Razorblade Kisses(96)

Derrick put two guns on the table. “Rach, I really need you to let me come with y’all.” He ran his hand over his dark cropped hair.

“Babe, no way. We’ll do this. You’ve done enough.”

Emery got up from the couch and wrapped her arms around Derrick. “Thank you,” she whispered into his chest.

Derrick had really thought of everything. They had rubber gloves and an untraceable gun. He’d also provided them with a stolen car that they’d be leaving somewhere in Atlanta and getting him to pick them up after they were finished.

“Anything for you, Em.” He smiled at Rachel and disappeared into the back of the house.

“We can do this,” Rachel said. “That motherfucker deserves to die and you deserve to do it.”

Emery nodded. She felt nothing because Derrick had been smart enough to get her a prescription of Valium. At least lacking emotion is good for something.

Rachel called her mother to kill some time. She listened and smiled at Emery, giving her the thumbs up. They made small talk and Emery let her mind wander to her sister. She was so full of life when Emery left, all smiles and rainbows. He’d taken that from her. She’d loved Harry Potter and was halfway into the series when Emery left; she wondered if Ashley finished reading it.

“Let’s go.” Rachel’s voice shook Emery from her thoughts sometime later. Rachel picked up both guns and made sure the safeties were on. “You ready?”

Emery nodded and took a gun.



They pulled into a driveway down the road from her old house. Emery and Rachel walked around the neighbor’s house and stared into the back of her house, which had plenty of windows. There he was, watching a football game and drinking beer. Like nothing happened. Like he didn’t kill her sister.

“I hope he’s enjoying the game,” Rachel said through clenched teeth.

“It’ll be his last,” Emery said, shocked by her own conviction. “You have the rope, right?”

“Yep.”

“Rachel, I don’t want you to have to do anything but watch out, okay? You just keep watch. This isn’t your fight.”

Rachel stared intently into Emery’s eyes. She nodded once and they began walking to the back door that Emery knew would be open. She opened it and relished the flash of surprise on Phil’s face before a smirk settled in on his lips.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise,” he said, mocking her. “You missed the funeral. Your mother was distraught.”

Rachel found the docking station where she slid in her iPhone and turned up the music as high as it would go. The bass pulsed and cut out all thoughts from Emery’s head.

Emery, momentarily frozen in place, closed her eyes for just a second, but it was long enough for him to cross the threshold of the kitchen to where she stood. He grabbed her jaw, hard. His big hands squeezed her and he leaned in, only inches from her face.

“You came back because you liked what I did with you. You used to grind your hips against me. You wanted it and you liked it.”

Emery’s rage took over and she spit in his face. “You’re disgusting!” she yelled and then as he wiped her spit off his chin, she kicked him as hard as she could in the nuts.

He screamed in agony and doubled over. Emery raised the gun and shot him in the arm. He screamed, but no one would hear him. She walked over to him and looked down to where he’d fallen on the ground.

“Get up and walk upstairs,” she said calmly.

“Fuck you,” he spit.

“You already did that, and I didn’t like it. So…I think I’ll shoot you again, if that’s what you want.” Emery raised her gun and meant to pull the trigger when he held up his uninjured hand to show surrender and started moving toward the stairs. Emery put the gun to his back and pushed him up the stairs. Once they got to the landing she paused and pulled him to the left. He looked at her with a question on his face. “I’m going to let you sit on my little sister’s bed while we chat,” Emery sneered.

He turned into Ashley’s room and sank onto the pink bed, still clutching his arm, a trail of blood running down his sleeve. No turning back now. Emery’s insides shook with rage. Ashley’s room hadn’t changed. She was still rainbows and sunshine and he’d killed her. He’d made her life so horrible she’d taken her own life to get away from him.

Emery tied his feet with the rope Rachel had given her and began to pull his arms behind him when he elbowed her in the face, knocking her back. She hit him in the temple with the butt of the gun and because his legs were tied, he fell on his back on Ashley’s bed.

Emery heard the music change, which was their sign something was up, but she didn’t stop. She didn’t care anymore.