interest sharpened as he watched her, but his smile was so damn smug she wanted to punch it off his face. "She's crawling, isn't she?"
"I know she thinks it's good." Lex turned and eased up to sit on the table. "I'm asking about you. That's what I'm interested in."
His brow knotted slightly, and he slipped his hand into his jacket. "I could buy you a dozen times for what Finn's about to give her. She's earned it by being good." He withdrew a tiny plastic bottle that rattled when he shook it. "But these. Slip one under your tongue, and you'll forget all about your thorns."
"I don't want to forget them." She leaned back, bracing her arms behind her, and her fingers brushed the long stem of a pipe. "They make me interesting."
Irritation flashed in his eyes. "A modest struggle to protect one's virtue is charming. Disobedience isn't. If you want a chance at the rewards Jade enjoys, show yourself her equal by following her example. A decent girl kneels to her superiors."
Oh, hell no. "Did you know that men with no patience for conversation tend to fuck the same way?" Lex closed her hand around the pipe, which wasn't a pipe at all, but a heavy length of blown glass. "And that's not nearly as fun as it sounds."
His face turned red as he took a threatening step forward. Over his shoulder, Lex saw Jade braced against the door, her eyes closed and her face drawn. No one would interrupt this moment.
Not if she moved fast.
Woods made the decision for her. He raised one arm to strike her, and Lex swung the length of glass around--a fucking bong, of all things. It hit his shoulder and shattered.
Roaring, he flung a hand up to his face. Blood trickled from between his fingers and another cut marred his forehead. "You bitch!" he bellowed.
But not at her.
The door rattled as Woods whirled and lunged toward Jade, who was struggling to drag herself to shaking knees as her patron barreled toward her, damn near frothing at the mouth. "You traitorous, treacherous whore--"
Footsteps thudded in the hall, heavy and quick. The world narrowed to the cool glass in Lex's hand, the warm blood trickling down her wrist, and slowed to a crawl. By the time she slid off the table, Woods had his hands around Jade's throat.
Lex had trained for this. Every week at Orchid House had brought a new trainer, a new situation. A new way to kill. It would make sense to hear Cerys guiding her. Instructing her.
But the words that drifted through her mind now belonged to Dallas. Throat. It's soft, lots of bleeders, and you don't have to do much damage to straight-up kill a motherfucker.
The anatomy lessons at Orchid House did the rest. She reached around and grabbed his upper arm, but he didn't even seem to notice. All his attention was on Jade, on her red face and bulging eyes. On ending her life.
Lex stabbed the broken glass into the right front side of his throat, thrusting it home with all her strength. The wicked shards dug deep into his flesh, and she dragged her makeshift weapon back toward her, slicing through the large blood vessels in his neck.
He released Jade, backhanding Lex as he flailed. She stumbled back, fell, and then he was on her, snarling and wild-eyed as blood gushed from his throat.
He wedged his forearm across her throat and leaned on it--hard. Lex sputtered and pushed back, but her feet slipped on the blood-soaked tile. Woods outweighed her by a good sixty pounds, and without any leverage, she couldn't shove him off. But she could outlast him, maybe.
Hold on, Lex. Just fucking hold on.
Jade wept, her back against the door as the blood pulsing from Woods's jagged, gaping wound began to slow and his skin went pallid, gray. He was cursing, the words coming slower and slower, like a battery-powered toy losing its charge. He slumped, the pressure from his arm intensifying.
Dead weight.
With growing horror, Lex bucked and tried to roll, but she couldn't budge him. This is it, she thought vaguely. This is where I die. The world was already fuzzy, bright white but darkening by the second, and she was tired, so tired...
One more mighty shove and she flung him off her, gasping for breath. Jade screamed as something hit the wall. Lex struggled to sit, only to find herself staring down the muzzle of a pistol.