Page 30 of Killer (Project)

“You don’t know?” Killer crossed the distance between us gripping me by the throat and pressing me against the wall so fast, my neck snapped back and my head bounced off the cement. Stars formed in my eyes, and I could taste blood in my mouth.

“Oh, the joy. See, Maggie there has been hiding a secret from you. Her and her father work for me. This whole time it’s been nothing but a ploy to get you back here. I mean, you were our most accomplished project of them all.”

Tears formed in my eyes as the grip Killer had on my throat increased. I could feel the oxygen deprivation taking me. I clawed at his hands, my attempts fruitless.

“I don’t believe you.” Killer growled immediately after the words left his mouth. He was at war with himself. Fighting man against monster. Diesel against Killer as his eyes shifted between the two of us.

Roger laughed again, but this time it was darker, “I don’t care if you believe me. In reality, you don’t really care either since you’re three seconds away from killing her anyway.” I could feel the hold on my throat loosen, and I took that moment to breathe, gasping in a breath.

“Tell me it’s a lie, Maggie. Tell me that this isn’t true.” Tears fell from my cheeks as he stared into my eyes. How could I tell him that I had done all of this for him? That the very reason I was here in the first place was to find a cure?

“I can explain, I’m not really—”

“TELL ME THE FUCKING TRUTH!” he screamed in my face. I couldn’t form a word, nor could I swallow, my mind on autopilot, my eyes trained on him.

“I can smell your fear…” Killer leaned into me, his nose skimming up and down the sensitive skin of my neck. “I can taste it.” His tongue darted out and licked a path from my earlobe to my collarbone. My breath hitched, my heart beat faster, and my pulse jumped out of my throat and into my stomach.

“Why is it so hard to believe? Little Maggie isn’t the saint you made her out to be. I mean, I could’ve told you that. The way she sucked my cock…”

“ENOUGH!” Killer bellowed, his voice like thunder. His hand had tightened on my throat before he asked again.

“Tell me the truth, Maggie. Tell me that he’s lying, and I’ll take all the pain away.” I could see Diesel beneath the surface fighting for us. He wanted to believe that I hadn’t sided with the company who took his life from him. Who took me from him.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Killer. I didn’t know. I swear, I had nowhere else to go, and I needed the money.” I cried, not only for us, but for the loss of him as I watched his eyes shut, and his world go dark. Most of all, I cried because I truthfully did all of this for him.

Panic gripped me as the hand at my throat grew tighter and tighter. My father’s screams echoed around me, and I could still see the sick smile on Roger’s face. After all, he had gotten what he wanted… He wanted to break him. To pin us against one another.

“Release her—I want her,” Roger said. My eyes grew wide as a smile formed on Killer’s face. It was the scariest thing I had ever seen.

“Sure, take the bitch. She’s no fucking better than the rest of you.” He released me, stepping away as I slid down the wall. Air filled my lungs as tears escaped my eyes. My heart was breaking—shattering. There would be no starting over. There would be no finding peace with the man I loved because the man I loved was once again gone.

Roger glanced over at the lab assistant, and with one nod, the steel door lifted and he swooped in, pulling me up onto my unsteady legs and onto the other side of the bars by my hair. The pain in my scalp didn’t register to me nearly as much as the pain in my heart. I would rather be beaten over and over again than to have him look at me as if I were the enemy.

“No problem… I’ll take good care of her,” Roger commented.

“Take her, but just know that she is mine to fucking kill. She is mine to end. And Maggie...” The way my name slid off his tongue caused me to take a step back, pushing further into Rogers’s chest. “I will kill you. You can run, you can hide, you can cry, you can even beg me to spare your life, but just know that I will be the reason you take your last breath.”

It was with those words and the lack of life in his eyes that made me realize, for the first time in my life, I was afraid of the man that I loved. I knew if he got his hands on me again, he would, in fact, end my life with a twist of his wrist.

“Perfect, you can kill her later. I have some things I want to get out of her first.” Roger gripped my hair tighter, pulling me toward the sliding glass doors behind us.

“You know what to do, Richard,” Roger added. I could see the sick smile creeping onto Killer’s face as my father entered his cell.

“I’ll be sure to kill Daddy dearest first...” A sob escaped my throat as I saw the terror fill my father’s eyes. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to forgive Killer if he harmed my father. I would never be able to look at him the same.

“Please don’t,” I begged out of thin air as Killer’s smile grew even more.

“I’ll enjoy every fucking second of it. Then I’ll come for you next.” He lurched forward just as the door slid down, my father on the wrong side of the bars.

“Please don’t do this, Roger, please don’t.” I huffed the words out, my heart beating out of my chest.

“Now, now, Maggie.” He tried to soothe me with his words, but it wasn’t enough. I didn’t want him. Then I felt the prick in my arm and the world around me growing dark. I wanted to fight against it, but I didn’t. Instead, I allowed myself to freefall into the darkness.

There was no hope for me. I had lost Diesel, and Killer was out for blood.

seventeen

killer

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