The Killing Kind Read online

  Zoe coughed. “Wh-what?”

  “What you just said. Say it again.”

  Zoe couldn’t think straight. Her fear was overriding everything. She couldn’t remember what she’d said just a second ago. Then it came to her and she made her mouth form the word again. “Please.”

  “Again.”

  She whimpered. “Please.”

  “Please what?”

  Another whimper. “Please don’t kill me.”

  Missy made a sensual sound deep in her throat. It was the kind of sound you made when biting into something delicious. “I always dig the begging part.”

  Julie looked almost bored now. “So what do we do with her?”

  Missy lifted her head and looked out at the ocean. The gentle roar of the incoming tide was louder at night. Zoe remembered how soothing the sound had seemed on previous nights. But now it just struck her as ominous.

  Missy sat up, leaned back on her haunches. “I have an idea.”

  A corner of Julie’s mouth tipped up. “Yeah?”

  “I was just thinking…I don’t think I’ve ever drowned anyone.”

  “NO!”

  The word erupted from Zoe’s sore throat, that one powerful syllable somehow invested with enough raw anguish and terror to express the entirety of the horror engulfing her. Desperation possessed her and she thrashed with all her might, nearly dislodging the younger girl until Missy got her hands around her throat and began to squeeze. Her hands were strong, surprisingly so, like a band of steel drawing tighter and tighter against her flesh. The pressure only let up when she stopped struggling.

  Missy let go of her throat. “Let’s do this.”

  They hauled Zoe to her feet again and began to drag her toward the ocean. She was weaker than before and let herself be dragged at first. She felt numb. Defeated. She was about to die horribly and there was nothing she could do about it. Then an inch or so of salt water tide rolled over her feet and reignited the agony in her wounds. She screamed and tried to tear out of the grip of her captors. But it was no good. They held on and steered her deeper into the water. She stepped on a rock invisible beneath the water and screamed again. And she heard the most awful thing. Their laughter. Her misery amused them. Christ, they were barely fucking human. They continued to wade deeper into the water. She stepped on more rocks and shells. By the time they stopped, the water was up to their waists and Zoe had been reduced to a gibbering, insensible mess from all the pain. She couldn’t scream anymore. Couldn’t even plead anymore.

  Missy laughed. “Big breath.”

  Julie’s hands were at her waist and the small of her back. Missy had one hand at the back of her neck and the other wrapped firmly around a bicep. They were really going to do this. Drown her. How could anyone, no matter how cruel, do this to another human being?

  She drew in a breath just before they plunged her into the water. She thrashed against them and tried to break free. If she could break free, she could swim way out there, a mile or more, whatever it took to make them give up. But they clung to her with a maddening tenacity, refusing to let go. They danced around her, shifting positions, pinning her under the water. She twisted her head and could just make out the shapes of their heads and the moonlight-limned clouds above. The surface was so tantalizingly close, but it may as well have been a million miles away. Missy’s grip on her neck tightened and her head was pushed farther under the water. A minute passed. Longer. Her lungs burned with the need to breathe out and breathe back in. She knew it was time to start praying. She didn’t believe the way Annalisa believed, but the possibility of something on the other side, no matter how slim, was the only hope left to her.

  They held on to her. Never let up.

  And the inevitable happened.

  Her mouth opened and the salt water rushed down her throat and into her lungs. Her struggles increased and became more frantic for a few seconds longer. She experienced a sensation like being crushed from within.

  Then she stopped feeling anything.

  They held on to her a while longer to be sure she was gone. Two or three minutes. Then they exchanged a look of mutual, silent assent and let go of her. They watched the body float beneath the currents.

  Julie scratched the side of her head with the gun sight. “I thought they were supposed to float.”

  Missy shrugged. “Maybe the body has to get all bloated and gassy first.”

  “Huh. I guess. Anyway, that was fun.”

  “Yeah.” Missy lifted her face as a pleasant breeze rolled over them. She stared out at the ocean. The endless expanse of inky blackness seemed to beckon to her. “Nice night. It’s really beautiful out here.”

  “I guess.”

  “We should get back.”

