Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
dani
“Move,” Tristin ordered, jamming the barrel of the shotgun harder into my spine.
I trudged through the snow, my hands in my jacket, my fingers wrapped around the small blades I had in each pocket.
Tristin didn’t search me before forcing me at gunpoint into the woods, making me wonder if he really thought this through.
His friend, Leon, was walking beside me, not saying a word as we went deeper into the forest. From the way he was swaying, he wasn’t sober, but it was clear he wasn’t as drunk as he’d been acting at the bar.
My heart was pounding furiously at being trapped in this situation, but I wasn’t panicked.
I was almost getting Déjà vu from when Lucas marched me out here.
Though when he did it, that had been on my terms. Tristin took me by surprise tonight.
At the bar, he’d told me that Susan wanted me back at the clinic.
In my annoyance, I hadn’t even considered that he was lying.
Probably because Susan knew of my past. She held my future in her hands—meaning if she wanted me back at work at nine at night, I would have went.
“What do you want?” I asked, eyeing Leon.
I didn’t have the energy to pretend to be scared.
There was nothing that could touch the fear I had this morning when I looked out the café window.
I was still going back and forth about whether I really saw my attacker or not.
Then I had to spend all day with Susan, and she was making me miss Natalie.
I was fucking exhausted. Dealing with Tristin was the last thing I wanted to do.
“Monty should have caught up to us by now,” Leon said, nerves coating his voice.
“He’s fine.” Tristin brushed off his friend’s worry. “He had to distract her fucking guard dog.”
Interesting. He did think about this enough to get me away from Kole. Yet, there wasn’t any part of me that was scared. Tristin was nothing compared to what I’d dealt with in the past.
I nearly stumbled over my next step, my body reacting slower than usual. I shook my head, trying to clear the sudden daze. It was freezing out, but this wasn’t from the cold. Tristin’s snicker had me looking over my shoulder, meeting his smirk.
“It’s too bad you didn’t drink all your soda,” he said in a tauntingly cold voice. “Leon put on a good show to slip in those crushed sleeping pills at the bar.”
Ice slid through my veins. “You drugged me?”
He shoved me forward. “Can’t have you running off, can I?”
A stab of apprehension hit my chest. I could take care of myself, but it would be much more difficult to fight off two men if my reflexes were sluggish.
I kept a tight hold on my pocketknives as we stepped onto the wooden bridge.
The river below was moving fast like always, making it hard to hear anything else over the rushing water.
I wasn’t sure if the drugs were going to hit me harder, and I decided I needed to end this before it possibly got worse.
There was no way I was going to chance passing out in front of them.
Once we were halfway across the bridge, I spun around, knocking the gun away from me.
Tristin let out a yell, scrambling back and aiming it back at me.
“Keep fucking walking,” he hissed.
I tilted my head. “Or what? If you wanted to kill me, you would have done it already.”
He seemed taken aback by my words, but it only took a second for his anger to build.
“You think I won’t kill you? I want answers first. I know you had something to do with Lucas’s death.
Maybe you’re even the killer. That whole situation in the police station last week was probably a show you put on. ”
I giggled, fighting the pull of the sleeping pills.
“Is that what you think?” I tested my luck by stepping closer to him.
He shoved the gun into my chest hard enough to bruise.
“If that’s true, maybe bringing me out here was a mistake.
If I’m the killer, what’s stopping me from murdering both of you? ”
“Shut up,” he snapped. “Just admit it. You killed Lucas.”
“We need to hurry up,” Leon muttered, rubbing the back of his head. “If Kole finds her here, he’s going to fucking kill both of us.”
“He won’t find us,” Tristin exploded, sparing a glare at his friend. “No one is leaving until she admits it.”
“You’re fixating on me,” I mocked. “It’s not healthy. You should probably see a therapist.”
“You can’t hide behind Kole out here. This whole tough act is getting old.”
“I’m acting tough?” I asked, my voice sickly sweet. I trailed my eyes down his body. “Look at how large that shotgun is. Compensating for something, Tristin?”
His eyes darkened with rage. “You think you’re funny?”
He lowered the weapon, and I stumbled back but moved too slowly.
Pain exploded over my face when he backhanded me across the cheek.
I cursed the drugs coursing through my system when he slapped me again.
I gritted my teeth, my rage slowly building.
With everything happening in this town, I couldn’t afford to do anything to bring suspicion on me.
“Fuck it,” Tristin muttered, his words clearly for Leon. “We’re not going to the cliff. We’ll do it here and throw her body in the river. We’ll say it was an accident.”
Leon didn’t respond for a few moments. “And if Kole doesn’t believe us? He has a thing for her.”
“We’ll be fine,” Tristin argued. “We both tell the same story. With the shit going on in this place, Harry doesn’t have time to worry about us.”
I blinked a couple times, my limbs getting heavier by the minute.
I couldn’t tell if it was the drugs, Tristin’s hits, or the biting wind making my face numb.
Yet at the same time a familiar spark ignited as I stared at him while he bickered with Leon.
