does. I let go of his balls but keep the blade against his throat.
"Are you going to kill me now?" Jim asks me.
It's tempting. He definitely deserves to die. He's caused me so much fear and misery for so long. He even hurt Antonio and threatened to kill Lara.
But no.
I pull the knife away. Jim laughs.
"Just as I thought, you can't kill me, Christine."
"That's because I'm not a monster like you," I tell him. "And I don't have to. You're going to jail, and you're going to rot in jail and experience all the things you did to me."
Fear flickers in his eyes. Now, that's the look I was aiming for.
"You're going to be miserable for the rest of your life," I go on. "And me? I'm going to forget you ever existed. You may have wasted eight years of my life, but in the end, you haven't really taken anything away from me, James Molder, whereas your life ended today."
I look into his eyes and grin.
"I win."
To finish my speech, I bury the knife between his legs. Jim yelps as it narrowly misses his balls. A stain starts to form there.
I leave him a mess. As for me, I feel better, stronger than I have in a long while. I walk out of the van with my grin still in place and my chin held high. If I can only get to Antonio, I'll feel even better, and thanks to Jim, I now know how.
~
After giving Gina the slip - I promise I'll apologize to her later - I take a cab to the address Jim gave me.
I find myself at an old house surrounded by lots of trees. I hide behind one as I try to come up with my next move. I haven't thought things through.
Now what? Set the woods on fire to create a distraction, then go inside and look for Antonio? Wait here until he comes out?
I look around. If Jim told Agent Chandler and Cain what he told me, surely they're already here. But where?
Suddenly, I hear leaves rustling behind me. Before I can turn around, a gun cocks. I freeze.
"You..."
In the next moment, I hear a thud. I turn around and find the man with the gun on the ground. Behind him, I see two men with brown hair and blue eyes. In spite of their nearly identical looks, I know exactly who to throw my arms around.
"Antonio."
Chapter Twenty-Six
Antonio
"Triss?" I narrow my eyes at her questioningly after I pull away from her arms. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you," she answers. "And I've found you. But don't tell Cain I'm here."
My eyebrows furrow. "You've met Cain?"
"Cain's here?" Leo asks almost at the same time.
Triss nods. I let out a sigh.
"I left you behind so you wouldn't get dragged into this mess and Cain told you where I am?"
And it took everything I had to leave her behind at the hotel, too. Talk about a total waste of effort.
Thanks, Cain.
"Hold on." Triss gives me a puzzled look. "That's why you left me? I thought it was because you thought I was all wrong for you."
I scratch the back of my head. Right. I didn't tell her the real reason because I was trying to protect her, so that's what she must have thought.
Oops.
"Um," Leo interrupts. "I hate to interrupt, but we're not out of the woods yet, literally. Maybe you can have your talk later?"
He's right. We were able to take care of the guards inside the house. Well, Leo and his men did. And he just took care of another one here. But there may be more scattered around the woods. Plus there's still no sign of Sergio.
I grab Triss's arm. "Let's go."
Leo leads the way. I follow him with Triss in tow. Now that she's here, I'm even more eager to escape. I don't care if we don't run into Sergio. In fact, I'm hoping we won't. I just want to get Triss somewhere safe, quickly, before Sergio sees her. The last thing I want is for Sergio to add her to his hit list or use her to hurt me and my family.
Fortunately, we don't run into any more guards. After a few more minutes, we reach the clearing at the edge of the woods. I catch a glimpse of cars on the road and hope fills my chest.
We're almost there.
A gunshot rips the air. A moment later, one of Leo's men falls to the ground. I stop in my