  “Okay.”

  They slogged their way out of the water and began making their way back. The house they had invaded was some hundred yards or so distant. It was easy to distinguish because it was the only house with all its lights on. Missy had to give Zoe some credit. She’d given them a real run for their money. Had almost made it, in fact. Probably would have made it, if not for a little bit of dumb luck.

  “Hey.”

  Missy glanced at Julie. “Yeah?”

  Julie smiled. “I liked it when she went limp. That was my favorite part.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I mean, you just knew she was gone. You could feel the life going out of her. It was fucking awesome.”

  Missy smiled. “You’ll have to describe that for Chuck.”

  Julie giggled. “I know! I can’t wait to see the look on his face.”

  Missy’s smile faded as they neared the dune separating the beach from the house. That was when she heard the screams coming from inside.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  March 27

  The guy had stabbed him three or four times, at least. Twice in the arm, once in the side, and another time in the leg. The wounds all hurt like hell, but none of them were too deep. No mortal blow had been struck yet. Rob came at him with the knife again, a wild look on his face as he slashed down toward Chuck’s chest. He looked almost as crazy as the girls now. Maybe he wasn’t a killer by nature, but he was on the verge of becoming one by necessity. Chuck rolled again and got out of the way just before the knife came down and thunked into the floor. He heard a sound of exertion. Instinct made Chuck roll back over before Rob could pry the knife out of the floor. He launched a fist that landed with sledgehammer force on the guy’s jaw and made him let go of the knife and go flying backward. Rob landed on his back and didn’t move. Maybe he was out cold. He’d hit the motherfucker hard enough. Chuck grabbed the knife and yanked it out of the floor.

  He heard footsteps pounding up the staircase outside.

  Shit!

  He sliced through the last of the tape binding his left leg to the chair and got to his feet just as Missy and Julie came sprinting through the balcony door, dripping water and trailing wet sand behind them. Missy saw Rob unconscious on the floor and screamed.

  “No! Rob!”

  Julie pointed the gun at him. “Drop it.”

  The adrenaline rush that had carried him this far began to ebb. He opened his hand and let the knife fall to the floor. He hated giving up his only weapon, but it was his only real option. Gun versus knife. No contest.

  Missy dashed past him and dropped to her knees next to Rob.

  Julie sneered. “Pick that chair up and sit the fuck down.”

  Chuck snatched the chair up and slammed it down on the floor. He dropped into it and crossed his arms, glaring at Julie, the insolent curl of his mouth feeling like a silent dare. Go ahead, bitch, pull the trigger.

  Julie smirked. “Hey, Chuck?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Don’t you wanna know where Zoe is?”

  Chuck felt a cold weight settle inside him. He sat very still. A feeling of dread like nothing he’d ever known worked its way through his bones and turned his blood to ice. He didn’t want to hear this. He knew the truth in h
is guts, but he didn’t want to hear it. It made him feel hopeless. Like nothing at all mattered anymore.

  “She’s in the ocean, Chuck.”

  Julie watched the contortions of his facial muscles and laughed. Her grin conveyed pure joy. She was dripping. Her denim cutoffs and halter were soaked through. A fading sheen of water glimmered on her bare scalp.

  “Yeah. She’s in the ocean. And she’s not out for a swim.”

  Chuck stared at her slender throat. She was so young. Still a child, really. But he ached to get his hands around her lovely neck and crush the life from her body. The muscles in his arms and legs were clenched to the point of pain. He was a bomb ready to go off and the girl saw that.

  She was still smiling. “She’s chum, Chuck. You know? Fish food?”

  Chuck’s breathing came faster and faster through his clenched teeth.

  “We drowned her.”

  A sob surprised him. He was perched on the verge of an explosion of deadly violence, but his grief for Zoe was instantaneous and powerful. Another sob shuddered out of him, followed by another and another.

  We drowned her.

  He knew she wasn’t lying to mess with his head. Her eager leer spoke the truth as plainly as her words. She and Missy had killed Zoe. Had held her under the water and laughed while she died. Chuck could only too clearly imagine the helpless, hopeless, awful horror of it from Zoe’s perspective.

