“You can take the tape off. No one can hear her out here,” Gus said. “Start with the teeth. They’re the most painful.”

“Why are you still here?” the devil asked. I was shaking so hard I could hear my jaw rattling.

“Just wanted to watch the fun start.”

“I don’t do audiences,” the devil said adamantly.

“Come on, man, just one tooth. Then I’ll leave,” Gus whined.

“Do it yourself then,” the devil said. Standing up, he tossed him the wrench. Gus’s face lit up and he practically ran over to me. Crouching down by the toolbox he lifted out a metal contraption.

“Just one, and then I gotta go,” Gus said. Ripping the tape off my mouth, he pried it apart using pressure points on the roof of my mouth to force me to comply.

It wasn’t the first time he’d done this.

The blond devil stepped back and looked down at us with an annoyed look on his face. He was obviously pissed that Gus was taking his sick work away from him. “I got shit to do so hurry the fuck up,” he snapped.

“I’d love to take my time, little one. But this is going to have to do.” He pushed the wrench into my mouth and clasped onto one of my molars. He didn’t just start to yank on it, he started pulling slowly, building the pain, setting each nerve on fire, prolonging the inevitable as he pulled harder and harder until I felt as if my entire jaw was being ripped from my skull. I screamed so loud my chest hurt. Warm copper flooded my mouth.

Gus sat back, his chest heaving up and down. My bloodied molar between the tongs of his wrench. “That was fucking fantastic.”

“Great. Now get the fuck out or I’m leaving,” the blond devil spat.

“Fine,” Gus said, standing up and setting the wrench down on the tarp. “Just make sure she screams, she was adamant about that.” The devil nodded and knelt down next to me again, picking through the toolbox. I started to choke as the blood dripped down my throat. He pushed my head to the side so the blood could run out of my mouth, the spreader bar painfully tearing into the flesh inside of my mouth.

How could someone so beautiful be so evil? I thought, but then I remembered something Bear had said.

He looks like sunshine. Blond hair and blue eyes. The kind of looks you’d see on one of them TV shows all the teenagers like these days. But that kid’s got the devil in him. Only human lives he values are his wife Abby’s and now his kid’s. Jake’s the only person in the world who scares the shit out of me. You know, besides you.

It was my only chance. It had to be him. One of the tattoos on his chest was the name Bee. Maybe short for Abby? “Jake,” I said. But I was tired, so very tired, and with the spreader in my mouth it sounded like, “Gggggggech.”

He ignored me and shuffled through his toolbox and that’s when I realized it was over.

I was going to die.

I love you Bear.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Thia

WHEN JAKE TURNED back around he was holding a box cutter. He looked from me to the instrument in his hand. He slid his thumb up and down on the handle and watched the blade as it retracted again and again, as if he were in some sort of trance.

“Air Air!” I screamed, trying to shout Bear’s name to Jake, but it was too late. There was no decision to be made. My fate had been sealed. There was no drawing him back from whatever murderous place he’d gone.

A car backfired somewhere outside, or maybe a motorcycle. Whatever it was, it got Jake’s attention. The creases on his forehead relaxed, and his eyes focused. He dropped the box cutter to the floor. With an angry roar he pulled a gun from his jeans and cocked it.

“Noooooooo!” I screamed, trying to roll away from him like there was somewhere I could go. Somewhere I could hide.

There wasn’t.

He fired, the sound of the shot echoing through the room like a shrill scream in a cave, ringing my ears. I waited for the pain. Or the nothingness.

It never came.

“Shut the fuck up,” Jake whispered, and it was only then I realized I was still screaming. He looked over his shoulder toward the door and paused, listening for something. I noticed the camera had been the target of Jake’s shot. “Fuck!” he said, running his hand through his hair.

He lowered himself next to me, his mouth close against my ear and I tried to roll away again. “Do what I say.”

I stilled. Why was he whispering?

“Gus hasn’t left yet,” he continued. “That fucker is waiting in the other room to make sure I’m going to follow through. I am going to hurt you. Scream. It helps. I promise.”

What the fuck?

“Okay?” he asked. I nodded, oddly trusting the man who was now holding the same wrench Gus had just used to pull my tooth out.

It’s not like I had any other options.

“The louder you scream, the more satisfied he will be and the sooner he’ll leave.” Jake pushed the wrench into my mouth and clamped it around another molar. Tears ran down my face in anticipation of the pain.

“Scream as loud as you can, because if you don’t he’ll just stay longer and I’ll have to take more teeth.” He paused. “And do God only knows what the fuck else.”

Screaming wouldn’t be a problem.

He yanked, and I screamed as he ripped another tooth from my mouth, flooding it with more blood. But unlike Gus, it was over almost instantly, almost painlessly. “Keep screaming,” he whispered, long after the tooth had been extracted, so I did, until my lungs burned. Until my vision blurred.

The door opened and Gus stepped back into the room.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Jake asked, picking up the drill and selecting a bit from the toolbox. Blood from my mouth dripped down his hand. I continued to scream although no sound came out.

“I was about to leave, but I wanted to make sure you were doing your job. Wanted to make sure the rumors weren’t true about you going soft.” Gus said, taunting Jake.

“You want to finish this? Finish it. Fuck it. I don’t need this bullshit,” Jake snapped. He stood, and on his way out the door, he tossed something to Gus who held up my bloody tooth with a look of approval. A phone rang and Gus answered. “Yes. He’s got it all handled,” he said into the phone. Jake stopped and turned back around. “I’m on my way, now,” Gus said, hanging up. “She’s all yours,” Gus said. He was about to close the door when he spied the camera in pieces on the floor.