Page 45 of Havoc

“Shut up, little boy,” she spat. “You think I don’t know your past? The little boy whose parents didn’t want him, and now he’ll never have the girl he once loved back. You know, I was surprised she was even interested in you after what Wilder did to her that night.”

I felt my smile disappear and my anger flare. Sonora had made that happen, not Gideon. She’d stolen something from Presley that can never be returned. She hurt my girl, and I wasn’t the kind of guy to stand around and allow that.

But this was Presley’s kill. I needed to keep her alive long enough for Presley to deal with, so I bit back my anger.

“Does that make you angry?”

“It does,” I replied. “But really, what are you trying to prove? That you were scared of a little girl? Enough to destroy her life? Petty shit, compared to what she’ll do to you.”

Sonora laughed. “She doesn’t scare me.”

“Then why run away from the fight?”

“Run, little cat, run, run!” Naomi screamed from behind me giddily and laughed.

Sonora was bothered by it, but she turned her attention back to me. “If you want to live, take her, take her like you were going to do that night you were caught.”

“A kind offer, but not exactly the kind of offer given to those who are threats to us.”

“You are no threat to me, boy, you’re nothing. She didn’t even want you back, did you know that? She wanted to take you out.”

“Then shoot me, Sonora. Take me out before she has a chance to do it.”

“Shoot the little rabbit, shoot, shoot,” Naomi laughed aloud and jumped on the bed.

“Oh, shut up!” Sonora screamed and turned the gun on Naomi, shooting her in the chest. She fell onto the bed with a thwump sound. No more sound came from her as she looked up at the ceiling with dead eyes. The wound was to her heart.

Lucky shot, I thought.

“God, I’ve wanted to do that for years.”

Sonora was looking at Naomi laying on the bed and distracted slightly that she didn’t see me pull the blade I kept in my back pocket out of my jeans and fling it her way. It landed in her shoulder.

She screamed and fell backward, stumbling on her feet as she looked at the blade sticking out of her. The gun was lax in her hand, and I ran at her, knocking it free. Using a scarf from the side of the door, I wrapped it around her ankles so that she couldn’t get free and started to drag her down the hall. She screamed and scratched the floorboards as I pulled her down the hall toward the staircase. With a sick and twisted idea formulating in my mind, I waited for her to realise what I was about to do before she tried to scramble free of me. Before she could, I pulled her down the stairs by the scarf, watching as she tumbled down the staircase, thud after sickening thud. She landed on the marble floor of the foyer and moved slowly, alive but I could see she was hurt.

Good.

I picked up the scarf again, pulled her across the white marble, and down to the darkened hallway leading to the basement. A trail of blood was marking our way as she moaned painfully.

“Uh-uh,” I said, pulling her again to the top of the basement stairs and rolling her down them. They were softer stairs, and less of a thud was made when she fell to the floor. Sonora wheezed, gasping for air as I pulled her up and onto the steel chair Gideon once used to sit me on when I’d been in my torturous hell before they’d shipped me off to Frostgate. With just a flickering light overhead and very damp and disgusting conditions in this room, I knew she’d be most at ill-ease. Blood trickled from her mouth as she struggled to keep her head up.

“Now, now, Sonora,” I said, grabbing a bottle of water that had been left down here. “I need you alert to know exactly what my sick and twisted girl has in store for you. It’s only fair.”

Opening the bottle, I threw the water on her face. She spluttered and coughed, awake from the sudden action.

I grabbed the cable ties from the table behind me and fastened her arms behind her and to the chair and did the same with her legs. She was breathing heavily, and I knew there had to be some kind of internal bleeding going on.

Sonora sat up, her breathing heavy as she heard the basement door open and someone coming down the stairs behind her. I saw Presley, a slow smile making its way onto her face.

“Time to face the music.”

I kissed Presley hard as I headed up the stairs and left her to do her work, knowing full well Sonora was not going to make it through the night.

Chapter Eleven

Presley

Sonora sat on the steel chair, tied with cable ties, and looking worse for wear. I’d wondered whose blood it was on the foyer tiles, but now it was quite evident. Had Lennon pushed her down the stairs?

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