  Tears spilled down his cheeks.

  Julie giggled. “I’ve killed a bunch of people lately, but I think Zoe was the most fun. If I was a guy, I would’ve gotten my rocks off, big-time.”

  Annalisa had been whimpering quietly for the last several minutes, but the news of her friend’s terrible death rallied her. “You evil cunt! You evil, twisted, sick piece of fucking filth! Zoe was better than all of you.” Her voice grew thick with emotion, but stayed strong instead of turning shrill. Chuck feared for her, but he was proud of her, too. This took serious guts. “You’re not fit to lick the shit off her shoes, you bald fucking skank.”

  A fast-moving cloud passed across Julie’s face, a subtle darkening that was there and gone in the space of a second. Then she was smiling again. Keeping a wary eye on Chuck, she approached the line of chairs and placed the barrel of the gun against Sean Hewitt’s forehead.

  A low, cracking whine escaped Annalisa’s throat.

  “This one’s your boyfriend, right?”

  Annalisa shook her head. “No. No.”

  Chuck watched Julie’s finger curl around the trigger and knew he had to do something. Sean’s whole body was shaking. Bound up in all that tape, he looked like a convict strapped to an electric chair. His bottom lip trembled uncontrollably as he stared up at Julie’s unforgiving face and struggled to voice a plea. Chuck decided he’d take a lunge at her. Enough of this shit. It had to stop. One more big breath to prime himself and—

  Julie’s slender finger squeezed the trigger.

  The gun’s bang caught Chuck off guard. He toppled sideways off his chair and saw a rain of blood and brains fly out the back of Sean Hewitt’s head. Julie laughed and kicked the dead man’s chair over as Annalisa screamed and screamed. Julie laughed some more, but when Annalisa kept screaming, the sound coming from her own throat shifted to mock the sound. She leaned down in front of Annalisa and screamed in her face. The ever-escalating volume of the crazy girl’s screams easily eclipsed the noise Annalisa was making, and soon the bound woman’s screams gave way to more subdued whimpers and sobs.

  “Sean…Sean…”

  Julie giggled.

  Chuck hated that sound. She did it a lot and it made her sound like the brattiest little girl on the schoolyard.

  She whipped the butt of the .38 across Annalisa’s burned cheek, making her scream again.

  Yet another of those perverse giggles. “Sean’s dead, baby.” Julie leaned close to Annalisa again, mouth almost up against her ear as her tone turned lilting and mocking. “Dead, dead, dead.”

  Chuck hadn’t moved from the floor after landing there in the wake of Sean’s murder. He was afraid to move. Not out of concern for his own life. That had stopped mattering the moment he knew Zoe was dead. But there was still the matter of revenge. These fuckers had to pay. And pay hard. But he wasn’t in a good position to make a play. Julie was preoccupied with Annalisa at the moment, but he knew any sudden movement would make that gun swing his way. He needed a distraction of some kind, something to divert her attention long enough to get himself in position again. And the second it happened—if it happened—he was gonna come at her with everything he had.

  He would not hesitate.

  Not this time.

  He’d fucked up before and Sean was dead as a result.

  Movement beyond where Julie was standing caught his attention. Missy had managed to rouse Rob. He was sitting up and she was kneeling next to him, a soothing hand at the back of his head. His head wobbled. He looked woozy.

  Julie looked at them. “He gonna be okay?”

  Missy’s attention stayed focused on Rob as she replied. “Yeah. I think so. He’s lucky his jaw isn’t broken.”

  Julie and Missy kept talking. Missy’s enthusiasm for the evening’s ghoulish festivities seemed to have waned. Her man was hurt. That confused Chuck. So they were both fucking him? Weird. A psycho threesome. Whatever. They could all rot together in the same putrid grave once he was done with them. Happily damned forever after. They were still chatting as Julie flipped open the .38’s cylinder and knelt next to a big tote bag one of them had brought to the party. She reached into the bag and pulled out a white box. She opened the box and Chuck saw a glint of silver.

  More bullets.

  She picked up a few and slid one into an open chamber.

  Now!

