Page 21 of Bound to a Killer
“Rough night?” he keeps going, clearly unphased by the frazzled outbreak. “Did your little plaything put up too much of a fight?”
I jab the keys into the ignition, twisting hard until the car rumbles to life. “I’m serious, cut the shit. We’re in big trouble.”
“Oh, that’s a major understatement,” he drawls, the obvious sarcasm in his voice making me grit my teeth. “Did I not warnyou that if you went through with this, she’d find a chance to get away? That this entire thing would be our downfall?”
“Who the fuck told you she got away?”
“Relax, I got her already.”
I slam my brakes right before I reverse into a downed tree branch. “You what?”
“Yeah, she’s right next to me,” he confirms. “In fact, we’re pulling up right behind you.”
My eyes snap to the rearview mirror, adjusting it higher and away from the branch that still juts over the frosted ground.
Relief sweeps through me almost immediately when I find her slouched beside him. We’ve avoided a bigger mess for now, but any solace I feel is quickly squandered by a far more troubling emotion as I take in her unconscious form.
There’s no telling what went down before he managed to transport her back here, but I imagine it was far from a joyride.
I step outside, unsettled by my inability to silence the doubts that insistently climb through the fractured parts of my firm exterior. I shouldn’t feel anything toward her besides contempt after this failed stunt she’s managed to pull off, but can I really fault her for trying to escape?
I’ve only been pinning my failures on an innocent girl who’s done nothing but react like the victim I turned her into. This is all on me.
The sharp snaps of the twigs beneath Tanner’s tires abruptly fade as he comes to a complete stop, leaving an inch or two between our bumpers.
We both hang up.
I promptly stalk over to him as he shifts to rise from his seat, the gap between us closing rapidly, the silent accusation resting on the edge of his curled tongue. “You’re lucky I caught her in time before she made it out in the open. She was pretty damn close, too.”
“How’d you knock her out?” I ask, evading more scrutiny from him.
He smoothes out his tongue so it sweeps across his top row of perfectly straight teeth as he slowly regards me with narrowing eyes. “Just some chloroform.”
“That could’ve killed her,” I snap before reining my tone back. “It doesn’t matter. Forget it.”
My eyes skim past him and settle on the girl in his car. Her head lolls against the seatbelt, loose strands of long, damp hair plastered across her face, obscuring it from view, but despite that, her hunched, fragile frame pulls at something raw inside of me. Something I had left to die years ago.
It’s long been replaced with callous ruthlessness and a pang of hunger to hurt more than cherish, but looking at her sparks a distant flicker of remorse for my actions, for everything I’ve done. It clings to me like a stain I can’t wash away. I’m stuck between being grateful she didn’t make it out of the woods and pitying her failure, though she’s still blissfully unaware of it for now.
My attention flicks back to Tanner when he shifts on his feet. “If it did kill her, it’d definitely solve our problem.”
Gritting my teeth, I angle my jaw, twisting my neck until it cracks, then channel the rest of my energy into tugging at the thickest part of my hair near the roots. “We can’t just kill off an innocent girl. No matter how bad the situation is. That’s not who we are.”
“Hey, I never said that.” He lifts a brow. “I said it wouldn’t hurt if the drugs did the work for us. That’s different.” He smirks in that obnoxious way that makes me want to connect my fist to his jaw, but I abstain.
“Funny,” I deadpan.
Shrugging his shoulder, he ventures slightly further with his line of questions, as if baiting me. “You put us in a toughspot, Ledge. One way or another, this matter needs to be solved. If you refuse to handle it, then I will.”
“I told you already, I am handling it.”
“Are you?” he fires back.
“I am.” My molars grind together, and I have to actively remind myself to loosen the tension. “Nobody even knows we have her.”
“But they will.” His eyes narrow. “What happens when she makes it across news headlines and Antonio gets a whiff of it? What then, huh? You think he’ll take kindly to us withholding sensitive information from the rest of The Ringer? Get your head out of the sand. He’s not going to let her go back, and she can’t be trusted, anyway. Believe me. I already heard an earful from little Aria over there.”
My mind freezes at the small piece of detail that slipped between his verbal onslaught.
