Page 12 of Die With Me
“How much…did you give…me?” he whispers.
Not giving a shit about my being half-naked, I rise and begin to move him into a position that will provide me with better access to his body. “Enough to get what we want from you.”
“We?” The word tapers off as Luca finally falls asleep.
As I run my fingers lightly over his face and thinkabout how beautiful he looks, Adam lets out a dramatic sigh beside me.“Fucking finally. Get to work, Mari.”
Reluctantly, I tear myself away from Luca’s side to retrieve the bag I brought with me. Knives, saws, little bottles of acid, and different sizes of pliers clink together as I toss the black leather bag onto the bed.
“You know, I can get your pound of flesh without killing him,” I whisper to my brother, who glares down at Luca’s sleeping form like his very being is a stain on this earth.
And I suppose to Adam, he is.
“Now, where would the fun in that be?”His eyes lift to mine, our twin blue-green gazes locking as we size each other up.“What happened to you, Mari? You used to live for this. Killing him fueled your will to live. Is his cock really so magical that once you got a taste of it, it made you stupid? Did he fuck the sense out of your brain?”He knocks his knuckles against my temple.
Smacking his hand away, I gnash my teeth at him, letting out a feral cry of frustration.
My brother is right. This has to be done.
I dig into the bag, careful not to break the acid bottles as I fish out my Spyderco Ladybug. Flipping the blade up, I sink it into Luca’s thigh, just above the knee—before I lose the nerve.
Adam’s laughter fills the air, and he begins to clap.“There she is!”
His praise spurs me on as I quickly and efficiently begin to slice pieces of Luca’s flesh from his body like you’d scrape the top off a stick of butter. I’m careful not to go too deep. I don’t want him bleeding out before he wakes.
And through it all, il mio mostro sleeps peacefully, unaware of the nightmare he’ll awake to.
Time moves slowly as I create art with my blade—carving my real name with precision and the wordmineover Luca’s heart—but with every piece of skin I take, Adam grows more frustrated that I don’t land a killing blow.
No matter how many times I’ve retrieved a longer blade and sat upon Luca’s chest to spear it through his heart, I simply cannot bring myself to end his life this way.
“You’re a fucking coward!”Adam slaps his hand on the bed, rattling the plethora of blades that span the left side of the mattress.“Just fucking do it already!”
“I can’t!” I scream back, flinging my hands out to the side and sending Luca’s blood splattering over his crisp, white sheets.
Well, theywerewhite. Now they’re mottled with red.
“I swear to God, Mari, just kill him! Avenge me!”Adam roars into my ear, his spittle spraying over the side of my face as tears line my eyes.
A tremor rocks through Luca’s body.
My time is up.
“You stupid fucking bitch,”Adam spits out.“So this is where your loyalty lies, huh? With the man that murdered me in cold blood?”
Thrashing my head back and forth, I drop the knife and press my hands to my temples, smearing Luca’s blood over my skin as I close my eyes tightly. “He didn’t murder you!”
“He’s lying! Of course, he’s going to say that! He just wants to keep fucking you. You’re both sadistic fucks.”
“Misty?” Luca whispers my name. His eyes flutter open, his chest beginning to rise and fall more rapidly as he groans in pain. “Misty, what have you done?”
“Nothing. She had all this time to kill you, and she did nothing!”
“I’m sorry. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. Please don’t make me do it,” I repeat over and over as Luca comes to, more aware with every passing second.
“Misty?” he reprises my name gently, despite the pain he must be feeling. “Who are you talking to?”
Luca