Page 125 of Jump or Fall
If Gordon heard the jab, he stayed silent.
Mara pulled a knife from her belt. The metal caught the dim light as she dragged the edge across the varnished wood, chipping away at its perfect surface.
“Don’t try to provoke me,” she said flatly. “It won’t end how you want.”
“You were always a quick learner.”
She stood and looked closely at the blade in her hand. “Not quick enough to act, though.”
Dawson could still move his neck, but he didn’t bother watching her pace around him.
Mara ran the sharpened edge along the stubble on his cheek. “Stupid choices will result in stripes.”
A flick of her wrist left a shallow cut beneath his eye. He exhaled sharply through his nose, blood welling up in tiny beads before sliding down his face.
“Exceptionally stupid choices will land you in the Outskirts.”
Below the first cut, she pressed harder, dragging the blade down to his chin. He clenched his teeth, but the grunt of pain betrayed him. Blood poured from the wound, pooling in the crevices of his armor.
His lip curled. “I’m going to rip that face right off your fucking head.”
She backhanded him, sending a red spray across the floor. “I thought you liked dangerous things.” She clutched his hair in a tight grip and trailed the tip of the blade around his eye. His gaze still held no fear. “‘A lovely young armorer with tiger eyes’. Who knew you were so weak?”
“Not as many tiger eyes now.”
She tapped the outer corner to switch her vision to thermal. His form turned to bright shades of orange and yellow. “Now, I get to watch your body turn cold.”
She released him, making his head fall forward.
Blood had dripped into his mouth, so he spat on the floor. “Come on, doll. I know you don’t hate me. You wouldn’t have gotten rid of Karena if you did.”
Mara leaned down and pressed the tip of the blade to his untouched cheek. This time, he flinched. “What did I do to your precious Archon’s daughter?”
“Don’t play dumb, sweetheart.” He grinned. The mess of open wounds and red stain on his teeth was the antithesis of his entire image. “She told me she removed her implant because of you.”
That had been the final straw for him. Once he’d found out, he raked his claws across her face and left her on the edge of Eight. Mara had heard the whispers when people thought she wasn’t close enough to hear, speculating on when she’d be next. Since then, Dawson always checked to make sure her implant was in place.
“How’s that possible?” she asked innocently. “I was living under your watchful eye.” She took the edge of the knife and sliced diagonally across his nose, splitting the cartilage.
Almost how Lukas’s had looked.
His teeth ground together so hard, she thought they might shatter. “I don’t know how. You cunts are always finding ways to scheme.”
She dropped onto the couch beside him, the old leather groaning under her weight. Without hesitation, she plunged the knife into it, carving deep, ragged holes into its hideous surface. She hated how the sticky, reeking leather had clung to her skin—another material meticulously chosen to prevent any misdeeds from seeping through or leaving a mark.
If only she’d been made of something less porous. If only the armor she’d spent her life perfecting could’ve protected her fromhim.
“For someone watching everything, you’re surprisingly unobservant,” she mocked.
He chuckled dryly, satisfaction smeared across his bloodied face. “Once you make someone afraid even when they’re alone, you don’t have to watch as closely. The shadows in their mind will do the job for you.”
She jabbed his shoulder with the knife. “Apparently, you do.”
With a sigh, she went on. “Your prized cow cornered me in Two and said I ruined her life. I flinched when she grabbed my arm because of a new stripe. Of course, that just fueled her tirade—how I didn’t deserve to live at the house, how she’d hire someone to kill me, and blah, blah, blah. So, I told her you had my implant removed.” Mara snorted. “I hadno idea you promised her a baby, I just wanted to piss her off. But I knew by the look on her face…” She shook her head. “That broke her. It’s not my fault she was stupid enough to believe me.”
“And here I thought you were the quiet, sweet one.”
“Being your toy was easier than being her enemy.”
