Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
“If she has her hands in front of her,” Darcie managed to breathe out, “she can throw her arms over the headrest and strangle me from the back.”
“Do you see now? How she thinks?” Grace demanded in that voice devoid of its punch. “She’s lost it. All I want to do is put pressure on my wound. And meanwhile, she still hasn’t explained what her dead sister is doing in the back seat with me.”
Swallowing, I stopped the car and angled my body to look at her. From what little I could see, Grace did appear pale and sweaty, her face set in a wince. “You should be able to put pressure on it if you lean over hard against the door. It won’t be as comfortable, but it’s doable.”
Even as I shifted my gaze forward again, my attention on the wet landscape partially aglow in the Land Cruiser’s lights as we began to move again, my mind raced. It hadn’t escaped my notice that it was Grace attempting to escape her bonds, while Darcie had accepted my decision to incapacitate them both.
On the flip side, Darcie was in worse shape than Grace—even with Grace getting weaker—and might just be worried Grace would retaliate against her if given the chance. And Grace was also right on the point of Bea. But Darcie’s expression when she’d seen Bea, it had been the terrorized fear of a woman seeing a corpse risen. Surely Darcie wasn’t that good an actress? Especially when bleeding and in pain?
The lights gleamed against the melting snow up ahead, the engine revving as it started up an incline.
“Where are we?” I muttered. “I don’t remember a hill except right after the settlement.”
Neither woman said anything, all attention on the road as the Land Cruiser crept up and up and then we were at the top of the ridge, and I thought I saw a bright dot in the distance.
Frowning, I tightened my abdomen and switched off the headlights. The decision threw us into pure darkness but for those pinprick flashes behind my eyes, and at first I thought that was what I was seeing through the rain. Nothing but misfires from my brain.
But the flashes didn’t fade or flicker out. They resolved into tiny golden squares.
“That’s the settlement.”
Realization crept over me in a cold swell.
“Oops.” A single soft word from the murky black of the back seat. “At least I can call you Nae-nae now. Bea gave me permission, said to tell you she said it was all right.”
Even as my brain struggled to comprehend the impossibility of her words, she said, “Sorry about what’s going to happen next.” Words coated in sorrow. “But she has to pay.”
She jolted forward out of her seat, her arms somehow free.
Reaching around the headrest, she hooked one forearm against Darcie’s throat while gripping the wrist of that with her free hand so she could tighten the suffocating embrace to a brutal vise. This close, I could see her expression. Her teeth were bared, her eyes intent, no evidence in her features of the frailty she’d put into her voice only minutes ago.
All of it so fast that I was still belted into my seat.
It locked into place as I attempted to rush her. “Grace!” I struggled to undo the belt. “Stop!”
Darcie’s eyes were bulging, her face red and hot by the time I got free. And Grace, she was so strong. I couldn’t break her grip, my hands having no effect on the ropy lines of her tendons.
Climber, she was a climber, like Aaron.
That was where they’d met. In a club for climbers.
Grace was strong.
I’d forgotten that, gotten used to seeing her as petite and cute.
Think, Luna!
A flash to the past, to a self-defense course Vansi and I had done in high school. Not much had stuck, but I did remember one thing that had grossed me out so much I’d had a nightmare about it.
Shifting so that I was kneeling on my seat, I thrust both my thumbs into Grace’s eyes with all my weight behind it, as if I wanted to dig into the slippery orbs.
My stomach lurched, liquid pooling in my mouth.
Grace’s scream was a shrill thread in the darkness. Falling desperately back into the murk of the back seat, she pressed her hands to her abused eyes.
I tried not to think about the wetness on the pads of my thumbs, or if I had caused permanent damage to her eyes. Those most precious organs.
While she was still whimpering, I crawled into the back by going in between the two seats. Too late, I realized I should’ve switched on the interior light. All I could see was the vague shape of her. It would have to be enough—and since there was a fucking high chance that she was the one who’d murdered Nix, stabbed Ash, and poisoned Kaea, I forced myself to hit her hard in her wounded side.