And this is the part I love. The part where Cassius tells our story. Between a sleeve of staples and screams, he tells her of our first meeting, including that dribble of cum. He never seems to omit that part. He tells her about the alley and how the speck of blood on my face turned him on. How he knew he loved me in that picture she saw of me in his shirt. He shows her his scars, the ones I gave him before we fucked for the first time. He tells her how he held me after I killed my parents. And how bad it hurt when he thought I betrayed him.
Which is where he puts down the staple gun, and I grab my dagger and finish the story.
“You know one of the greatest perks about being Ruby?” I ask her, not bothering to wait for an answer. “The fucking money.” I slide the blade across her cheek, digging into the soft flesh. “I don’t really have an explanation for why I thought I might need the cleaners one day, but I guess I thought I could buy their loyalty.” Laughter bubbles in my throat. “And you know what? I did. Every job they cleaned up for me, they made an extra twenty percent.”
Twirling my dagger around my finger, I circle Sarah. “And do you know what that twenty percent did? It saved—”
“Fuck you!” Sarah spits. “You will die for this.” Cassius hands me the gag, and I shove it back into her mouth.
“Tsk-tsk, Sarah, it’s rude to interrupt people.” She winces at the use of her birth name, and I thrust my dagger into her thigh. Blood gurgles out of the wound as I pull it out and watch as she slowly bleeds out.
“Anyway,” I continue, “that twenty percent saved Cassius, along with some impressive sleight of hand, a heavy dose of morphine, and some fake blood.”
Sarah’s head starts to slump down, and I slap her across the face.
“You don’t get to die yet,” I tell her. “I’m not done with my part of the story.”
Cassius hands me a crafting knife, and I begin my carving in Sarah’s back.
“You see, the cleaners picked up Garrett, Cassius' best friend, on their way to the air strip with an unconscious Cassius. Rowan, the genius that she is, had been able to get a message to Garrett with instructions. And while they were waiting for us, I went back to the house, and well you know what happened there.”
I carve an X and hand the knife to Cassius. He carves an O in the upper right corner of the grid.
Sarah slumps down, but Cassius forces her head upright again before giving me back the knife.
“Basically, I killed all the Reds.”
I carve an X and return the knife to Cassius, who says, “Except for Riley, and the little girls. That part’s important.”
“Right, except for Riley and the girls. So, all the Reds are dead except for me, Rowan, Riley, and the girls. Rowan and I left through the front door, and we walked through the woods to the airstrip to meet Cassius and Garrett. We made it onto the tarmac, and we weren’t far from the plane when I heard Cassius yelling. Then I saw his face as he walked onto the stairs of the plane.”
I pause to ponder Cassius’ move before making one of my own and returning the knife to him. Stepping in front of Sarah, I glide my dagger across her other cheek, matching the first.
“Then there was steel at my throat and blood trickling down my neck. That’s the last thing I remember.”
Cassius slides the crafting knife back into my palm, and I take a look at our game. The winning spot is open, just like always. I mark it with my X.
“I shot her. The little girl, Alice,” Cassius says the same way he always does, with a throat full of grief, but a heart full of love. “For a minute I thought I missed and shot Ember because Rowan screamed, and Ember crumbled to the ground. And the girl, she just stood there for a split second before she fell too.”
I sigh. “We were never queens. We were all just pawns in a bigger game, following someone else’s rules and doing the bidding of others. And Alice? She really was going to be a better Ruby than me, but she, like the rest of you, would have never had that one thing that makes me the best. Love. It’s because of that love that I know what it really means to be queen. You see, a queen is the most powerful piece on the board, she moves without limits, without fear. She is the protector. The muscle. But what the Reds failed to teach us is that the queen is only powerful if she has a king to protect. Without him, she loses the game. And my king? He’s a good fucking shot.”
Sarah’s eyes narrow in pain, and her head starts to fall again, but Cassius stands behind her and holds her head so she can look me in the eye. My blade glides swiftly across her throat. Due to her leg wound, the blood splatter is minimal, but I watch as her eyes roll back. I hold my breath until she takes her last.
Then I douse the body, the basement, and the entire first floor of the house in gasoline. When we get outside, Cassius holds me close and presses his lips to mine.
“I love you,” I say when he pulls away.
“I love you too,” he replies and hands me the matchbook.
I light a single match before lighting the entire book on fire. Then I throw it through the front door, and we watch as the fire comes to life. It dances in the dark night, hot and wild. Hungry and impatient.
Cassius takes my hand and together we turn our backs on the flames, having successfully flipped the board on the Reds…
Checkmate.
