Page 123 of Unholy Obsession

I don’t answer. Instead, I take another deep breath. “Okay. This is gonna suck.”

“What?” Mads asks, immediately suspicious.

“I’m dislocating my thumb.”

“The fuck you are!”

“Too late!” I grit my teeth, inhale, andyankmy wrist at just the right angle. A sharp, hot bolt of pain shoots up my arm as my thumb pops out of its socket. I swallow the scream trying to claw its way out of my throat. “Oh,motherfucker?—”

“Oh my God, I think I’m gonna puke,” Mads gags next to me. “What thefuck, Moira?!”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you have a better idea?” I hiss, blinking away tears. “Or do you just wanna keep lying here like a useless sack of shit?”

“You’re insane.”

“That’s rich coming from you, Splitzy. And look, I’m the only oneescaping.” I flex my now-looser hand, grit my teeth, andworkmy fingers, slipping them through the zip tie one by one. It’s slow. Agonizing. But then?—

Snap.

I’m free.

I rip the hood off my head, blinking at the dim, flickering light overhead. It’s a concrete room with a metal door and no windows. Definitely a warehouse or a back alley butcher shop. Either way, not ideal.

Mads is still gagging. “I hate you. I hate everything about you. I hope you gettetanusfrom this floor.”

“Noted.” I rub my raw wrists, then reach for her zip ties.

“No,” she says sharply. “Moira,no. You can’t free me. If I go with you, they’ll think I helped you escape. I’m fucked if that happens. You can still stop all this. You need to run to that priest, break it off, and then disappear. If I stay, I can make sure Domhnall stays safe. I won’t doanythingthat puts him in danger.”

My stomach twists. “Mads?—”

“No.” Her voice is iron. “I mean it. You know me. You know I’m not bluffing. Domhnall’s everything to me, and I’ll play their game if it keeps him alive. But you have to go. Just break up with the priest, for fuck’s sake! It’s the only way any of us makes it out of this alive.”

I hesitate, my heart hammering. “This isstupid.”

“Oh yeah? Well,so is love, but here we fucking are. Now get the hell out of here before they catch you, or I swear I’ll start screaming.”

Footsteps echo in the hallway.

Fuck.

“You better not die,” I hiss at her. “Because Domhnall will so fucking kill me if you die.”

“I’ve got more lives than a cat,” she whispers, “Now get the fuck out of here!”

I hesitate. Just for a second.

Then I run.

The hallway is dim, smelling like damp concrete and impending doom. My heartbeat pounds in my ears, and I don’t have time to think about anything exceptrun, Moira, run.

But of course, because the universe hates me, a door at the end of the hall swings open, and out steps abrick shithouseof a man. Bald, beefy, wearing a scowl like he was born with it. And he’s got a gun in one hand.

“Well, well,” he drawls, cracking his knuckles like some dime-store henchman. “Looks like the little rabbit got out of her hole.”

Oh, he’s one ofthoseguys. Big. Dumb. Likes to intimidate. Probably has a really complicated relationship with his mother.

I plant my feet and tilt my head. “Oh, wow. A scary man with a gun. I’msofrightened.” I clutch my chest like some old-timey fainting maiden. “Please, sir, don’t hurt me!”

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