Ballistic by Keri Lake

Author:Keri Lake [Lake, Keri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-29T16:00:00+00:00

24

Nicoleta

It was after midnight, when I parked Dax’s car and snuck back into the apartment.

Dax lay sleeping, just as I’d left him, and after a quick check of his breath against my ear, I made my way toward the bathroom. Dried blood climbed the length of my arm, over the scars to just below my elbow, where my shirt sat bunched up over my bicep.

Good thing I hadn’t gotten pulled over, because there’d have been no denying foul play, looking at the thin red stains across my palms. In a piss poor attempt to clean it off Dax’s steering wheel, I’d wiped it with a few McDonald’s napkins I’d found in the glove compartment. I’d have to clean the rest of it in the morning. I’d grown weak with exhaustion to do any more.

After peeling out of my clothes, I flipped on the shower, and turned off the lights. I didn’t want to see Jasper’s blood pooling on the floor. I didn’t want to see the evidence of my detached and merciless act.

I did it for her, I told myself. For the girl who couldn’t save herself. The one he’d raped and tortured, before throwing her weakened body into the river.

Tears spilled over onto my cheeks, as I rested my forehead against the cold tiles and sobbed. “I’m not a monster. I’m not like them. I did it for her.”

You enjoyed it, though. Eden’s words bit down into my conscience, and I sobbed harder. Look how easily you took his life.

“I did it for you.” Brow furrowed, I shook my head and sniffed. With fervency, I rubbed his blood off me, blindly scrubbing the sticky substance in the dark. “I killed him for you.”

I never asked you to do that for me, she taunted back.

I refused to let the weight of her guilt crush me. Instead, I washed quickly, ignoring the tears, ignoring her taunts. Dial twisted to a punishing scorch, I gnashed my teeth with every lash of scalding water against my skin.

The visuals of Jasper holding the sprayer in her face while she choked left me clamping my eyes, trapping it inside my head—an image I’d never forget. I set my palms against the shower tiles, curling my fingers, while the flaming water lapped at my skin, as if it could cleanse me. As if any part of me was left redeemable.

I’d killed a man. Deliberately, and with such care for his suffering, perhaps I was a monster.

Hand slapped to my mouth, I pushed through the shower door and fell to my knees, just in time to expel a torrent of fluid from my mouth. It splashed into the toilet, leaving a sour taste on my tongue. I heaved another round, grasping the toilet seat to steady the shakes that’d settled over me.

Once I’d emptied my stomach, I stood to brush my teeth and rinsed the acrid flavor from my mouth.

After switching off the shower, I dried and wrapped a towel around my body, then padded into the room and crawled into bed next to Dax.

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