A Necessary Evil(31)

Her eyes went wide as two moons, and new tears poured over her dirty cheeks. “Wha—what? What do you mean? He would never—”

“But he has. I sent him all your pretty hair with a note that told him exactly how he could save you, yet he’s refused. You see? He doesn’t care about you. He cares more about his freedom and his image than he does about his own precious granddaughter. I almost feel sorry for you. Almost.”

Collin couldn’t quite read the look on the girl’s face. She was either sad, or angry, or both. But to his great surprise, no tears fell down her dirty cheeks.

“There, there.” Collin patted her on the shoulder. “It won’t be long now. It will all be over soon. Unfortunately, I can’t make it quick or easy for you. You can thank your murderous grandfather for that.”

What happened next was so unexpected, Collin barely had time to register. Mollie lunged at him with both hands out, growling like a rabid dog, toppling him over. She was on top of him, legs straddled across his torso, clawing at his face. He held her at arms’ length, but she still managed to scratch deep gouges in his cheeks. After struggling for what seemed like an eternity, Collin finally managed to overpower her and shove her against the wall. He held her wrists tightly above her head and pinned her legs down with his knees. She was shaking her head and begging him not to kill her, and it took every ounce of restraint he had not to choke the life out of her, right then and there. But this was not how he wanted it to end.

He leaned in closer, so that his nose was touching hers. “You crazy bitch. What the hell were you thinking? You’re chained to the wall, for God’s sake.”

“Just go ahead and kill me,” she said, hatred burning in her eyes. “Just get it over with, already.”

Collin realized then what she’d been doing when she attacked him. She’d accepted her fate, but was hoping to die quickly and painlessly, and she’d hoped if she enraged him enough, he’d snap her neck or shoot her between the eyes. Anything other than the fate that awaited her, thanks to her smug, overly-confident grandfather. Too bad Collin was too smart and level-headed to be tricked into acting on emotions. After all, he felt so few of them.

He stood, walked over to the bookcase, and picked up the knife he’d placed on the shelf earlier. When he turned back toward the girl, instead of shivering in the corner as she had been since the beginning, she slowly stood, causing the chains around her ankles to rattle and scrape against the concrete floor. Collin couldn’t help but admire her tenacity, especially in the face of her impending death.

She held her chin up defiantly. “Do it, you coward. Come on. Just do it!”

Collin tilted his head. All right, then. If she was going to make it easier for him, all the better. He crept toward her deliberately, taking his time, enjoying the little game they were playing—he about to extinguish her life, she acting as if she actually wanted him to do it. He took one step, then another, and she straightened her shoulders and drew in a deep breath. The only thing Collin regretted was not getting to see the look on her face again. The one he’d seen on the six girls before her. The look of defeat he’d gotten off on for so many years. But if she wanted to play it this way, fine by him.

A loud, sharp sound like metal scraping on metal pierced the air and stopped him dead in his tracks. Collin looked up to the source of the ear-piercing noise. He was paralyzed with fear when he realized someone was trying to break the lock on The Vault’s door. How did they find him? How could they possibly have found the hidden trap door? It did him no good to worry about that now.

He rushed over to Mollie, who was also staring up at the ceiling, grabbed her by the upper arm, spun her around, and wrapped his left arm around her throat. He held the knife with his right hand and placed the tip of the blade right by her jugular vein. If this was how it was going to end, so be it. But he was not going to let Frankie have his granddaughter back. He would not let him win. If Collin was going to lose the game, so was Franklin. There would be no winners tonight.

But he had to wait until just the right moment. He had to wait until Franklin was standing before him so he could watch as the life drained from Mollie’s eyes. In that small way, Collin would be victorious.

Within seconds, the hatch opened, and Collin could see the stars and the moon above. It would probably be the last time he saw them.

“I told you he’d come to get me,” Mollie said with a spark of humor in her voice.

“Shut up. He’ll never get you back alive.”

Collin saw two sets of legs hurrying down the ladder. When they made it to the bottom, he saw that one of them was Franklin Cartwright, just as he’d known it would be. But there was someone else with him he didn’t recognize. The old man rounded the corner with a gun pointed right at Collin’s head. The other person with him wasn’t a man, he was a boy. What the hell was Franklin doing with a redheaded teenager?

“Let her go,” Franklin demanded through gritted teeth. “Or I’ll put a bullet in your brain right now.”

Collin laughed. “No, you won’t. I’d slice her throat from ear to ear first.”

“It’ll be the last thing you do. There’s no way out for you. You’re a dead man either way. The only question now is how slowly you want to die. You hurt her, I’ll make sure it drags on for days and days. So put down the knife right now.”