Page 322 of Lodestar

“Who are you?” he garbled out from behind his gag.

“Your worst nightmare,” Star replied, her tone as calm as anything. Hell, I’d heard her be less calm when talking to Kat about which Pokémon was her least favorite.

“I’ll pay anything,” he burst out as she shoved his gag aside. “Anything!”

“You could offer me a billion dollars,” she assured him, “and I’d still tell you to go suck your own dick.”

“His dick or his stump?” I questioned dryly.

Star winked at me but, to Foundry, as she replaced his gag, tugging on his hair to hold him in place, she drawled, “You’re going to die, David. But it’s going to be deliciously slow and it’ll hurt.” She shot D a look, who tossed her one of those honey bottles shaped like a bear. “It’s cold out, David. Very cold. Lots of predators hunting for food.

“Aren’t they lucky that you’re just lying around…” She opened the bottle, grabbed his hair, used it to tip his head back, and squirted the oozing amber liquid over his face. “I hope they eat your eyes. All the soft shit first.” He screamed, face whipping from side to side as she worked, but it wouldn’t dislodge her and just made the syrup slip and slide over his features. “You’re going to feel yourself being eaten alive,” she promised. “And I can tell you now, it’s nothing to what you’ve done to the millions of women who you’ve pimped out, that you’ve enslaved, that you’ve turned into fucking animals.

"You, you soft, white asswipe, who sat in your ivory tower and made money off of women’s misery, women like me…” Her smile was as vicious as could be. “So, no, you could offer me the earth, and it wouldn’t be enough.”

She kicked her boot into his face, not stopping until he was yowling and blood spurted from his nose.

“I hope it hurts. Just likeIhurt as I was raped, over and fucking over. No one cared if I said no. No one gave a shit if I wasbleeding or if I was hurting. I was a piece of meat, but you’re the one who’s about to be something’s dinner.”

When Foundry was a mess, she moved over to Smythe and anointed him with another bottle of honey and a kick to the face.

Just as she had with Foundry, she shared her own truths with him, truths that made me glad this would be their deaths.

Truths that hurt my fucking soul, knowing that she’d endured what she had. But there was pride in the mix too—shehadsurvived, and together, fuck,together, we’d live. We’d bring these assholes down, but that would only be the start of our story.

There’d be so much more to our future than destroying the lives of these pieces of shit.

Smythe, unlike Foundry who’d sobbed and snotted his way through Star’s ‘makeup’ process, garbled something as she made to move away.

Whatever it was clearly held her interest because she froze in place and pulled out his gag to let him speak.

“You wanted to talk so badly,” she rumbled, a warning in her tone that he’d be a fool to ignore. “Then talk.”

“I know who you are.”

“I’m sure you do,” she agreed. “I’m sure I’m on a lot of watch lists, and I’m doubly sure that ever since I escaped the prison you fuckers slammed me in, that you all learned my resume from front to back.

"I’m certain you’ll know my weaknesses and that you’re strategizing about how to bargain your way out of this situation.

“But that’s the joy of living, Smythe. People change.”

“Not this much,” he snapped, sounding remarkably cool and calm for a man in his position. “Fundamental parts of your core self don’t change. Like how you only got into this life because of your mother.”

A soft smile curved her lips, one that surprised me because it was so discordant with the situation.

I watched her.

Warily.

“Are you going to tell me who plotted her demise? Are you going to tell me some hard truths butonlyif I let you go?

“See, I know who killed her. Maybe I don’t know the why, but I can figure out a semblance of the truth, and even if youdidknow exactly what happened, how the fuck can I be sure that it isn’t a fairy tale that you’re trying to sell me?—”

“Nobody killed her,” Smythe rasped. “She didn’t die. She’s alive and well and I can take you to her.”

16

STAR

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