ALEC
“Can you cut these ropes?” Oliver asked Maddie.
She scowled at him. “Why? So you can run off again?”
“I’m not going to leave,” he said.
“Like you did—”
“Let him go,” I said to Maddie. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine,” Maddie grumbled to herself, cutting his rope. “We’re going to talk later.”
After nodding, Oliver rubbed his wrists and turned toward me. “I’m sorry.”
I stared emptily at him because I didn’t have shit to say to him anymore. I had wanted to talk to him for so long, but now, I wasn’t in the right mind, and even if I were, I didn’t think I could come up with a response.
He hadn’t believed me, but now, he had to. Because he had almost watched it happen.
“I should’ve believed you,” he said.
“Yeah, you should’ve.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated.
“He doesn’t have to accept your apology,” Maddie said, curling her arm around mine.
Oliver gazed down at the floorboards and dropped his voice. “I know.”
“Where’s Spencer?” I asked, mouth dry and body aching so badly that I could barely move.
Murmurs erupted through the room, but Spencer was nowhere to be f—
Imani shoved open the door and grabbed someone’s ankle.
“Damn, Sakura, you’re psycho,” Imani said to Sakura, who held Spencer’s other ankle as they both dragged him into the room.
Allie marched in behind them.
They dropped him in the middle of the living room. His arm was cut to the bone by what looked like a saw, and deep puncture wounds across his ripped shirt, his flesh bleeding underneath. He wasn’t struggling, yet his eyes were open.
“I gave him something to paralyze him for a bit,” Imani said with a smirk, stepping back. “He’s all yours, ladies and gents.”
But Maddie didn’t move.
Instead, she sat next to me and stared at that asshole who had hurt her for years.
When nobody moved toward Spencer, Nicole cleared her throat and walked over to him. “This is for Maddie. You piece of literal dog shit!” Nicole hollered, blasting a pressure washer into Spencer’s eyes.
I didn’t know where she had gotten the pressure washer, but I couldn’t seem to care anymore. I sat back, breathing heavily, and watched Maddie’s ex-boyfriend, turned stalker and apparently kidnapper, scream out in pain.
Allie jumped in next with a metal thatching rake. Then, Imani crawled on top of him with large pruning shears. Oliver stumbled to a standing position and hobbled over to Spencer, kicking the living shit out of him.
For a brief moment, I closed my eyes and blew out a low breath. If Maddie hadn’t shown up, then Piper would’ve … hurt me again. Spencer would’ve recorded it and shown the one woman I loved. And we would’ve been ruined forever.
I clasped my hand around Maddie’s and glanced over at her. “Thank you.”
“You should’ve let me handle it from the beginning,” she said. “Why’d you run off?”
“Because I don’t want you in trouble with Poison.”
She frowned. “They would’ve taken care of all this.”
“At what cost?” I whispered, shaking my head. “It doesn’t matter.”
My gaze shifted to Vera, who held Blaise to her chest tightly, scolding him, too, for being so stupid. But Blaise was smirking like a dumbass and commenting about how he had watched the dark side of Vera tonight. Sakura stood alone near the door, staring nervously down at the girls.
Using all my strength, I crawled over to Spencer’s body—his life—hanging on by a thread. The girls moved off him, giving me room to finish this fucker off. And while I knew that I shouldn’t get involved, it was too late.
After straddling his waist, I used what energy I had left to hurl fist after fist after fist into his swollen and bruised face. Layers of eye tissue had burned off, the blood vessels shot. I doubted that he could even see anymore.
But that didn’t matter. Because I couldn’t stop myself.
I continued to punch him until Oliver pulled him off me.
“He’s dead.”
“He’s dead?” Vera repeated.
“What are we going to do with him?” Allie said.
“Bury him?” Imani suggested.
“Burn him maybe?” Sakura said. “That will leave the least amount of—”
“What the hell is Avery teaching you?” Blaise asked Sakura as I collapsed onto my ass.
Sakura’s cheeks reddened. “Oh, I just, um, read that in a book.”
I snarled at Spencer’s body and gritted my teeth. If anyone found out that I had just killed a man, then all my chances of being in the NHL would be ripped from underneath my feet. But I had done it to protect not only me, but also Maddie.
And not only Maddie, but also everyone involved.
Spencer had been completely unhinged. If worked up enough, he might’ve killed everyone here. And while the girls had been doing a good job with keeping him down, he had been working with someone else.
After glancing toward the fourth corner, I saw the shadowy figure was gone. “There was …”
“Someone else,” Oliver finished. “In the corner.”
“Probably left during the chaos,” Blaise said.
“Spencer wasn’t the only one who ran out of the house,” Allie said.
I winced and leaned back onto Maddie, who gently clutched my head near the swollen flesh. “There was someone in the corner. I didn’t get a glimpse of her.” I glanced over at Blaise, then Oliver. “Did you?”
“Bro, I was blacked out the entire time,” Blaise said.
“No,” Oliver said, gazing down and frowning.
“Did you see her?” I asked Allie.
“No.”
“I’ll look at the security footage later with Kai,” Imani said. “But it was a woman.”
Cursing to myself, I closed my eyes and racked my brain for anyone who could have it out for me. I never would’ve thought of Piper, so maybe I needed to be a bit more open.
What women are close to me who want to hurt me? Who could do this? Who wants to see me and Maddie break up?
And only one person continued to pop into my mind.
Sandra.