Page 235 of The Night Shift
“Don’t get any ideas,” Cami says. She starts untying my right wrist. “Any sudden movements and the axe drops. Pretty boy’s face splits in two.”
She presses something cold and metallic into my palm.
The scalpel.
I stare at it. At her. My fingers twitch with the need to maul her.
“What the hell is this for?”
“Like I said. I’m not going to hurt him. You are.”
“Fuck you,” I snap.
“Why not? I thought you hated him. He stalked you. Broke into your place. He’s the reason that stupid cat is dead. The reason you’re even here. So come on, Holly. Be the killer I know you are.”
“No.” My voice is shaking but solid.
“Okay, well, the alternative is I press this button —” she lifts the pager, “— and you get to watch his face get cut in half.”
“Love,” Theo says, quiet and calm, like I’m not holding a weapon inches from his stomach, “you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. It’s okay. Let her press it. It’ll be quick.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I choke, tears spilling over. “I’m not letting you die.”
Cami throws up her hands. “Jesus Christ! What is the big deal? He’s not even your friend. I am!”
I look at her and all I see is rot. “You’re a monster.”
“I’m the monster? I’m the one who was there for you. I’m the one who helped you bury bodies. I’m the one who didn’t fucking call the cops the first time you cut some perv’s throat in an alley! I’m the one who let you sleep in my bed when you couldn’t stand to be alone!”
My hands are shaking so hard the scalpel clicks against my palm.
“Iwishyou’d turned me in that day.”
Cami smiles. “I was never going to do that, babe. I figured once he was done, you’d be weak enough to let me in. You’d need me. I’d fix you and make you love me. I’d make you mine. But then you killed him and changed everything. You turned us into something more than just friends. We arebound, Hol.You and me. Blood sisters.”
The floor drops out from under me. “You…you watched him…you watched it happen, and you didnothing?”
Theo speaks from his chair, pure fury. “You vile fucking cunt.”
Cami ignores him. Her eyes are only on me.
“Come on, now. You think I failed you? No, Holly. Isavedyou. If I’d stepped in, you never would’ve become what you’re meant to be. You were destined to kill men like him. All I did was set you free.”
Theo’s voice is a rasping whisper. “You better pray she kills me. Because if she doesn't, I’m going to tear the scalp right off your fucking skull.”
Cami laughs. “Go on, then,” she tells me. “Kill him and show him who you are. Let’s see if he still looks at you the same.” She steps closer, blood still drying on her hands. “You can’t bea serial killer and a good person, Holly. That’s not how this works.”
I want to rip her throat out, but my fingers won’t move. Because underneath the fury is something worse. Something sour and gut-deep.
Grief.
She was mybest friend.
Shewatched.
She didnothing.
“Hurry up, Holly. We don’t have all night.”
