Page 41 of Master of Lies

I jumped with a muffled squeak. What the hell? That was so close. So loud.

Something big had just happened. Something definitive. I wondered how long I would have to wait to find out who’d won that round.

I imagined last night’s monsters prowling around above me, and no Jed to leap out of nowhere and defend me. It didn’t feel good.

Part of me was convinced Jed was my hero. Selfless, noble, brave. Unfortunately, it was not a part I particularly trusted. That part was too frightened, too compromised, too hormonal. Primordial cavewoman brain. Jed had protected me from predators, and then he’d fucked me, expertly, thoroughly. Of course my inner cavewoman had glommed on to him. Of course. She wanted to stay alive…and to get some more of that excellent dick, too, while she was at it.

Please, please. Just don’t be dead.I repeated it under my breath like a mantra. As if it made any difference. What had happened, had happened. It was done.

But whatever was going on out there, Jed had given me a fighting chance to survive. Even if they took him down. I was grateful for that, no matter what.

I crept forward in the cave, craning my neck out, so I could see the other side of the cave, where Jed said I could climb up to the top of the cliff without having to drag myself up a rope, which would be very hard on my own. I’m pretty strong, and I work out in the gym and use a climbing wall, but try as I might, I still suck at pull-ups.

I see and hear nothing. No one talking, no one moving. Just the wind howling.

Maybe Jed had miraculously taken them all out. A girl could hope, but hope was not a plan of action, and I needed one of those before my head exploded. How long was I supposed to wait before I sneaked up and peered over the cliff to investigate?

It made sense to wait, as Jed had directed, until he came back and gave me the all clear. But if he didn’t, then clearly, the worst had happened. The unthinkable. And I had to sit tight, alone, in misery, and wait the invaders out. That was his reasoning, and it was solid. It was cold and wet in here, but with what he’d given me, I would survive.

What I might not survive were the what-ifs running through my mind. What if Jed was wounded out there, and I was just letting him bleed out in the snow while I cowered in my mouse-hole? What if there was information I could glean about the situation outside from just a swift peek over the cliff? I wouldn’t even disturb the virgin snow that was my cover. They would have to be looking right at me to notice my head pop up like a prairie dog. What were the odds someone would look right then?

I had to do it. Just in case I could help. It wasn’t in my nature to be passive.

I crawled out onto the ledge, and studied the snow-dusted rocks to the right of me that Jed had said were a way straight up the cliff face. I carefully clambered upward, my fingers burning as I scrabbled for purchase in the snowy, jagged rocks. Almost there—

I shrieked as someone grabbed the back of my coat, jerking me up off my feet.

I stared at the upside-down face hanging over me. It was straight out of a nightmare. A blank plastic mask, slits at nostril and mouth level for breathing. Bloodshot eyes, surrounded by puffy, purplish flesh, visible through the small eyeholes.

“Freya Masters, eh?” The ghoul spoke in a nasal, gravelly voice that scraped on my nerves like steel wool. “You should have stayed home and eaten birthday cake with Holly. Now you’re deep in the shit, you dumb cunt.”

Holly?Holy fuck, the guy knew everything about me. And he was so freaking strong. He dragged me up with one hand. I could have slid out of the coat, but the thought came to me too late, and I would have almost certainly tumbled to my death.

He dragged me over the sloped, rocky top of the cliff, bumping and bashing me over the boulders, and tossed me onto the stony ground, knocking out my air.

I rolled up into a ball to protect my belly as he kicked me in the thigh, hard, and oh, fuck that hurt, hurt,hurt…

Rough hands on my body, as he swiftly relieved me of the Walther PPK that Jed had given me. Which made me instantly hate myself for not being quick enough to pull it out and kill him with it first.

He pointed it at me. “Don’t move, or I’ll shoot you right in the face, bitch. Can you still talk, or did he fuck all of your brains out?”

I nodded. “Y-y-yes,” I stammered, teeth chattering.

The masked guy grabbed the front of my coat and hauled me upright, sticking the gun under my chin. I struggled to get my feet beneath me as he jerked me around.

So…hard…to breath. The pressure crushed my throat, as if he was strangling me. I stared up at the sky, because I can’t do anything else. Snowflakes burned on my face, caught on my lashes. They danced in my vision, eerily detailed and clear.

“Jed Clearwater!” His sudden bellow made me gasp. “I’ve got your fuck-toy here, with her own gun up under her chin. Do you want her? Or do you give a shit?”

No answer. Just the wind rushing, howling in the rocks.

“I guess that’s my answer. I guess I can indulge myself, then, hmm? I can start with your face. Those pretty lips. Pretty little pink ears. Like a shell. Isn’t that what they say about ears? That they’re like shells? We’ll see if it looks like a shell when I shoot it off. More like a bloody shred of raw pork. But we’ll wait to carve up the big stuff until your shithead brother is watching it on streaming. I want him to see every detail.”

He grabbed my ear, yanking it hard enough to make me scream.

“Shut up, bitch,” he snarled. “Hold still.”

“Stop.”

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