankfully, I had a tarp in the car I could wrap him in so I didn’t get any on me, but still. It reeked.

All in all, not a good day.

Nothing had gone according to plan. Everything was spiraling out of control. All I wanted to do was drop off this dead weight, take a fucking shower, and crawl into bed next to Harper.

It’d been too long since I saw her face. Smelled the soft scent of shampoo in her hair. Felt her satiny skin against my own. Her fingers in my locs, twirling them around as she giggled lightly.

Fuck.

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