CHAPTER FIVEThis guy?” Lu said.“Renan.”“Yeah. Him. Why are you guys together, anyway? He’s obviously a complete tool.”Montessa stayed silent. This was where she was supposed to defend Renan. Tell her kidnapper she was in love, that he didn’t know her boyfriend, that he couldn’t make judgments on the wonderful man that she committed her life to.“Hey. Girl.”“I told you it’s Montessa. Why don’t you tell me your name?”“I don’t want to.”“It’s Lu.”“How did you know that?”She looked out of the window. He’d let her into the front of the cab, shackled her to the door handle again. It was dark. The seat was soft and comfortable and felt like luxury. She had told Lu as much. He said he was frightened that such small things made her happy. She must be awfully used to being miserable, he said, if such tiny things meant so much.“There’s a lot of energy to you, Lu. Built up under your skin. Behind your eyes. One day, you’re just going to explode.”She turned to him, studied his
CHAPTER SIXWanna take a walk?” Lu asked. He was tired of driving. His back ached, and his legs were cramped, and his head was full of cotton or bees or bloodlust. Sometimes it was difficult to tell which. Montessa hesitated. Lu tossed her a look. “What? I thought you’d be all over getting out and stretching your legs.”She swallowed hard. “Is this a killing sort of walk?”Lu frowned. He didn’t know why. He felt his lips curl and turn and stretch, felt his eyebrows furrow and his eyes spark. He was slightly offended. A killing sort of walk, indeed.“Nah, lady. It’s just a walk. A normal, everyday kind of walk.”“Call me Montessa,” she said, and stared out of the window again.He pulled over on the shoulder, next to a group of trees. Thick. Leafy. Perfect cover. Wonderfully remote-feeling. The type of place where, yes, he would gladly go on a killing walk. But that made his newly-beating heart heavy somehow.“I will kill you, you know. Just not now.”“I know.” Her voice, it had
CHAPTER SEVENRenan had favors. Lots of them. Things owed to him since before the dawn of time, it seemed, and this was the perfect time to call them all in.Monty had been gone for over a week now. A week. No calls. Nothing. And that wasn’t right, wasn’t what a woman was supposed to do for her man. He found himself seeking comfort wherever he could find it, cursing her name with each bump, each hit, each woman. She was selfish, making him worry. Running off and passing her little whorish self around to any panting dog that looked at her. Laughing at him, he knew it. He just knew.So he called in his favors. Had sets of eyes looking for her everywhere. If she used her credit card, if she showed up on any newsfeed, if she stuck her head out anywhere in the country, he’d find her. He’d drag her back, screaming, if he had to. Then he’d make her pay. Oh, he’d enjoy that part. Making her pay was like nothing else on Earth. It was like hearing the angels sing.
CHAPTER EIGHTMontessa was enthralled. She watched Lu’s mouth while he spoke, watched the way he used his hands, the way his emotions changed his face according to where he was in the story.He talked about his dad’s abuse, about the way he hid in his closet as a little boy. The way they took him to rituals and the shamans beat their drums and how he ate the special foods meant to cleanse the soul and body. Lu had set the shaman aflame the last time his parents took him. She had been put out quickly. Maimed but not murdered. Scarred but alive.“So not my first kill, but almost,” he said, and the way his eyes twinkled, it was like something out of a fairytale.“Tell me how it felt to kill your father,” Montessa urged, and even though he had already told her, he told her again. And again, when she asked for it a third time. She was a child with a favorite bedtime story. Tell me again, please. Again. More and more and more.“The way his bones cracked, it was like nothing I’d ever ima
CHAPTER NINEHis heart hurt in a strange new way.Felt too tight, like it was bound and everything in him screamed to take his knife to the knotted tissue and whatever iron band had wrapped around it. Release it. Take away the hurt. Take away this pain. Lu didn’t like it, not at all.It came from letting the girl go. He knew this. When she left, she’d go directly to the police and tell them all about the young Asian man, early 20s, surprisingly muscled and wiry, maybe 130 pounds. 150? He usually wore a T-shirt. A dirty denim jacket when things got cold. Jeans and sneakers. Oh, yes, and he had a knife—long, shiny, very clean and very sharp knife. He murdered his father with that knife. He drives a semi. His name is Lu. He’s killed several other girls. When you find him, it should be the death penalty all the way, please. He hit me in the head with a wrench. It hurt so terribly, so terribly that I threw up, over and over and over. It’s a miracle I got away.He’d be dead before the po
CHAPTER TENHer hair swirled around her, and her breaths came in gasping almost-sobs of rage that she tried to rein in. The pressure behind her eyes, in her head and chest pushed out, nearly exploding from behind her eyes and teeth. If she didn’t hold back, she’d blow the truck apart, she could feel it. Kill herself and Lu and there wouldn’t be anything to find, just tiny bits of rubble and detritus carried on the wind.She had to calm down. Breathe. Breathe, breathe, breathe.Montessa held her hands to her face, her wrists bloodied and sore and raw. With her eyes covered, things seemed less pressing. She was here. She was safe. He had put her here to let her escape. She knew this and appreciated it on a level, too, of course. Of course she did. But at the same time . . .I’m tired of being tossed away.Abandoned by her mother. Used up until her body and soul ground into little bits by her father or at least the man that she had been trained to think of as her father. Used and lef
CHAPTER ELEVENShe spent the night in Lu’s bed, because she didn’t want to be alone. It was a new thing to feel lips without fists and her hair pulled without hatred.“Renan is going to come for me, you know,” she told him. She traced his ribs, found a couple that stuck out farther than they should have. Broken how many times? Maybe one day she’d ask. Most likely she wouldn’t get the chance.“Think I’m scared of him?”Lu had one hand under his head, the other around her. She watched as he studied the ceiling, and it was beautiful. Beautiful plaster, beautiful lighting. Funny how he’d never noticed it before.“I’m just telling you, Lu. He doesn’t like to lose things.”“You’re not a thing.”She sighed. Sat up and pulled his T-shirt on. “You’re the only one who seems to think that.”“Once you think it, everybody else will follow suit.”She padded to the window and looked out. Highway. A gas station with a fast food joint inside. So unlovely.She wanted to stay here forever.“Te
CHAPTER TWELVELu handed her the knife, and she took it with a respect that made her even more stunning in his eyes. She held it gently, ran her finger carefully across the blade, and held it to her face to inspect it. Her breath fogged up the metal and Lu grit his teeth to keep from moaning.“From your father to you, and now you’ll let me use it?”“For your first kill. For any kill you want. Until you find something that you like better. Or always.”They parked far away, walking to her house. It was dark. The gravel crunched beneath their feet. Montessa held Lu’s hand and ran her finger across the bones of his knuckles.“This is . . . crazy,” she said, keeping her voice low.“This is what is meant to be,” he answered back.How many times had he prowled this area? He knew it backward and forward. But Montessa still knew it better. They strolled under streetlights, through darkness, past addicts and drunks and frightened runaways, through alleys and parks and cemeteries.“This i