by Stella Hart
“Didn’t you ever try?”
I nodded. “Yes, and that failed too,” I said softly.
“So are you in or out?”
I looked down at my feet for a long moment as I thought about it. With two of us, it might actually work. “I guess I’m in,” I said softly.
Dan’s face fell with relief. “Thank fuck.”
Barely fifteen minutes after we decided to go ahead with the plan, we heard the shelter door creak open, and Alex came down the steps with a tray of food a moment later. He set it down on the floor, grabbed a hypodermic needle from his pocket—just as I knew he would—and then twisted his key in the lock on Dan’s cell door. My heart was in my throat, every inch of me quivering with anxiety.
As soon as he stepped inside the cell, threateningly holding up the needle to keep Dan at bay, Dan rushed him. My heart beat so fast my chest hurt, and my shoulders slumped when I saw the needle go flying.
“I’m not fucking afraid of you,” Dan snarled. He slammed his fist into Alex’s jaw with a sickening crack, then pushed him to the back of the cell and stamped on the needle.
Alex regained his footing and began to fight back, but not before Dan grabbed the key and threw it over to me. I caught it through the bars, then quickly set about unlocking my cell door.
The two men grappled with each other, already at a stalemate as Dan predicted. For a moment, my limbs refused to cooperate, and I simply stood and stared.
“What are you doing? Fucking run!” Dan called out, aiming a hard kick at Alex’s right knee.
“Celeste.…” Alex grunted only a second afterwards as he attempted to get Dan in a stranglehold. “Don’t do it.”
Moments ago, I thought I knew the right thing to do, but now I was frozen to the floor in fear, rooted with indecision. I knew I couldn’t stay like this for much longer. I had to make my choice once and for all, because if I didn’t, the decision would eventually be made for me.
I could either run to the pipe and help Dan overpower Alex as per our plan, or I could stay firmly planted here and do nothing. If I did the latter, Alex would eventually kill Dan once he regained the upper hand… and later, he might kill me.
My mind was split in two, one part screaming for me to run, and the other part begging me to stay with Alex.
Could I trust him enough to believe what he told me earlier when he said he was trying to protect me? Or did I have to give in to the seemingly-obvious notion that it was all a lie, all part of an insane serial killer’s twisted game, and that one day he would kill me too?
“Go!” Dan screamed. “Get it!”
Alex didn’t say a word. He simply looked at me as he fought his opponent, eyes barely leaving mine, his expression dark. I opened my mouth, letting out a choked murmur that couldn’t even begin to be translated as words, and I took a faltering step out of the cell.
My choice was made.
To be continued….
Preorder the next two books in the Heartbreaker series:
Broken Hearts
Black Hearts
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