Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Bennett
A red fountain jets from the wound as Cat yanks the blade backward again, and a bewildered look flashes in her blue eyes. Shock is setting in because she finally did it. She’s taken her first kill.
“Don’t stop now,” I whisper. “Ride it, kitten. Ride the wave and keep going. Feed your rage.”
Her breath comes in quick, short bursts, but instead of rushing headlong into a frenzy, she drops the knife and faces me. “Holy shit,” she says on an out breath. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy?—”
I lower my mask, then her face covering, and press my lips to hers. Fuck the cameras. She’s two seconds away from losing it, and I need to ground her again.
“Hey, look at me,” I whisper as I pull away. “You were amazing. Perfect. He’s gone, kitten, and you did it. You rid the world of a dark spot, but we aren’t done yet.”
With wide eyes and a gaping mouth, she turns her head and looks at her handiwork. She breathes a little faster.
Gripping her chin, I turn her head so that she faces me. “Slow down or you’ll hyperventilate. Breathe with me.” I place her hand on my chest, then take a deep breath in and a slow breath out, and she follows my lead. “He didn’t suffer. You slashed with such precision that he bled out in less than a minute.”
Cat turns her head the other way and vomits in the snow.
Guilt creeps up my spine as she shivers against me. I’m fairly certain she’s crying, and it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have pushed her so hard, but I’m just so fucking sick of seeing her inability to realize her strengths. Maybe she’s done enough for one day. Maybe she’s done too much.
“Do you want me to call the sleigh?” I ask.
She shakes her head, steps away from me, and swipes her cheeks with her gloved fingers before raising her face covering again. “No, we aren’t finished, remember?” Still crying, she bends and picks up the crossbow. “It gets easier the more I do it, right?”
I nod at her.
“Get behind me,” she says. “I’m still not ready to do this on my own.”
She stands at the head of the last lane. As I step behind her, the Cattle at the end begins to stir. His legs shuffle back and forth, and he blinks to clear the fog my fist cast over his brain. He hasn’t noticed the Angel of Death with a crossbow aimed at his skull.
God, I am so fucking hard right now.
“You said five women, right?” she asks.
I place a kiss on top of her head. “That’s right, kitten. Five women.”
“Tell me their names.”
I say each woman’s name. Rhonda. Greta. Elizabeth. Jane. Marianne. They matter. The piece of shit with a crossbow aimed at his brain doesn’t.
Cat raises her chin and the crossbow in unison. Bracing her arm, she prepares to fire.
“This is for them,” I say. “This is for all of them, plus the women he would have continued to hurt had he not been caught. You aren’t killing a person. You’re destroying a monster.”
Cat adjusts her grip.
“You can do it. Just pull the trigger and end him.” I firm my hold on her shoulders and will my strength into her.
She takes a deep breath, adjusts her stance, cocks her head to the side, and fires.
The man’s head whips to the side, and a spray of vermillion streaks the hay bale behind him. His legs straighten and dance a jig in front of him, and he falls onto his side, where he squirms in the snow and paints it red.
Cat doesn’t celebrate. She doesn’t jump up and down and squeal or any of those things she normally does when she’s accomplished something big. The gravity of what she’s done and what she still has to do is enough to keep her grounded. With the air of a predator, she kneels in the snow, then loads another bolt into the crossbow.
“It wasn’t a good shot,” she says. “He’s suffering.”
“Then finish it, kitten. End his reign of terror by beginning yours.”
With the weapon in hand, she stands and takes aim. I don’t stand behind her this time. Like a proud teacher, I watch my pupil apply her lesson all on her own. I watch as calm settles over her face and the bloodlust overtakes her.
I watch as she pulls the trigger.
The bolt whizzes down the lane and lodges in his chest. The man gasps and thrashes his legs as Cat loads another death missile into her war machine. She’s no longer shaking, and though she remains silent, I doubt her voice would tremble if she chose to speak.
“Whoops, I went a little wide on that one,” she says as she stands.
Once more, she aims, takes a deep breath, and fires. This time, the bolt lands right between his legs and disappears. The glue rips as the man’s lips tear apart, and he screams.
“Naughty, naughty kitten,” I say. “You shouldn’t play with your prey.”
“Prop him up. Point his ass toward me.”
She doesn’t have to tell me twice. I rush to the end of the lane.
The man is in pretty bad shape, and I’m fairly certain he’s already dead by the time I pile enough snow beneath his burgeoning gut to angle his ass toward her. That chest shot flooded his abdomen with blood, and he’s a bit unwieldy.
Like a good girl, she waits until I’m back behind her before she raises the weapon and shoots again, sending the ammo right into his ass. He doesn’t even flinch, unfortunately, which further solidifies my belief that we’ve sent him straight to hell.
Realizing her work is done, Cat flops down on her ass and flings the crossbow away from her. The adrenaline must be wearing off.
“I did it,” she says. “I actually did it. I . . . I killed him.”
I sit next to her and pull her into me. “Damn right you did. You killed the other guy too, don’t forget.”
“Oh shit, I did, didn’t I?” Cat lowers her mask, licks her lips, and looks around. A slight giggle slips out of her, and she covers her mouth. “When he said his niece, I just snapped. And then thinking about those elderly women . . . It was too much. I just...acted.”
“You were a little blue-eyed demon, that’s what you were. How did the knife feel? Or did you prefer the crossbow?” I swipe the hair away from her face. I don’t want to miss a moment of the way she looks right now. I’m hungry for each response. The need to know how it feels for her drives me wild.
She glances at the two victims— her victims. “The crossbow was better for me. I’ll be honest and admit that I didn’t miss any of the shots I took. I wanted him to hurt.”
“I know.” I place a kiss on her nose, the tip of which has turned too pink, then raise her mask again. “Are you ready for me to call the sleigh?”
