Page 37 of Out for Blood
Cassidy doesn’t look away from him, and she doesn’t acknowledge me at all.
“You’re going to answer me,” she snarls threateningly, “correctly, this time.”
Her free hand drifts down his chest and places her palm, spreading her fingers on his sternum, directly over his heart.
“Feel that?” she asks.
His breath stutters, baffled by her question.
“I can,” she remarks. “Every time you think about lying, it beats faster, and when it does, I’m going to stab you.”
His composure caves, fear seeping through.
“Where. Is. She.”
The color drains from his face as he realizes the reality of the situation.
“Guest house,” he scrambles to answer, his words meshing together. “She’s in the guest house.”
Cassidy doesn’t react. She doesn’t remove her blade, or even blink.
She lets the charged moment settle over the room. She regards him from a slight angle, and his nerves begin to fray.
“I’m telling the truth.” He spouts out. “I swear!”
The blade presses deeper, and more beads of blood trail down his neck.
“And now I have to decide if I believe you.” She lets out an exaggerated sigh. “Which is where this gets unpleasant.”
His breathing grows ragged.
I close the distance and stop right off his right shoulder.
“What kind of door?” I ask, keeping my voice level.
“Metal.” The response comes a little too fast. “Reinforced, it locks from the outside, and there’s a keypad?—”
“Code,” Cassidy interjects.
He pauses. There it is. That split second. That brief telling moment of weighing his options.
Cassidy tightens her hold on his hair and jerks his head back.The blade follows, held snug at his throat which makes his breath hitch.
“No thinking,” she tuts into his ear. “That part’s done.”
“I—”
She slams the hilt of the blade into his chest.
The strike knocks the air out of him in a broken sound as he sags.
She doesn’t let him fall and yanks him back up by his hair.
“Code,” she repeats, irritated.
He starts gasping, his eyes darting wildly as fear consumes him.
“2-8-1-4,” he croaks out.
