Memory: Book Two (Scars 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

into the house.
    Fenella
had a glass of pale wine in her hand already, and Aaron was pouring himself and
Antony bourbons. My wine sat on the kitchen countertop, dark and red. Aaron
caught my eye just briefly before looking away as I snatched up the glass and
lifted it to my lips. Compared to the light champagne that I had been drinking
earlier, it tasted heavy and dead in my mouth. I gulped it down all the same.
    “Easy
there, Paige,” Antony said with a smirk. “Any more and you might be dancing on
the table top and giving us a striptease.”
    I
curved my lips up into a coy smile. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
    Beside
him, Fenella frowned as she placed a possessive hand on his arm. She cleared
her throat. “This is an amazing place. How long have you lived here for?”
    I
choked out a laugh, imagining the annoyance running through Aaron at her
irritating questions. Maybe I would encourage her inane conversation and carry
on the pretense that this was a normal house with normal people in it.
    But
then her head exploded.

Chapter Four
     
    Blood
splattered, warm and metallic. It hit my lips and my tongue. It mingled with my
wine, and maybe there was brain in there as well, but I couldn’t process anything,
I just stared at my wine because it was better than looking at Fenella’s
corpse.
    “Down,
now!” Aaron shoved me to the floor and my glass slipped to shatter on the tiles
just as I hit them. More gunshots, more broken glass, Antony was yelling, and
Aaron had black guns in his hands. Where had they come from? He tossed one to
Antony, whose face was red with Fenella’s blood. The whites of his eyes in
contrast to the crimson were bright and bulging, making him look primal and
bloodthirsty.
    More
glass shattered, and maybe I screamed but I wasn’t sure because everything was
so surreal. I tried to crawl across the floor but it was slick with blood and I
slid in it as my white dress turned a nasty red. Fenella’s half of a head and
remaining eye stared and bitter vomit rose in me, burning my throat and suffocating
a sob. I had to get away from her and escape that terrible staring eye that
looked too innocent to belong to such a victim of violence.
    “Paige,
get out now!” Antony yelled at me. “Go out the back. Go to the beach!”
    I
didn’t need to be told twice. I managed to get to my feet, my sights set on the
door leading away from that corpse. I slid in blood, grasping onto the
countertop and leaving bloodied handprints in my wake. All I could think of was
that Aaron was going to be pissed at the mess.
    “No,
Rachel!” Aaron called to me from where he crouched with his gun ready.  “Stay
where you are! Stay down. Don’t go out there!”
    But
Antony had told me to go, and I needed to get away. Antony looked out for me,
Aaron didn’t, not really. I was listening to Antony. I fled. It seemed too easy
to escape and all I heard behind me was “ Fuck, Rachel!” from Aaron, and
more gunshots.
    I
sprinted past the pool and my fingers fumbled for the code on the lit keypad.
It hissed in acceptance and began to buzz as my red hands pushed it open,
leaving their mark so Fenella’s blood would now stain everything in this house
that she had so admired in her last moments. I hit the beach running, my heels
thrown off and lost in the sand as I sprinted toward the water.  Being clean
and away from here was all that I could think of. The dark water was getting
closer and closer, and I prepared myself to dive down deep, hidden and
protected by the waves. I was nearly there. The boat lights in the distance
twinkled prettily, heralding safety. My feet hit the water, just a little
further and I would be safe and away from the terror.
    But
a hand gripped my ankle and I was flung face first down into the water. Salt
stung my eyes and water went up my nose, and filled my mouth. My hands managed
to find sand and I pushed myself up, gasping for desperate breath, but a firm
hand on the back of my head pushed me