Page 14 of Psycho

“Knife.” I stared down into our captives’ eyes as I replied, “But cut all of his fingers off before he’s dead.”

“Really?” Dane paused. “Going to keep them as a souvenir?”

“No.” I looked up at my friend and he tipped his head back as he started to understand. “I’ve got someone who wants body parts in shoe boxes.”

“Ah,” Dane nodded with a sinister grin, “It all makes so much more sense now.”

He pulled one of Terrance’s arms out and stood on his hand as I did the same, and then we both went to work, slicing through his bone and taking each of his fingers until I had a bag full of ten digits as a keepsake.

When it was done, Dane slit Terrance’s neck as I took the cocktail napkin from my pocket with the Hell Eaters Lounge logo in the center. I laid it on the dead man’s chest and stabbed one of the knives into it, making sure the message was clear to all.

The Hell Eaters were to blame.

One way or another.

It wouldn’t take long for the bodies to start piling up and the message to get even louder. I was coming for them. Each and every one.

Chapter 8 – Olivia

Ileaned against the door and checked the peephole, and sure enough, there was a box sitting on the mat. I fought the urge to smile, but failed.

Was Maddoxflirtingwith me?

Was that how feral bears flirted? Foraging and bringing their crushes gifts like cozy blankets and food?

I mean, if I thought about it long enough, that did kind of sound like something a bear would do to flirt with a girl, but what did I know? I was a pregnant almost thirty-year-old with no baby daddy in sight,thank god, being held hostage in a luxury tower of sorts by my feral gate keeper.

My life was a weird fucking fairy tale, I didn’t have time to contemplate animal rituals.

I opened the door and picked up the box, before staring down the hallway to Maddox’s closed door like one day, maybe he’d be waiting out there for me to get his gift. But he wasn’t, so I went back inside.

My phone rang, and I rolled my eyes as I set the box down and went into the bedroom to get it.

“Yes, there was a gift. No, I have not opened it yet. And good morning to you, too.” I stated in place of a greeting.

Every morning, Peyton called to see what Maddox gave me. Even though she planned to visit me in my opulent prison later that day, she still called first thing to find out what had been delivered.

Yesterday, I ignored her call while Maddox was visiting and when I called her back later, I avoided telling her about the cocoa butter lotion. I just couldn’t stomach the idea of telling her I’d fucked up again, and ended up pregnant on top of the whole mess I was already in.

“Well, open it up!” She prodded, eager to see what today’s gift was. It was kind of nice finding commonality in something so mundane and normal with Peyton for the first time in forever.

I seriously doubted it was a pair of shoes, considering I hadn’t put shoes on in weeks thanks to my confinement, but anything was possible. “Okay,” I grinned, flipping the top up, “It’s a—” I screamed bloody murder and slammed the lid down back on top of it.

“What?” Peyton screeched through the phone. “Liv! What is it?”

“Uh,” I stammered and tried to form a sentence to describe what was in the box waiting for me. “It’s uh—” I swallowed and instantly regretted it as nausea bubbled up in my throat. “Fuck.”

“LIV!” Peyton’s scream through the phone followed me as I ran to the toilet and threw up my orange juice. “Are you puking?”

Dane’s voice came through the speaker as I retched again, “What are you screaming about Puppet?”

“Liv screamed! She opened a box from Maddox and then screamed and now she’s puking.”

“Oh!” His sick voice cheered through the line as I rested my forehead on my arm. “She got the fingers.”

“The what?” Peyton gasped.

“Stop talking.” I groaned, “Or I’m going to puke again.”

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