Page 14 of Perilous

He uses my shirt and wraps it around my mouth, pulling it tight, then tying it behind my head. He spins me around so I face him again.

“If you try to run I’ll throw this knife into your back,” he says as he produces a long blade. There looks to be blood already on it.

He steps toward the man on the ground and rolls him on his back. There’s blood all over the man’s shirt, at his stomach.

He’s been stabbed numerous times.

I shake my head. I whimper. I try to scream, finally.

“Now the fun part,” he says.

He drops down to one knee and plunges the knife into the man’s right eye socket. The sound is squishy and then crunchy. The man’s hands flail out and shake horribly for a few seconds before stopping.

He’s… dead…

I instantly vomit, puking all over the shirt wrapped around my mouth. The puke soaks the shirt, dribbles down my chin. Some has shot up into my nose, smelling hot and bitter. I turn to my right and start to run.

What else am I supposed to do right now?

My knees are like rubber. I’m dizzy, confused, and terrified. I’m not sure I make it five steps before an arm wraps around my body and pulls me close, squeezing so tight I can’t breathe.

“Still can’t fucking listen, can you?”

The voice growls with devilish fury.

“Now I have no choice, doll,” he says.

His hand moves over my face, his palm squishing my nose. I’m breathing really fast and then I feel a sharp pain at the back of my head.

All I hear is a buzzing sound.

It fades, then I’m swallowed up into darkness.

ChapterFive

PERILOUS

Fuck.

The last thing I fucking need right now is a project. But here she is, still out cold, on her back on a concrete floor in the basement of a building nobody needs to know about.

I’ve taken my mask and the robe off. My head pulls in fifteen directions at once. The entire fucking night had gone so perfectly as planned too. I knew right where thetargetwas going to be. Some nightclub in the city, skipping the strip club, but still on the prowl to dry hump some drunk woman.

All I had to do was let him know someone broke into his piece of shit car—fucking little toy car was probably worth fifty grand… but really, fifty grand for a car? That’s just getting a starter vehicle if you ask me.

Thetargethurried his drunk ass out of the nightclub, looking for his car. That allowed me to prepare. I walked up behind him and placed my hand over his mouth and dragged him into that alleyway. I spun him around and stabbed him at least seven times in the stomach. Over and over.

The first thrust of the knife with a slight hesitation…Metal crunching. The engine revving. That split second of pure silence before all the destruction…

Once the blade went into thetarget’s skin the first time, the rest was easy.

I then left him to writhe and bleed out a little on the ground.

No. You had to walk away. That’s what it was, Perilous. You had to walk away. It was too much. All alone. And that feeling…

No matter how the night was going to go, this project of mine stepped out into the alleyway. The worst luck at the worst time. What the hell was I supposed to do about it? I stepped up behind her and ordered her to give me her phone.

Easiest plan? Break her phone, knock her out, and leave her be. Take thetargetelsewhere and handle things. But she was so defiant. Stubborn. Shaking yet pushy.

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