Beautifully Broken Pieces (Sutter Lake, #1)(80)

I flipped through the worn leather billfold. Nothing. I squinted at the driver’s license. Frank Pardue. Wasn’t that one of Walker’s suspects? Had he been working alongside Bryce, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

I shook my head forcefully. It didn’t matter. I needed to focus on a way out of this mess. I sat back down, wanting to conserve as much energy as possible. My fingertips traced patterns in the dirt as I tried to think back to the one self-defense workshop I’d taken.

Carter had dragged me to the free seminar that had been held at the gym her husband, Austin, owned. It had been two years ago, and I struggled to remember what the instructor had said. Never let them get you to a secondary location. Well, too late for that. Go for the soft targets: eyes, throat, junk.

That was something I could work with. I gathered dirt into my hands as a plan formed. I played various scenarios over and over in my head as I waited. All the contingencies I could think of. I stood, practicing the moves I would need to make—first slowly, focusing on precision, and then faster.

Footsteps echoed against the stone, and I froze, my entire body seizing up. I shook out my arms and legs, forcing the muscles to release the majority of their tension. I perched on the edge of a boulder. I tried to make it seem as though I were as relaxed as possible.

I hung my head, letting my hair cover most of my face so that I could get a peek at Bryce but still hide my expression. I began sniffling and then let my shoulders shake as though I were crying. I needed him to see me as weak. A girl who had crumbled from the strain of it all. Not someone who would fight him tooth and nail with everything she had.

The footsteps came closer. I could do this. Bryce’s shadowy form appeared. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He continued striding forward. “I thought you might have some promise, but here you are, sniveling like a child.”

I let my shoulders shake harder. “W-why are you doing this?”

“Why am I doing this, she wants to know,” Bryce said with a sneer. “I’m doing it because I like it. I’m doing it because I can. And I’m doing it because girls like you, who show up where they don’t belong, need to be taught a lesson.”

His words twisted my stomach. There was pure evil leaking from his tone. “P-p-please don’t do this.” It killed me to give in to my voice trembling even if I was using the waver to my advantage.

“They all fucking beg. It’s so damn pathetic. ‘Please don’t kill me, I’ll do anything.’” Bryce let out a harsh laugh. “Do you know that a lot of them offer to suck my dick, fuck me, anything. I hadn’t expected that. Like I would want their whore selves.”

Bile churned in my stomach, but I forced it down. I just needed him to come a little bit closer.

“What, you’re not going to offer the same?” I said nothing, just bided my time, keeping my head down. Bryce took another three steps forward. “Come on, you whore yourself out just fine for Walk—”

His words cut off as I sprang up, throwing the dirt I’d gathered in my hands at him, as close to his open eyes as possible. Bryce let out a strangled curse as his hands automatically flew to his face. I used that split second of distraction to grasp him by the shoulders and plunge my knee into his groin.

The sound that came out of him was a garbled cry. He dropped to his knees. This was it. I was going to make it. I was going to escape. I braced to run, making it one and then two strides before a hand clamped around my ankle and jerked. Hard.

My legs flew out from under me, and I slammed into the ground below. Light burst in my vision as my jaw slammed shut. I cried out in pain.

Bryce dragged me back towards him, the rough ground tearing at my skin. “You fucking bitch! You’ll pay for that.” He was on top of me then, sitting astride my pelvis. My breathing came in quick pants—so fast, I had no hope of slowing it.

Bryce leaned over, closer to me, studying my face. Then, he burst out laughing. The sound grated against my skin as tears leaked from my eyes. “I knew you’d be fun,” he said, slapping my cheek twice without any real heat and then winding up and hitting me again with such force my teeth split my lip.

Blood filled my mouth as I gasped to catch my breath. Bryce seized a fistful of my hair, pulling it taut. “You’ve made things interesting, but now I have to level the playing field. Things must be fair when we enter the fight, don’t you think?”

Stars danced in my vision as he tugged harder on my hair. “DON’T YOU THINK?”

I could only moan in reply. My vision seemed to be fading in and out. My mind felt foggy, as if I didn’t have a firm hold on reality.

Bryce kept a firm hold on my hair with one hand while he reached behind himself with the other. I blinked rapidly at the item he retrieved. The blade. Acid choked my throat as I felt him harden against me. He loved this. Terror was his drug, the thing that turned him on more than anything.

I bucked against him with the little strength I had left, doing anything I could to get him off me. It got me nowhere. Bryce simply chuckled. “Stop moving, or I might slip and make things worse.” I froze. “You’ll still have a chance to run from me, don’t worry.” He slowly lifted up my shirt, and tears stung my eyes. “Don’t move a muscle. I’m only evening the playing field. This is what’s fair.”

I squeezed my eyes closed. I wasn’t strong enough to fight him off. I could only hope that he wouldn’t kill me immediately. That I’d have a chance to outrun him. The flat side of the blade pressed against my stomach. I filled my mind with thoughts of Walker. I traced every detail of his face with my memory.