Page 46 of Kill For Me Kill For You
The kitchen lights.
She took out the second cell phone. Another burner. Switched it on.
A voice in the dark, mumbling, indistinct. The crunch of boots on glass.
Amanda held tightly to the axe, but she couldn’t stop her hands shaking.
The back door opened. Amanda took out the second burner phone, hit dial on the only pre-programmed number. She heard him coming closer, step by step.
Amanda stood, her back to the shed, her knee screaming.
The shed door whined open. Quinn must’ve seen the light from the burner phone in the tool shed and had come to investigate.
When he comes to the tool shed, he’ll want to find out what the hell is going on. He’ll see the phone ringing and he’ll step toward it. You come around from the back of the tool shed and hit him from behind. Go for his neck or the back of his head. That’s all it’ll take. Be careful. You fuck up this part and you are in a lot of trouble . . .
Amanda whipped around the shed, the axe raised over her left shoulder. Quinn was ahead and to the right, standing in the doorway of the shed, gazing into it. Just as she turned around to the front of the shed, she saw his exposed back. He wore sweatpants, sneakers and a tee. It was him all right. The same man she’d seen in the photos – no doubt. He held a baseball bat in front of him.
This was her chance. Back turned. Wide open.
She was going to kill the wolf.
Amanda took a breath. Held it.
She gritted her teeth.
Tensed her muscles.
Her grip tightened on the axe haft.
One step forward and she would be in range.
One swing.
Instead of Quinn’s neck – she visualized Crone’s.
Imagined the sharp, heavy steel head biting into his flesh.
Amanda took one step forward.
Hesitated.
The axe trembled in her hands.
Her whole body shook.
She breathed out.
And let the axe fall . . . by her side.
She took a step back, emptied her lungs.
This wasn’t the man who’d killed her daughter, no matter how much she wanted him to be. This was a stranger. A life.
She couldn’t do it. Her heart wouldn’t let her.
Even though this man was a monster, she couldn’t kill him in cold blood.
Amanda blinked. Her mind had wandered in indecision.