  Chuck rolled almost soundlessly onto his stomach, braced his palms on the floor, pushed himself up, planted his feet, allowed his muscles the briefest of moments to coil, and launched himself at Julie’s back. Rob saw him coming and raised a shaking finger in warning, but it was too late. He slammed into Julie’s back, turning his head and drilling a shoulder between her shoulder blades. The gun flew from her hand and the handful of bullets went skittering across the hardwood floor. Someone screamed. Missy. Chuck drove Julie to the floor, pounding the wind from her as he landed on top of her with his full weight. He heard footsteps coming at him. Fast. Missy again. He surged upward, to his knees, and just managed to twist far enough to avoid a killing slash from the hunting knife. The blade scraped across his chest, raking his shirt open, and drawing a thin line of surface fire through his flesh. Blood streamed from the shallow wound as he cocked his fist back and unleashed another haymaker, this one connecting with the side of Missy’s head. He felt her ear mash flat beneath his fist and then she was stumbling across the room. She tripped over Rob and crashed to the floor.

  Chuck glanced down.

  Julie was still pinned beneath him, but was trying to wriggle free.

  We drowned her.

  He grabbed her by the throat and jerked her upright. Her throat was so slender his big hand fit almost all the way around her neck. She clawed at his hand as he tightened his grip, her long nails piercing his flesh and drawing more blood. He was bleeding from so many places. It didn’t matter. All he had to do was stay conscious just long enough to kill these people. He shifted position, turning her so that her back was to him. She gurgled and her clawing grew more frantic. He wrapped his free arm around her head, grasped the back of her head with his palm, and began to twist. The intent was to break her neck. Julie thrashed and tried to kick at him with her feet, but the effort was ineffectual. He continued to twist and apply pressure. He could feel how close the girl’s neck was to giving way. Soon he’d hear the crack of snapping bone and she’d fall limp in his arms. He hated how much he looked forward to it. This was brutal and ugly, something no man should ever have to do. But it was also vengeance. Zoe was dead. This was her killer. She deserved to die.

  Something hit his back and
clung to him. He felt limbs wrapping around him and something tearing at one of his ears. Missy. Again. He’d made the mistake of turning his back to her. He’d thought she was out cold. Another mistake. He felt Missy’s teeth clamp around his right earlobe and knew he wouldn’t have the luxury of making additional mistakes. He let go of Julie in the same moment Missy’s teeth pierced his flesh. She fell away from him, coughed, and spluttered. Missy gave her head a savage yank and his earlobe came off in her mouth. Chuck screamed and tried to shake her loose as blood poured down his neck. She spat his earlobe out and laughed, sounding like the world champion lunatic of all time.

  Julie was on her hands and knees now and was scanning the floor for a weapon.

  Rob was also making an effort to get up and join the fight. He managed to get to his feet, wobbled, and dropped to his knees again.

  Chuck didn’t have much time. Soon one of them would recover the gun or one of the knives and come at him. And then it would all be over. He would be dead and maybe on his way to some kind of ethereal reunion with Zoe.

  And her killers would have gotten away with her murder.

  He stopped trying to shake Missy loose. It was a losing battle, the equivalent of running out the clock in a football game. She just had to keep her hands on the ball long enough to help her teammates score the winning touchdown. Her teeth were on him again, digging into his neck. He propelled himself backward and they stumbled over Sean Hewitt’s corpse and the tipped over chair it was strapped to. Then they were falling backward and Missy let go of him an instant before they crashed to the floor.

  Chuck rolled onto his back.

  Julie was coming at him, was almost upon him. Her face was twisted in a snarl and the hunting knife was in her upraised right hand. Instinct made him raise a hand in defense and the tip of the knife pierced his palm and scraped across bone. He screamed and yanked his hand away.

  The knife came with it.

  It was still embedded in his flesh.

  Julie yelped and leaped at him.

  Chuck screamed in pain as he pulled the knife out and tried to slash at her. The blade slid down the length of her upper arm and buried itself in the crook of her elbow. His grip on the knife wasn’t good and it came out of his hand as she twisted away from him. She shook her arm and the knife went flying.