Page 157
So Isabeast reached out and grabbed a fistful of her hair near the back of her head.
Every muscle in my body went rigid.
“Take your hand off her.”
Isabeast pulled Isabella’s head back instead.
That was it.
“She’s mine to protect. Touch her again, and you die.”
Isabella’s head turned as far toward me as Marcela’s grip allowed.
For a second, even Isabeast went quiet.
Then disbelief twisted her face.
“You really don’t learn.”
“I learn just fine. You’re the one who keeps making the same mistake.”
She tightened her fist in Isabella’s hair.
“Look at him,” she told her. “He knows what you are now.”
Isabella said nothing.
Her right hand closed around the handle of the knife.
I made damn sure my eyes didn’t drop far enough to tell anyone else where her hand was.
Isabeast leaned closer to her.
“I wore your name better than you ever could. I took Isabella Delgado into courtrooms you’ll never see and rooms full of people who would never have known you existed. I gave your name an education, a career, influence.” She gave Isabella’s hair another vicious pull. “I gave it a face people remembered while you stayed hidden in the compound like the pathetic little secret you always were.”
I kept my attention on Isabeast.
“You heard me.”
She looked toward me, still holding Isabella by the hair.
That was when Mouse moved.
No warning.
No hesitation.
Isabella surged off the ground and drove the point of the kitchen knife into the flesh beside the outer corner of Marcela’s left eye.
Then she ripped it down.
The blade carved across Marcela’s cheekbone and tore through the left side of her face toward her chin, barely missing the eye.
Marcela’s scream ripped through the courtyard.
She released Isabella and staggered backward, both hands flying to her face. Blood poured between her fingers immediately, spilling down her cheek, neck, and the front of that once-pristine white blouse.
“You stole my name,” Isabella shouted, still gripping the bloody knife. “You stole my life. You don’t get to steal my face too.”
