Page 252 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
Her father was in the living room.
And her brother…
Piper bent in two and vomited on the floor.
Oh, God. Please, no.
It was her fault. It was her fault.
Agony shredded her apart, and she slipped through a puddle of blood in the kitchen as she went for the phone on the counter.
She froze when the voice hit her from behind.
“Told you that we would have been just fine if you kept your fucking mouth shut, but you couldn’t do that, could you?” Justin tsked from across the room. “You made me have to go and do this.”
Ice slicked down her spine.
A slow melting of fear and misery and disbelief that crawled beneath the surface of her skin.
She was facing away, and the partition counter that sectioned off the kitchen from the family room separated them.
She could do this. She could do this.
Her fingers crawled for the telephone.
“Wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
She stilled like she was giving, then her hand shot for it. She managed to get it around the handset and yanked it from the cradle.
Justin blew through the opening and into the kitchen in the same second. The phone tumbled from her hand as she whirled toward him.
A bloodied knife dangled from his hand.
She attempted to slowly back away.
“We could have been so good.” His voice teemed with feigned regret. “And here you told me you were game for a good time.”
“You killed them.” She croaked it, her hands fumbling behind her as he edged around the small island in her direction.
“Warned you, just like I warned her. Now I have to take care of you both.”
He lunged at her, and Piper yelped. Her hands flew out to grab onto the closest thing she could find.
She yanked the blender from the counter, and the cord ripped out of the outlet as she whirled it around and threw it at Justin.
He lifted an arm over his face to block it. It struck him against the forearm, and he roared as he flung it away. The appliance clattered to the ground, and the glass of the carafe shattered at his feet.
It only seemed to enrage him more. “You stupid bitch. Warned you. Fuckin’ warned you. What’s it going to take to make you listen?”
He slashed the knife at her.
The tip whipped by an inch from her chin.
She fumbled around to flee, using her hands to propel herself around the other side of the island. Trying to get to the opening that led back out of the kitchen.
She made it around one corner when a slash of pain cut across her shoulder.
A whimper raked out of her as she realized she’d been cut, but she ignored the searing burn as she whipped around the counter and started for the family room.
