Page 108 of Swerve (Boosted Hearts 1)

Huh. I wasn’t expecting that. “How much money do you actually get, selling footage of your stepdaughter out to a bunch of perverts?”

“I did all right,” she said, smirking again.

“I can only imagine.” Steroid boy was still standing close, so for now my only option was to keep her talking. If I could somehow get the attention off me and Neco for even a split second, I might be able to get my hands on the blade in my boot, or better yet, the gun tucked in the back of steroid boy’s jeans. “How did Scott’s dad feel about you screwing his son? I mean, that’s fucking sick, even for you.”

She flinched, eyes darting to the overinflated idiot behind me then back. “You lying little bitch.”

“I had the extreme misfortune of stumbling over your sex tape—one of them at least. There seemed like a lot.”

“Don’t listen to her, David,” she said to steroid boy. “She’s always been a dirty liar.”

I turned to David. “I have the footage at home if you want to see it.”

“She’s lying!” Valery screeched.

“I’m not lying,” I said to David. “She’s been playing you, using you. Are you going to let her get away with that?”

David roared like a wounded animal, then jerked the gun from the back of his jeans and started flailing it around. Shit. Not what I was hoping would happen, unless he shot Valery then ran. I’d be okay with that. But the way he was waving that thing around, he could shoot anyone.

“She’s lying, baby,” Valery crooned. “I only love you. Only you.”

David was breathing heavily, then he roared again and charged. His gun went off . . . then so did Valery’s.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Ruby

I stared at the bullet hole in the opposite wall.

Jesus Christ.

David had missed Valery by mere inches. Her shot, however, had found a target. I gaped down at David in stunned silence. He lay on his side, one of his arms at an odd angle, his legs splayed out in front of him. There was also a hole in the center of his chest, hemorrhaging blood.

She’d killed him.

I spun to Neco to make sure he was all right. His eyes were wild and full of rage. My stepmother still stood behind him. She looked stunned herself, but then I watched her shake it off, eyes sliding from her now dead lover, back to me.

I’d recently seen two dead bodies, but I’d never seen anyone shot and killed in front of me before. It was as awful as you’d imagine.

“You have to know you won’t get away with this,” I said, gaping at her.

She shrugged. “I already got away with it twice.”

Shit. “Scott and Jimmy?”

The gun in her hand was still extended, aimed at me now. Neco hadn’t taken his eyes off it, nostrils flaring with each breath.

“I had help with Scott . . .” She glanced at David’s dead body. “I wanted him to suffer a little first, for betraying me. For choosing you over me.”

That explained Scott’s broken legs. Jesus.

She waved the gun around when she started talking. “Scott’s father was a good-looking man, my type. You remember, Ruby? Your type, too. You made damn sure they took notice of you. You were a little slut, even back then.”

My belly rolled. She’d been jealous of an innocent child, had been jealous of the attention some of her disgusting boyfriends turned my way. She was warped, sick, a twisted, ugly human being. “You should have protected me. I was just a child.”

“You were an attention-seeking little whore.” She sneered. “This time it was only me, you were gone, and for once, I had all the attention. I met Scott and we had a connection. When his dad walked out, Scott stayed. He was all mine. But we had expenses; we needed cash. We owed a few people money and had no means to pay. Scott knew about the site, and I offered you up as our first recruit. All he had to do was chase off your roommate and take her place.”

“But that wasn’t enough, was it?”