“But Ms. Hunt,” he said, his body taut and still. “What if I don’t feelremorse? What if I feel relieved?”
That’s when he leapt at her. Despite anticipating it, she wasn’tprepared for either his speed or his ferocity. He bowled into her, knocking herdown with the sheer force of his size and momentum. She toppled backward butmanaged to break her fall with her arms, avoiding her head hitting the hardwoodfloor.
As she scrambled away from him on her back, certain that he was goingto leap on her and pin her down, she prepared to lift her knee up to connectwith his gut when he dove at her. But to her surprise, he didn’t try to jump onher.
Instead, he grabbed her by her left foot and tugged her back towardhim. Before she could gather herself, he yanked her up off the floor and in onemotion, grabbed her by the waist and tossed her through the air toward themassive living room windows.
Worried she might crash through them, fear briefly gripped her. Butthen it became clear that she wouldn’t go quite that far. Still, she did flyover the leather chair she’d been sitting in before her hip slammed into thearm of the loveseat just beyond it. The momentum sent her careening over it andto the floor beyond.
As she skidded to a stop, Jessie felt her heart thumping almost throughher chest. She sensed panic just beneath the adrenaline and knew that if ittook over, she was lost. Though time was precious, she remained still for amoment, just long enough to instruct herself to remain calm and assess hersituation.
Her hip was stinging badly but otherwise, she seemed okay. Ferro wasalready stomping toward her as she used the loveseat to pull herself upright.The sirens sounded very close now but she doubted anyone would get insidebefore things got much worse.
Despite Melissa Ferro’s defenseless status, Jessie was tempted to tryto make a dash for the front door. But with her throbbing hip and Ferro’sphysical advantage, she knew that she’d never make it. So she decided in thatmoment to do what he had done to her and take him by surprise. Squaring up, shewaited until he was too close to avoid her and threw herself at him.
He was startled, briefly pausing as she slammed into him, making sureto thrust the point of her elbow toward his abdomen. He toppled backward,crashing into the side table with the mugs of tea, which crashed to the floor.For a brief moment she was on top of him.
But it only took a second for him to get the upper hand. Though he wascoughing from getting the wind knocked out of him, he seemed otherwise unfazedby their collision. He rolled over so that he was above her, pinning her down withhis extra weight. Even as he gasped for breath, he wrapped his hands around herthroat, squeezing with so much strength that she thought her head might popoff.
She flailed around desperately for anything to hold him off. The sirenswere unceasing now and she thought she heard banging on the front door. They’dbreak in soon and get him, but not soon enough to save her.
Her floundering hand brushed against something hard and she grabbed it.It took a second to process that it was one of the tea mugs. With all the forceshe could muster, she slammed it into the side of his head. It shatteredagainst his skull but he didn’t even blink.
The room was getting blurry. She felt her strength starting to wane. Asconsciousness began to fade, a sudden image of Hannah and Ryan flashed throughher head. Both were stone-faced, silent, wearing black. They looked broken,beaten down by the burden of another tragedy they would have to bear. Seeingthe image, she felt sad and small and weak. But worst of all, she felt guilty.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
But she felt something else too. A remnant of the mug was still in herhand, a thick, sharp shard, like a ceramic arrowhead. She gripped it tight inher fist and brought it upward, aiming for the fuzzy part of his face that shehoped was his eye.
She made contact and felt something give, like a balloon that initiallyoffered resistance before giving way. The shard was no longer in her hand. Sheheard a garbled scream. Ferro let go of her neck.
Still unable to see clearly, she opened her palm and swung it up towardhis face, in the same general direction as before. It made contact withsomething hard and she heard the scream above her get even louder. Her visioncleared slightly and she squinted at the writhing head above her. As best shecould tell, a chunk of the mug had punctured deep into his cheek.
He was clutching at it, trying to pull it out, as his screams weremuffled by a gargle of blood, some of which was drooling down onto her. Shetook a deep breath, ready to use whatever strength she had left to shove himoff her and crawl to the door. But before she could, a loud voice barked out,echoing through the massive room.
“Hands up! Get off the woman. Do it now or we’ll shoot.”
“My face!” Ferro seemed to shout, though it was hard to understand him.
“I don’t give a damn about your face,” the officer yelled back. “Getoff her now or you won’t have a face to cry about.”
He rolled off her and collapsed onto the floor, hugging his mangled cheek.Seconds later multiple officers appeared in her line of sight. One had Ferro onhis stomach as he placed him in cuffs.
“Can you hear me?” another one asked as he leaned down next to her.
She nodded and tried to speak but found that her throat was raw. Sheswallowed hard. Suddenly, Detective Peters appeared before her too.
“Don’t try to talk,” he said. “Just give yourself a moment.”
She shook her head. She wasn’t strong enough yet
