go. He couldn’t.
I decided that I wasn’t going to beg. If I was going to leave this world tonight, I wasn’t going to do it pleading for mercy. My pleas would fall on deaf ears anyway. Lex wasn’t human, he was an animal. I narrowed my eyes and stared at him in defiance.
“You think you’re tough, little girl?” Lex asked, noticing the shift in my demeanor. “Okay, let’s see how tough you can be. I bet I can put the fear back in your pretty eyes.”
He picked up his switchblade and gently dragged it along the bare skin of my thigh. It was a strange sensation, the cold blade tickling. He teased my skin with it, never taking his eyes off of mine, and then plunged the knife deep into my thigh. I flung my head back, screaming in pain as Lex laughed.
“Go ahead and scream, Breezy. There’s no one around to hear you. Let it all out. I like it,” he taunted.
I clenched my teeth to stop the shrieks from escaping my lips. I held my head as high as I could, doing my best to avoid looking at the knife handle sticking out of my flesh. He looked at his watch as if this whole thing was boring and taking too long.
“This has been fun, but I’ve got a boat to catch,” he said, taking one long stride back over to my chair and wrenching the blade out of my leg. A tidal wave of blood flowed freely from the wound, and I couldn’t stop the strangled cries that slipped from my lips.
“If I were you, I would pray that the smoke kills you before the flames,” Lex said calmly as he stroked my hair, getting blood on his hands in the process.
Lex started to walk away but turned abruptly and sent a fist into my eye and then my side. Between the earth-shattering pain and the punch to my side, it felt like the wind had been knocked right out of me. I couldn’t breathe. I could no longer hold my head up. I let it fall in front of me, and I could barely see. I was drifting in and out of consciousness.
The smell of gasoline registered in my brain. I didn’t feel the sting of it on my wounds, which meant he’d dumped it on the floor around me. I heard footsteps. Lex’s hand was holding my forehead up. I saw his eyes through my one good one. He let go, and my head fell forward. I heard the sound of a match striking the box. “Sweet dreams,” Lex whispered.
And then the flames—oh the flames. Heat licked at my skin, like the devil was in that very room and breathing down my neck. Smoke billowed out around me. This was it. I was going to die. My poor mother would be left all alone in this world. Chase would lose another person he loved. And Kai? Kai and I would never get our happily ever after. Like Violet, my life was cut short too soon, and I had so many things I wanted to do differently. So many things I wanted to change. At least I was going to see Violet again.
A crash sounded. Shouts.
“Help,” I whispered. I couldn’t scream. Couldn’t do anything. “Help.” Time passed slowly. Death felt like an ominous blanket on my soul. Too hot. Everything was too hot. “Help,” I whispered again as my awareness flickered in and out. Someone stood behind me, more voices jumbled together. My hands were free. Someone picked me up. Every time I tried to open my eyes, they burned.
“Help,” I croaked.
The person carrying me led me through the door of the office. I peered around the best I could, noticing a fallen display of heavy paddle boards and a body buried beneath them. Lex. It was Lex.
More fire circled me. The arms carrying me were covered with blood. Was that my blood? Flames blocked every visible exit. My mind became fuzzy as the back door was kicked open, and the fresh air greeted us with a vengeance. I gulped in the precious freedom. My lungs burned with every expanding breath. “Set her down. She’s bleeding.”
I whimpered as I was laid down on hard asphalt. The glow from the burning shop bled through my vision. Sirens could be heard in the distance. Everything hurt. “Fuck, Breeze. Hang on. The ambulance will be here soon.” He pushed my hair out of the way. I smiled. Chase was