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“You two … you’re brothers? Friends?”

“We were friends at school,” Kenan sneered. “Everyone hated me and loved him. They all called me weird, bullied the shit out of me. Beat me up, locked me in closets, even pished on me. It was constant. But Greig saw something in me. He was friends with everyone, but he chose me to know him.”

A glaze of something akin to obsession, madness, fell over Kenan’s eyes. “We got each other. Lassies came easily to him while they looked down their fucking noses at me like they were better than me. But even then, he knew … he knew that bitches need to shut up and take what we want to give them.” Rage burned in his mad gaze. “He caught me. There was this uppity bitch a few streets over who thought she was something. She used to look down her nose at me. Every evening, she took her dog into the nearby park. I didn’t know Greig had followed me, but he watched me rape her. I wasn’t stupid. I wore a mask. But he said I needed to be smarter about it. He sourced the drugs and he chose our target. But it wasn’t enough.”

He licked his lips, eyes flickering over me with greed. “I wanted more. So one night, I killed a cunt,” he confessed, like he was confessing to drinking the last of the milk. “I thought Greig would go off his nut, but he just said, ‘If we’re going to do this, Kenan, we need to plan it carefully so we don’t get caught.’ Greig was always brainier than me.” Kenan wiped a hand under his nose. “Until you. Before you, we chose our targets weeks before we did it. Greig chose them. We came up with the serpent branding iron together.”

“It’s what got you caught,” I gloated, perhaps unwisely. “Your desire for every woman to be afraid of you got you fucking caught. And let me guess—I look like Greig’s mum?”

Kenan bared his teeth at my disgusted tone. “You think you’re so much better than us? Another uppity fucking bitch that needs a lesson in who is in fucking charge here! I tried to tell him!”

His erratic behavior, while unsurprising, was unnerving as hell. “You said it yourself. Psych 101. Or psycho 101. Hating women usually has something to do with mothers.”

“Do you even care what they did to us, or do you cunts just protect each other no matter what?”

I laughed hollowly at the irony of this incel lecturing me on women protecting each other when men had been perpetrating violence on women since the dawn of time and using one another to excuse themselves of their crimes. “I couldn’t care less if someone set you motherfuckers on fire.”

He abruptly pushed off the wall and I flinched.

Kenan grinned. “You can talk pish all you want, but we both know you deserve this. You think you don’t, but you wouldn’t be here in this room if you didn’t deserve this.”

“I don’t deserve to die because you can’t get it up unless you use a knife on a woman.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You’re awfully mouthy for a bitch who’s about to discover what that feels like.”

I tried to contemplate it. The absolute horrific agony of what he and Greig had done to those women. What he intended to do to me. “You’ll never get off this island. They’ll find out it was you. They’re probably looking for me as we speak.”

“I’ve got a boat waiting.” He shrugged. “I need to disappear, anyway. Greig warned me they’ve got my DNA. They don’t know who I am yet, but it’s only a matter of time, right? I had to come do this. I had to punish you first.”

“You could have done that months ago. Why wait?”

Kenan cocked his head, studying me. “I tried doing it the smart way. I tampered with that cabin cruiser, hoping you’d die at sea, and without the star witness in Greig’s case, they’d let him go.” He ran the knife over his crotch again and I flinched at the sight of his arousal. “But it’s just so much better this way. More personal. Plus watching Forde fawn all over you just made me want to cut you up even more.”

“Don’t tell me you have a crush on my boyfriend?” I knew I was antagonizing him, but I couldn’t help it. I tried not to think about the fact that I’d blamed Caoimhe for the boat failure, and the girl had put her life in danger to rescue me.

“A crush? It’s no’ about that, you dumb bitch.”

First I was smart; now I was dumb. But I realized Kenan was telling the truth. I doubted he knew what a crush felt like. All he understood was power. Not having it. And having it. It was always about power with men like him.

“I wanted to turn him against you. Sweeten the deal. Make him see what a useless cunt you are.” He thrusted the knife in the air with a feral grimace. “But he didn’t take me up on it. And the condoms and message in his bedroom didn’t break you up either.”

“That was you?”

“I knew Caoimhe was talking shit about you all over town, so I suspected you’d think it was her. I didn’t care, as long as you broke up. But you didn’t. Forde is a fucking pussy for you. Knowing he’ll want to die after he finds you dead is just the cherry on top.” He pushed off the wall, determination glinting in those soulless eyes.

I jumped to my feet, and he paused after he stepped over Caoimhe.

“Are you planning to fight me, Cammie?”

“I’ve got two inches on you and a healthy dose of female fucking rage running through my veins, Kenan, so if you think I’m taking this lying down, you’ve got another thing coming. You should have drugged me like you did the others.” Adrenaline fueled me as I bent my knees, ready to defend myself. “Now you’re going to know what it’s like to fight a woman who can fight back, you worthless piece of shit!” I screamed the last in my fury.

Caoimhe took it as her signal because as Kenan lunged toward me, she jolted upward, grabbing him around the knees and shoving him with all her might toward the adjacent wall. I shot forward as he toppled, dropping the knife to catch his fall.

I swooped it up and dashed for Caoimhe, yanking her to her feet just as something knocked into the back of my calves. My legs buckled and I fell forward on my knees seconds before my hair was yanked back.

“Fucking cunt!” Kenan jerked my hair painfully as he grabbed for the knife.

I struggled to keep it out of his hold, spittle and unearthly screeches falling between my lips as I fought against him with everything I had. Out of my peripheral, I saw Caoimhe jump on Kenan’s back, gouging his eyes with her fingers.