Page 213 of Deviant

“Well then, good riddance,” her father adds with gusto. “I never cared for the Hall family much, so it’s not too much of a loss, if you ask me.”

“You’re just like her,” I say in astonishment, while discreetly testing how loose Bobby’s grip has become. “You’re both out of your fucking minds!”

“Oh, you have quite a mouth on you,” Davenport sneers at me. “I thought you told me she was a good girl. She doesn’t look too much of a good girl to me. She looks rotten, spoiled even.”

“Rowen wouldn’t hurt a fly. She’s as sweet as apple pie, I’m telling you,” Bobby defends, his grip loosening just a tad more.

“Tell that to Ruby Mitchell, Dr. Mitchell’s daughter. Rowen didn’t seem so sweet when she plunged a knife into her heart, now did you, Rowen?” Mackenzie says, running her fingers up and down the blade of her knife.

“You knew I killed Ruby all this time?” I ask, flabbergasted.

“Did I know?” She cackles. “I had a front-row seat to the whole thing. I watched you from the den’s window.”

“Then why did you let Elias take the fall for it?”

“Not for the same reasons you did, I’m sure. Coward.” She slides in the last word to belittle me. “What can I say? Yourboyfriend was a threat that I needed to be taken care of. I really thought that with a little motivation, Big Mike and David would have killed him in that room. But eventhat,the idiots couldn’t do right. Speaking of which… where is your boyfriend now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Aw, come on now,Roe,” she says, stepping closer to me with evil intent burning bright in her eyes. “It’s just us girls here. You can tell me where he’s hiding,” she coos.

“Not on your fucking life.” I spit at her face when she gets close enough.

“You bitch! I’m going to cut you limb from limb!” she shouts out hysterically as she cleans her face with the hem of her dress.

“Now, now, pumpkin. Careful with that temper of yours. We need her alive, or else her boyfriend won’t show up.”

“When your father learns that you’ve been rolling around with that Larsen boy, it’s going to break his heart,” Bobby says behind me like he still gives a damn.

“And how will he feel when he learns that his favorite deputy followed her all the way from Blackwater Falls just to kill her?” I snap back at him before focusing on the two Davenports. “That’s how you knew where to find us, right? Bobby must have stolen a tracking device from the sheriff’s station and then gave it to you to put on Mackenzie so she could lead you both back to the mansion. It’s the only plausible explanation since no one else, butThe Scourgeand the Harvest Dozen knew how to get there. And then you went back to town, pretending that everything was fine, while one of you came back every few days to check on Mackenzie’s progress in the house. See, I saw you too, Mackenzie. Running across the courtyard in the middle of the night. At the time, it didn’t add up to me what you were doing there. I mean, you didn’t even try to escape, so why the midnight stroll? But now I get it. It was because you were talking to someone that was hiding at the edge of the forest—the samesomeone who probably shined a flashlight at your bedroom window to tell you that they were there. That’s how you knew that tonight was going to be The Hunt, and we’d all be out here in the forest fighting for our lives. If there was ever a chance to get rid of the competition and crown Mackenzie the winner, thenThe Huntwas it.”

“Clever, clever girl,” Davenport praises, impressed with my findings. “What a shame that before the night ends, you’ll be dead and can’t tell a soul about it.”

“Oh, you mean like the other eight lives that died in that house? Did it even cross your minds to help us after Mackenzie told you about the ungodly games they forced us to play?”

“What can I say? You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.” Davenport shrugs, not even pretending to be sorry.

But as a flicker of light catches my eye, I just smile at him.

“Daddy, why is she smiling? What the fuck is she smiling about?” Mackenzie shouts, unhappy with the grin tugging at my lips.

“Because,” I coo, no longer feeling Bobby’s arms keeping me captive since I stopped trying to free myself from his hold. “My boyfriend promised me I’d see God tonight. And in about… oh… I don’t know… in the next five minutes or so, he’s going to make good on his promise.”

And before Mackenzie can bore me with another question, Elias shouts, “Duck.”

I do just that. I duck to the floor as Bobby’s body collapses, a knife buried deep in his brain. Grabbing the small blade that Elias concealed in my shoe, I hurl it at Mackenzie’s forehead. My heart sinks as I realize I missed my target by a few inches, watching the dagger pierce through her eye socket and emerge from the back of her head. In that same moment, Elias swings his machete, severing Davenport’s head clean off his body—father and daughter slumping to the ground in eerie unison

“You missed,” Elias growls, admiring his handiwork.

“She’s dead, isn’t she?”

I stand there in awe, watching him wipe Davenport’s blood splatter off his face, and while the sight should repulse me, it does the very opposite. I haven’t been this turned on in my entire life. Maybe it’s the adrenaline kicking in or the realization that we have conquered all the demons that threaten to tear us apart. All I know is I’ve never wanted him more than I do in this very second.

And as Elias tilts his head my way, with the jet-black stare, I know his hunger matches mine.

“Roe, baby?” he growls, the feral beast inside him ready to jump out.

“Yes, Elias?”

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