Suicide Mission (Guarded Secrets #1)

32: "I'm just not fast enough."

The knife slashed through my skin with ease, allowing my blood to flow freely from the fresh cut. I felt a cold touch sweep through my body as the blood trailed down my face and dripped into the corners of my eyes. I tried to tilt my head and blinked repeatedly in an effort to keep the blood away from my eyes, but it was growing difficult. He had taken a particular interest in my face, probably because as he said I looked like my mother, but that hadn't stopped him from piercing my skin with the blade of the knife he had stolen from me or the blows he had pounded me with previously. There was nothing to stop his attacks, because to him I was a mark, and nothing more. I was that last piece of the puzzle, and most importantly I was the daughter of the man he hated. That meant that there wouldn't be a way out, eventually he would get rid of me.

After his speech about his hatred toward my family, well mostly my father, Ash had taken the time to beat me into submission so that I wouldn't fight him anymore. There was a constant pain over my body that prevented any quick movements as I was trained to do, but I was slowly building up my strength again, and he would regret this once I could move freely again. I had to choose my battles and so far this one had been an unwilling loss, but I could wait. Sometimes that was all anyone could do, wait for the moment. He was going to wait until I begged for life, and I was going to wait until he got bored with me, then I would strike. Only one of us would get what we wanted, because the other would be dead on the floor after we got it, I just have to wait for the right moment.

"What did you think you were going to get out of this little trip, Sara?" Ash asked as he cleaned my blood from the knife with the edge of my shirt. He had done it after every cut, and his cuts, while painful, were shallow. It showed me he was in this for the torment, and nothing else. It was his way of trying to keep the mess off the floor, and control what happened while we were alone. He was being careful, watching every twitch and move I made. I just had to wait for the right time to strike, and hopefully I could make it out of here with only a few cuts and bruises. "Did you think you'd come here, kill me and then leave without any trouble?"

He waited for me to answer, and it was becoming clear after enduring his line of questioning for so long that if I didn't answer I would either be punched or slashed until I gave in. "A girl can hope," I said weakly, letting the snarky tone of my words to sink in.

Ash ignored my remark and continued as if I had brought up a new conversational topic, "Where's your backup? Is there someone outside for you or was that you making my men run around the grounds?"

"It was me, I'm fast, just not fast enough, clearly." A short sarcastic chuckle left my lips just before he punched me in the stomach. The sudden attack had caught me off guard, the air left my lungs in less than a second. A single tear raced down my cheek as I was fighting for a breath. I curled over in my chair, but the air only came in short spurts, while I choked on the minimal oxygen I was getting into my lungs.

"I don't enjoy liars, Miss Night. You wanted something out of this trip. The answer isn't that you weren't fast enough to escape. It was that you wanted to save the other families," he asserted. This time he didn't wait for me to answer because he already had his answer. "I saw how my filing cabinet was suddenly empty. That alerted me to your presence, but something else had to bring you here, am I right?" His smirk grew as I looked up to glare at him. The air slowly making its way back into my lungs and allowing me to breath normally again. "And I guess I take credit for that. I killed your family and you wanted revenge, when did it become about the other families though? When you realized they could end up like you," he asked with a pleased grin lighting his eyes.

"Yes," I answered curtly, allowing myself to look over at the fire were I had burned the remnants of the files I had managed to shred. He had to have more files somewhere, there was no way he would only have one paper copy of each unless it was for easy disposal after, but he kept files from years ago. I had seen it with some of the completed files, so either he kept them or he was still working on the case in some way. There would be electronic ones, copies, somewhere and those families would always be in danger. There was nothing I could do about that. I should have left, but I wanted to try at least. It hadn't gotten me very far, and I wasn't holding my own as well as I hoped I would have been able to. But if I hadn't stayed, if I hadn't tried then either way they would have died. "Then I realized even if I destroyed the files, you'd eventually find them. So I had to get rid of you."