“Yeah, go ahead and call, but let me see that knife.”
“It’s over by the first guy.” I point toward his body with one hand and pull the walkie from my pocket with the other. “Actually, you better call the sleigh. Someone might recognize my voice.”
“Oh, right.”
She depresses the button on the side and lets the coachman know we’re ready to leave. He must be incredibly annoyed, as we’ve been out here for less than a half hour and already want to head back. There’s no point in hanging around, though. I’ve accomplished my mission, and now I want to get her back to the bedroom and warm her up.
Watching Cat morph into a murderer has done something inside me. I see her in a different light now. She isn’t some meek little thing that needs protecting. She’s come into her own, and now people will need to be protected from her .
Part of me hopes that Kindra watched all of this. If she realizes just how strong her friend truly is, maybe she’ll back off when we finally tell her we’re fucking. I don’t plan to stop anytime soon, and Cat will be forced to come clean at some point. This might just supply the backbone she’s needed.
Cat returns with the knife and squats in front of me. After passing the walkie-talkie back to me, she lowers the knife toward her crotch.
“Whoa!” I shout as I snatch the blade away from the best pussy I’ve ever had. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“I can’t exactly strip down out here. I’ll freeze to death.”
“Strip down? Why would you . . . oh.”
As she looks up at me with a familiar hunger in her eyes, my brain finally registers what’s happening. Like many of us, this girl isn’t wired quite right, and now she’s turned on by justifiable homicide. It’s a common side effect.
“Say less.” I toss the knife at her feet, then unbutton and unzip and move things around until my cock is free, though still hidden from the cameras. I’m careful to keep my ass hidden beneath my pants as well, as I have a very distinctive pineapple tattoo on my left ass cheek.
I had to commemorate the Sinners Retreat somehow.
Cat manages to slice through her snow pants, but she struggles when she reaches her sweatpants, probably because she’s afraid to cut a second slit between her legs. Revolted by the possibility of that outcome, I take the blade from her and hold her pants away from her skin before cutting an opening.
“Fuck, it feels like Jack Frost is licking my pussy lips,” she says. “Warm me up!”
There’s no time for foreplay. Even if there is, I’m too hungry for her. I toss the knife away from us and lay her on her back. Like a beast in rut, I pin her to the ground and enter her. Heat coils around my cock, and a whimper rips from her chest.
“Fuck, I forgot about the piercing,” she says. “And the size.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing you’re so fucking wet.”
With a groan, I grab her wrists and pin them above her head. The layers of fabric between us make things difficult, but I keep her in place as I drive deeper inside her.
Her walls clench around me, gripping and pulling, and a bolt of pleasure shoots up my spine. She rocks her hips and takes every inch with a moan that lights my scalp on fire.
I fuck her harder, until her eyes roll back and her soul nearly leaves her body. Her breath matches mine, and we create a light fog as we grind against each other, each of us racing to finish before the carriage arrives.
And that’s the game, isn’t it? That’s why she wanted to call them. That’s why she didn’t want to fuck until they were on the way. Subconsciously, I think my little kitten wants to get caught.
“I’m so close, Bennett,” she says on a breathy moan that causes my balls to tighten. “Make me come. Please.”
In the distance, hoofbeats thump to the tempo of my thrusts. She hasn’t heard them yet, but when she does, she may come to her senses and put an end to everything. I release her wrists and put my hands on either side of her head, like earmuffs. I play it off as if I needed more leverage, but I’m only trying to buy myself a few more minutes. She’s close. A few minutes is all I need.
The angle helps, and I fuck her a bit harder, scooping my hips every few thrusts and teasing her clit with friction as I lean forward. Looking into my eyes, she rips off her glove and drives her hand into her pants. It’s not enough for me, though. I want to see her face when she comes. I want to hear every sweet sound, not have it muffled by a face mask.
I reach up and rip down her mask. My momentary lapse allows her to hear the jangle of tack growing closer and closer.
“Bennett, we have to stop,” she whispers, though her hips keep right on rocking against me. “They’re almost here.”
I lean down and nuzzle her cheek. “Then you’d better hurry up. I won’t stop until you come on my cock.”
“I-I can’t!” she says.
Oh, I think she can.
I move my hands to her shoulders and grind against her at a steady rhythm. She pushes my chest with one hand, silently begging me to save her, but I won’t. Not this time. This time, I’ll ruin her.
“Who’s going to come first?” I say. “The kitten or the sleigh?”
As one hand works her clit, her other grips my coat. But she isn’t pushing me away now. She’s pulling me closer.
“Fuck, I’m coming,” she whispers. “Cover my mouth, cover my?—”
I slam my palm over her parted lips, right as she lets out a scream. Her eyes widen and roll, and she sucks air through her nose as she releases cries of pleasure against my hand.
Meanwhile, I’m fighting a battle of my own. And I’m losing. Hearing, seeing, and feeling her come is too much, and I fill her. Even as the horses draw close enough that I can smell them, I push deep inside her and empty myself.
“You are so incredible, Cat. Pineapples don’t have shit on you.” I roll off of her and tuck myself away.
“Glad to know I have the fruit market cornered,” she says. “Now help me look presentable before the sleigh gets here.”
I sit up with a shit-eating grin and help her fix her hair. The sleigh pulls to a stop as we get to our feet.
“I take it you two had a nice evening?” the coachman says as I help Cat into the sleigh.
She gives me a sideways glance, then smirks. “You could say that.”
The coachman whistles when he spots the two bodies. “I guess those two didn’t.”
Cat looks out at the carnage. “No, they did not.” She looks at me and smiles. “But they had the evening they deserved.”
I take my seat beside Cat, and the driver urges the horses forward. Now if we can just get back into the mansion without any interference, this will be a perfect evening.