Page 84 of Final Installment
Luka blew out a pained breath.His entire gut burned.How long can I bleed out like this?What did Zec tell me about stomach wounds?Lower abdomen is the safest.Upper is where all the dangerous shit is—kidneys, liver, spleen.
“Don’t tell him!”Elona shouted furiously.“Don’t you dare tell him, Skender!He’s going to kill us anyway.We’re not letting him win the money, too!Keep your mouth shut, Skender.”
Even if her brother had wanted to speak, he was so far out of it from his beating that he seemed to be barely conscious.
“We’re real brave now.”Kristo stalked toward Elona.“Let’s see how long that holds out.”
“Don’t you fucking dare!”Luka shouted.“Don’t you dare touch her!”
As he jerked at his bonds, willing to dislocate every last bone he had, Luka watched in horror as Kristo bent down and withdrew a frighteningly sharp knife from a sheath on his other hip.Luka recognized it as the one Kristo had used the night he’d killed her father.
A trench knife, sharp and deadly with brass knuckles built into the handle.From the looks of it, that knife had been used on Skender tonight.A thick layer of blood coated the handle and stained the blade.
“If you cut her—.”
“You’ll what?”Kristo asked with a mean laugh.“Shout at me?”
Luka held his breath as his cousin slashed the plastic ties holding her ankles together and the one between the table leg and the cuffs holding her wrists together.He left the ones actually tied around her wrists in place.Still bound, Elona came up swinging, refusing to go down without a fight.
Kristo had obviously been expecting it.He popped her right in the stomach, burying the brass knuckles into her soft belly and forcing all the air from her lungs.She doubled over, her mouth agape and eyes wide with panic and agony.
Luka swore.He shouted.He threatened.He jerked and yanked and fought, but there was no freeing himself from this.
He’s going to kill her, and it’s all my fault.
Kristo curled his fingers in Elona’s dark hair and hauled her up straight.He kicked the back of her legs, forcing her to walk forward.Luka held her gaze, refusing to look away.He couldn’t let her do this alone.
Dragging the knife point along the neck Luka had been kissing only hours earlier, Kristo said, “This is the knife I used on your father.Seems fitting I’d use it on you, too.”
“Don’t,” Luka begged, no longer caring about his own pride.“Let her go, Kristo.Let her walk out of here.Her stepfather will pay you, and you can disappear.Kill me if you have to but let her go.”
Kristo didn’t even pretend to think about it.“What would be the fun in that?I’d miss out on the look on your face when I do this.”
“No!”Luka shouted so loudly his throat burned, but it wasn’t enough to stop his deranged cousin.Like an absolute psychopath, Kristo stabbed Elona in her belly.She shrieked and brought her zip tied hands down toward the blade now buried in her body.
“Don’t.”Kristo pressed his mouth to her ear.He kept the knife stabbed into her, the handle gripped in his evil fingers.“If you do, I’ll cut you from hip to hip.”
Luka had seen his cousin gut enough freshly caught fish to know that Kristo was capable of such savagery.
“Don’t worry, Luka,” Kristo said in a frightfully calm manner.“This isn’t the first time someone has had a knife in her belly.Is it, Elona?”
“Please,” she cried, tears spilling down her face.
“Oh, you’re right.It wasn’t a knife back then.It was a scalpel.”
“Stop,” she begged.
Luka glanced between his cousin and the woman who had captured his heart.What was this?What was he saying?
“That’s her biggest secret,” Kristo said matter-of-factly.“The really shameful one.Right, Elona?”
She shook her head, lips pressed together and refusing to talk.
“She’s got daddy issues,” Kristo explained, looking at him now.“Obviously.”He laughed in the meanest way.“You don’t binge eat yourself to this size without having some serious mental issues.”
“Fuck you,” Elona ground out, no longer taking his bullshit.
“No, it’s okay,” Kristo assured her in an eerily soothing way.“Luka’s mother was fat, too.She ate her feelings just like you.Not sure if that’s why Luka’s father kept straying or if the straying led her down the path of eating.”He shrugged.“Chicken.Egg.”
