“Mama!” I stop running and skid across on my knees as I land beside her. She’s breathing still, but she can’t seem to focus on me. She’s barely conscious. One of her arms is bent at an awkward angle, and she has bruises all over her legs. My knees feel wet and I realize I’m kneeling in a small puddle of her blood. Her injuries look like those that were on his victims’ bodies. My throat feels like it’s closing off. He’s trying to do the same thing to Mama.
I hear grunts and crashes from Jordan and Daddy, who are fighting by the stairs. I search around frantically for something to stop my father. I see a bloody knife sitting a few feet away on the ground. Grabbing it, I run to the doorway and stick the shaking hand with the knife out toward Daddy. He has Jordan in a chokehold.
“Let him go!” I scream as I watch a drop of blood roll down the side of Jordan’s cheek from a nasty cut near his eye.
They both freeze and Daddy looks straight at me before laughing softly. “You don’t want to hurt me, Riley.”
“No,” I say, trying to get a better grip on my knife as tears run down my face. “But y-you have to stop this.”
Daddy’s eyes fill with genuine remorse as he meets my gaze. “Things are going to be better, Riley, I promise, but there are some things I have to clean up first.” And then with one immense shove, he pushes Jordan at just the right angle. Jordan’s panicked eyes meet mine for half a heartbeat … and then he disappears, tumbling with horrific thuds and crunches back down the rusty metal stairs.
And then all I hear is silence.
“No!” The knife drops from my hands and I run for Jordan without another thought. Daddy catches me around the waist, easily lifts me, and brings me back into the room with Mama. He ties my hands to a pipe in the corner, kicks my knife out of the way, and moves back toward Mama.
“If you’re going to kill all of us, why not start with me?” My voice comes out hoarse and low. My heart still thuds hard in my chest, but I don’t know how. It feels like it’s been decimated by seeing Mama like this and watching Jordan’s expression as he fell.
Please, God, let them be okay.
Daddy looks shocked. “I’m not going to hurt you. I could never do that, sweetie.”
Daddy kicks Mama’s thigh hard with the toe of his boot and another rush of panic fills me at the idea of sitting here, watching him beat Mama to death. I let all the emotion out, hoping that somehow his love for me will stop this insanity. Tears roll down my face and I clasp my tied hands in front of me, sobbing and pleading. “Please, Daddy. Please don’t hurt her anymore.”
He stops and turns back to face me with a shake of his head. He looks at me like I’m some sort of poor lost lamb. “I need you to listen. You don’t understand.”
“Okay, I’m l-listening,” I stutter, striving to keep him busy and not hitting or kicking anyone.
“I have to leave this hellhole of a state, and I want you to come with me.” As he speaks, he moves over to a bag that sits open nearby. Anything to keep him away from Mama and Jordan for a few more minutes sounds good to me. Then he pulls something out of the bag and runs it through his fingers. I realize with a jolt that it’s a long navy length of rope. Images of the bruises on the East End Killer’s—on Daddy’s victims’ necks from the crime scene photos flood my mind, and my stomach clenches against nauseating waves of fear. I can barely find words to respond.
“If I go with you now, will you please not hurt them anymore?” I speak slowly, trying to come up with a plan that doesn’t end with all of us dead. Why isn’t Chief Vega here yet?
“Oh no.” He shakes his head with a laugh. Daddy looks at me like I’m that six-year-old girl from the courtroom all over again. “They’re dying either way, honey.”
A tiny whimper escapes me before I can stop it, but I find strength to keep my voice steady as I ask, “Why?”
Daddy tilts his head in the direction of the stairs he’d pushed Jordan down and gives a half shrug. “Him, because I had to watch him touch my daughter—and because I know it will kill Vega to lose him.”
Then without any prodding, he turns toward Mama, and his face fills with the most intense mixture of hate and rage that I’ve ever seen. “Her, because I’ve been waiting to do this for an incredibly long time.”
When he turns back to face me, I notice Mama’s eyes fluttering as she tries hard to open them.
Seeing her fighting so hard despite everything he’s done to her gives me strength. I will not let him hurt her again. “Why do you want to hurt her at all? She’s your wife. She loves you.”
He looks at me like I’ve just said something ludicrous. “She hates me.” He shakes his head and laughs. “She killed my son and ripped my daughter away from me. You call that love?”
I glance back at Mama. Her eyes are open now. They’re wide and terrified. Still, in the midst of all this, she looks at me and her mouth seems to be forming one word over and over again. I have a sudden flashback to the last word Mr. Masters said to me in the grove.
Run.
But even if I weren’t currently tied to a pipe, I would still be done running.
If I’m the only one Daddy doesn’t want to hurt, then I have to find a way to use that to my advantage.