He helps me rest Cain in a balcony pew as shots continue to fire below us.
“Are those… nuns?” I pause, cocking a brow.
“Wildly inappropriate, right?” Rev says.
I glance down at Cain, frowning at the sheen of sweat covering his pale face.
“Go,” Cain orders. “I’m good here with my rifle for a minute.”
Muscles tensed, I linger until Cain hefts his rifle up onto the ledge and takes aim at our enemies. I lean down to give him a quick kiss.
“Please don’t let him die,” I say to Rev.
“No worries. Go fuck shit up, grasshopper.”
Out in the hall, I cut toward the back of the church first. My heart strikes against my ribs like it wants to leap out of my chest.
I just want this over with. I don’t ever want to be in Mason’s presence again.
But Cain’s right. I need to kill him for real this time. I need to watch the life leave his eyes.
I catch Mason slipping down another hallway. Raising my gun, I sink a bullet into him. He yelps, but I don’t hear the satisfying thud of his body hitting the floor.
Something barrels into my side from an opened door in the hall. I don’t even check who it is. I just let my chaotic emotions drive my fist into the guy’s face. He stumbles back, and I strike out with my gun, hitting him in the temple. Then I step back and fire a bullet into his head.
I start after Mason again, following a trail of blood under a locked door. Searching the hall for something to pick the lock, I come up short. So I slam a boot against the old wood. I keep kicking, driving my fury into breaking down the door. I’m like a bloodhound on the hunt. I can practically smell Mason’s fear.
The old lock gives, clattering to the floor as the door swings wide. Mason’s pacing inside, one hand clutching his side where I clipped him and the other shaking as it yanks at window latches in desperation.
“No running from this.” I lift my gun, aimed at his head.
“Leo,” he says cautiously, backing up a step. He fails to mask the terror on his face. “It doesn’t have to be like this. You don’t have to be a killer.”
“Too late for that,” I say, dropping my aim to fire a shot into Mason’s foot. He howls and stumbles back into the corner of the room.
I don’t have much time to spare with Cain’s injuries, but I give in a bit to the viscous, white-hot rage overcoming me. “In what universe do you think I would show you mercy for the hell you put me through? Why shouldn’t I kill you?”
“Leo,” he pleads between sobs, blood oozing from between his fingers clenched around his shoe.
I cock my gun, and he flinches. “That’s not my fucking name.”
I’m trembling again as I lick away the salty tears running over my lips. “I wish there were other victims here to punish you like you deserve. Wish I had the strength to lock you up and torture you forfour fucking years.” I scream the last words at him. “Deprived of food and water and clean clothes and warmth and human fucking decency.”
Mason shakes his head frantically. “It was never my intent to hurt you. I was always gentle, wasn’t I?”
“Gentle?” I push the word through my clenched teeth, my features twisted in disgust.
“I told you I love—”
I pull the trigger, splattering his brain across the stained glass windows. No more of this. I’m so fuckingdone.
My heart chugs with heavy beats as I stare down at his body for a while. I fire another round into his skull for good measure. Watch him bleed out on the floor, eyes wide and glasses askew.
This time I know he’s dead. His evil will never see another day.
So why don’t I feel better? Less disgusting on the inside? Is it because I’m still riddled with fear over Jakey and Cain?
I crouch over his corpse, my eyes burning with tears, and my hands shaking too hard to properly operate my gun if someone else comes barging in here.
