Chapter 5
Joanie shoved me back with all her strength, cursing, “Keyshia! You fucking psycho! How dare you stab him?!“”
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she clutched at him. “Vernon! Are you okay?!““Vernon!” Joanie cried out, her voice trembling with tears.
But Vernon ignored her. He pressed a bloody hand against his abdomen. Despite the blood, a twisted smile spread across his face as his eyes locked on me.\
“Keyshia,” he rasped, “you really are something.“”
“You actually stabbed me,” he said with admiration.”
He took a slow step forward, his gaze never leaving mine.
“And you think…” He took another step, his voice low and menacing, “…you can still walk out of here alive?“}
The distance between us shrank with every deliberate movement.
“There’s a road to heaven, yet you refuse to take it.“”
He wiped the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his eyes dark with fury.
“And hell has no door, but you insist on breaking through.”
“Fine then,” he hissed, snatching a pair of scissors from the table. His smile widened into something feral. “Let’s see, Keyshia. Whose life is tougher–yours or mine?“}
He lunged at me with the cutting tool.
But I didn’t flinch. My grip tightened around my knife, and I charged at him head–on.”
For a heartbeat, the scene froze, the air crackling with the promise of mutual destruction.”
But just as the clash seemed inevitable, a figure suddenly darted past me, landing a brutal kick square in Vernon’s chest. He crashed to the floor with a thud.
At the same time, Joanie rushed forward–only to meet the flash of my blade. My knife sank into her body at the very same spot I had struck her years ago.
The next second, her scream tore through the room.
ང་གི་ས་དཆད་ར་ས་ར་དང་རྐསྨན་པའབ་
“Who the hell are you?!” Vernon roared from the floor, clutching his side.
I didn’t even have time to register what had happened before I was swept into a warm and trembling The man holding me spoke with a voice so tight with fear it sounded than life itself.
embrace.
if he were terrified of losing something more precious
“Who allowed you to come here alone?“}
It was Kyler Butterfield.
He stared down at the shallow cuts across my skin, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.
His voice broke with fury and anguish. “Who hurt you?“”
His gaze lifted, fixing on Vernon with a deadly sharpness. “Was it you?”
Kyler bent, snatched up the scissors from the floor, and advanced. “You hurt her?“&
Still dazed, Vernon struggled to his feet. But when he saw Kyler holding me in his arms, fury eclipsed pain.
“Who the hell are you? What’s your relationship with her?”
That fool had no sense of danger. No instinct to retreat.”
Then his expression shifted as if realization dawned on him. “Oh, I see now.“\
He gave a cold laugh.
“No wonder she managed to show up here–it’s because of you, isn’t it? You’re the lover she’s been keeping for the past five years.“%
He wiped the blood from his lips.
“But you don’t know her past, do you? Let me tell you–she’s nothing more than the Browett’s dog. Since she was a kid, I locked her in a dark little room. She had nothing to eat but live snakes. Disgusting, wasn’t it?”
His eyes gleamed as he pressed on, enjoying every word.”
“And those years after we married! I tied her to the bed and–holy f-“8
He didn’t get to finish his little narrative.
Kyler moved like a storm breaking. His hand lashed forward, driving the scissors deep into Vernon’s inner thigh.
The scream that followed was bloodcurdling, the very same sound that had haunted me years ago when my Wiggle was
killed &
2/2 50.0%
P
killed.
That scream had carved itself into my soul then. Now, hearing Vernon wail in the same agony–it was like hearing a symphony, dark and magnificent.\
I watched him writhe on the floor, my chest heaving. And beside me, Kyler–always so refined, so gentle–stood transformed. His face spattered with blood, his gaze glacial and merciless as it fell on Vernon.”
“If that mouth of yours won’t stop,” Kyler warned, twisting the scissors free, “then maybe you don’t need it anymore.“}
Blood sprayed across his cheek, staining his sharp features. And at that moment, I had never found him more breathtaking- so fiercely beautiful it struck me straight to the heart.”
“Since you never learned how to live like a decent human being…” His grip tightened on the scissors. “…then go to hell, son of a bitch!”
With that, the blade plunged into Vernon’s shoulder. That moron’s scream shook the walls.
But just then, the door burst open.
A flood of security guards stormed into the private room, encircling us. Joanie, pale and trembling, regained her voice at the sight of them.”
“Grab them! Quick!” she shrieked, her desperation breaking into hysteria. “Those two lunatics attacked Vernon and mel Whoever cripples them, I’ll pay á million as a reward!“}
The presence of reinforcements reignited Vernon’s arrogance. He straightened as best he could, bloodied but sneering. “So what if you’re Keyshia’s lover?” he spat at Kyler. “So what if you helped her sneak in here? I tell you what, this is still my territory!”
His eyes turned on me, cold and murderous
“Keyshia,” he said, “if you don’t want your lover ending up like Wiggle, then crawl over here right now! Beg for our forgiveness, and show him who your real master is!”
Damn. His delusion, his arrogance–it was so fucking hilarious.
