Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
I shifted back, readying.
"I never agreed to that." His eyebrows furrowed together, and an ugly resentment gleaned from underneath them. Joining that cold mean glint that’d been there in the beginning. It was back. A belated thought skipped in the back of my mind, if this was the last thing his victims saw before he killed them?
“That was her gift. Not mine, Sister. I did nothing wrong. I was a victim, just like you.” His lip lifted, showing his white teeth in a snarl. “Except are you? Actually a victim?”
I went cold again and took a step back.
He began to follow me. “She died on impact. Her neck snapped when we hit the water. It happened in front of me.”
Mom knew what he was going to become. This was what she tried to stop. She knew before anyone else.
“What do you want, Brother?”
He ignored my question, a fleeting smile on his face, and held up that knife again. He turned it over to show me the jagged edge. “It’s a hunting knife,” Ben informed me. “I use it mostly for big game. Elk. Bear. Special occasions. I thought about using it on you. I learned how to use this from the people who raised me.” Suddenly, he dropped his hand and he stared at me, hard. “I was going to kill you, Sister. I came here to do that, but I admit,” his eyes skimmed over me, a softness appearing. “seeing you now, in front of me—I forgot what it was like.”
“What was what like?”
He ignored that too.
Vicky was rolling around, trying to get my attention. He had moved forward enough, toward me as I had edged backwards so she did this behind his back. Her eyes went to the window, and back to me. To the window, back to me. Howard was doing the same until he couldn’t keep looking. The movement was too much for him. He only stared out the window.
Their message was obvious, but if I ran, I needed a plan. I had no weapons on me. None close to me. I couldn’t run from him. He’d come back to them.
That would not happen. If I ran, I’d stop him. That was the only option.
Ben was talking, and he got my attention again, “…saw you on the screen and you’re a star. It’s why mom chose you in the end, because she saw it too. You’re a star. I thought so when we were little, but this was different. These people already love you.” He motioned toward Vicky and Howard, starting to turn.
I opened my mouth, needing to say something, do something. I had to distract him.
He didn’t turn all the way, his gaze quickly averting to me again. He sneered as he said, “Your new family. But you still went into the shadows with them. I watched you so I know what made everything change. He changed everything. When he came into the picture, you stopped hiding. You no longer went into the shadows. I couldn’t have that. Too many would start loving you. I won't share anymore. You're my family. You're my sister." He leaned forward, his face eerily calm. Peaceful. An unnatural possessive look shone from him.
I edged back a step another step.
I never closed the door. I'd let it go in my haste to find Vicky and Howard.
I could make a run for it, draw him away from them.
I glanced down, saw both Vicky and Howard watching me. Pain-filled eyes wide, the terror so evident, but there was more. A plea.
Vicky gave me the slightest nod. She was telling me to go.
Travis said the killer had real fighting experience. Brett had added, “… how to maneuver like that if he’s gotten hit a hundred or more times.”
I had skills, but they wouldn’t have been on Ben’s level. He got the shit beat out of him every Saturday night for entertainment. If he took the beatings, he learned how to give them.
Sweat trickled down my spine.
Whatever I was going to do, I needed to do it soon.
Ben was peering at me, solemnly. He wasn’t blinking. “Do you know what I’m saying to you?”
I drew in a breath, but something switched in me. If he was going to kill me, I was going to take him with me. If he was going to try and kill Vicky and Howard, I’d fight like hell. He messed up.
His head twitched, seeing my change.
“I don’t care what you’re saying.”
He snarled.
I took a big step backwards.
His eyes flicked to my feet.
“I told you my rules about that name. Ben died in that river, Billie. I’m only—”
“I don’t care,” I clipped out, again. Another step backwards. “You messed up, Ben.”
Another step. I was almost to the door.
His eyes bulged out.
I said, my voice rising, “You caught me off guard. I needed to process that you’re alive. You gave that to me when you talked to me. You let me hear you. In doing so, I made a few decisions.”