My stomach churned anxiously, recognizing the signs.
I was going to snap just like I did with Lucas.
The urge to kill these two was surpassing all other logical thoughts.
Before this, I had every intention to leave Tristin alone. Not anymore. I hesitated for a split second even as adrenaline flooded me. The craving used to be constant until I stopped killing a few years ago. Then Lucas woke it back up. Yet, this was the first time in weeks I’d had this hunger.
My eyes snapped to Tristin when he stormed closer. I could have tried to stop him when he grabbed my throat, but instead, I remained still. His gaze met mine, questions filling them when I didn’t fight back or even move. He didn’t squeeze hard, giving me a chance to keep breathing.
“Tell me what you did to Lucas,” he screamed, spit flying from the corner of his mouth. “Or I’m throwing you over the railing. No one will find your body for months.”
“I killed him.” My cold words had both Tristin and Leon gaping at me. A smirk lifted my lips as I slowly slid my hand into my jacket pocket. “I shoved him off the cliff and stayed there, listening to his screams until he hit the ground.”
“You crazy bitch,” Tristin growled, grasping my throat harder. “I fucking knew it.”
“Hey,” Leon yelled in panic. “What the hell are you holding?”
I flicked open my knife, swinging it at Tristin’s arm before he had a chance to react.
It took all of my focus, fighting my sluggish movements from the sleeping pills.
Since I was at a disadvantage, I needed to inflict as much damage as I could.
The anguished scream tearing from Tristin’s throat made me believe I hit his bone.
He ripped his hand away from my neck, and I followed as he stumbled away.
This time, I plunged the knife between his ribs, his thick jacket doing nothing to shield him.
Leon was bellowing his friend’s name, and I lost him in the dark when Tristin shoved me away.
I managed to keep a hold onto the knife as I fell backward, landing on my ass. The frozen snow did nothing to comfort my fall, and pain flared through me as I scrambled back to my feet. My head had its own heartbeat, and I staggered a step, my limbs frozen.
I found Leon, my heart clenching when he got his hands on the shotgun that Tristin dropped. After repositioning the knife in my hand, I whipped it at him. I bit my tongue, aggravation slapping into me when it sailed past him and planted into the wooden railing of the bridge.
My arrogance was going to get me killed.
It had been years since I’d thrown knives.
I knew I was out of practice the night Kole had followed me to the factory, and I threw my blade at him and missed.
Add that to the drugs in my system, and the freezing temperature, I couldn’t fight how I usually did.
I sprinted across the narrow bridge, slamming into him when he raised the gun. A whoosh of air left him when his back crashed into the railing, panic filling his face when the wood creaked.
He clamored forward, deciding to swing the gun at me since I was too close for him to take a shot. I bit back my cry of pain when the metal smashed into my side.
Forcing one foot in front of the other, I rushed at him again, grabbing the barrel of the gun with one hand when he moved to hit me again. I slipped my other hand into my pocket, grasping my other pocketknife.
“Let it go,” he grunted out, attempting to yank it away. “I’ll let you live.”
I slashed my blade at his wrist, and his hold on the gun faltered.
But my strength wasn’t anything with the sleeping pills poisoning me.
He ripped away from my hold, only for the weapon to slip from his hand.
The frigid cold was also working to my advantage, because it was affecting him too.
The gun slid on the snow as we both dove for it.
Maneuvering my body, I kicked my feet out first, the frozen snow letting me slide almost as if I was on ice.
Unlike Leon, I didn’t want the gun. I just needed to make sure he couldn’t use it against me.
He reached for it, but I was closer. My boot hit the barrel, causing it to skid across the hard snow.
“Fuck,” Leon cursed as it teetered on the edge of the bridge before falling into the rushing water.
Thank fuck. At least I didn’t have to worry about either of them having a weapon that could beat out my knife.
With a yell, he moved too quickly for me to get out of the way. He landed on top of me, his weight crushing me, making it difficult to breathe. Gripping the knife, I rammed it into his side. He grunted, rolling off me when I pulled the blade out to keep a hold on it.
Before he had a chance to fight back, I reached over and stabbed him again.
Every move I made felt like I was swimming in Jello.
My limbs didn’t want to cooperate, which only irritated me.
When I attacked, I was clean and organized.
This was going to be messy. But it was about survival this time.
I didn’t have a chance to look around to see where Tristin was when Leon lunged at me again.
“Give me that fucking knife,” he hissed, his strength surprising me when his fingers curled around my wrist, stopping me from stabbing him again.
When he moved to climb back on top of me, I threw my fist into his throat as hard as I could.
He reared back, releasing my arm and rolling away to protect his throat.
He choked out breaths, coughing through the pain of my hit.
I climbed to my knees, crawling over to him.
I tangled my fingers in his hair, ripping his head back.
When I rested my blade against his exposed throat, he went utterly still.
“This isn’t usually how I do this,” I panted. “But since you drugged me, we all have to suffer.”
“Wait,” he begged, fear lacing his voice. “We can all walk away from this—”
“No,” I cut him off, “we can’t.”