She felt the pin sink into Veronica's body, and at last a relieved smile crossed her face.
Veronica clutched at Lindsay's hand, still screaming, "Benjamin, save me! Benjamin—"
Lindsay slapped her without hesitation, hard enough to knock her head sideways. "No one's saving you!"
White-faced, Veronica turned to the bodyguards. "If I die, Benjamin will never let you live!"
The two men exchanged a glance, then finally moved in and dragged Lindsay aside.
That was when Benjamin arrived with his men. His eyes landed on Veronica, battered and bleeding, and rage caught fire in them. He drove a kick into Lindsay's stomach. "You never learn!"
He scooped Veronica up, saw the swollen red mark on her cheek, the deep gash, the bleeding hole at her chest, and lost control, shouting, "Get Veronica to the hospital, find the best doctor! Save her—save her face too!"
The pain tore through Lindsay's stomach. She crawled to her brother's coffin and gripped his hand. "I won't let anything happen to you again—"
Benjamin's voice shook with fury. "Veronica caused your brother's death by accident, and she's been so guilt-ridden she can't even sleep. She came all this way to attend his funeral, and you tried to kill her!"
"Lindsay Donaldson, how can you be this vicious!"
"Ha! Haha! " Lindsay braced herself against the coffin and pushed to her feet, laughing until her whole body trembled. "So you're saying she's too guilty to sleep, and that's why she sent dogs to destroy my brother's body?"
"Benjamin Delgado, do you even hear yourself? There's only hatred between you and me—but my brother? He truly thought of you as family!"
"You promised him you'd arrange the best doctors for his surgery. And what did you actually do?"
Benjamin glanced at the body in the coffin. Something wavered in his eyes, then went cold again just as fast. "The dead don't come back. Whatever happened, you had no right to hurt Veronica like this!"
"Since you care about your brother's body more than your own life, then I'll just have to destroy it! Let you feel a little of what I feel!"
A bad feeling gripped Lindsay. She moved to shield her brother, but a bodyguard pinned her flat against the ground.
Benjamin waved a hand, his voice ice. "Drain the gasoline from the car."
He took the gas can, poured it over the coffin, and gave the order to the bodyguards without a flicker. "Light it."
"No!"
The scream ripped out of Lindsay's chest. The ache there felt close to splitting open, every nerve in her body howling.
The fire was savage. It swallowed her brother in seconds.
She shut her eyes, unwilling to look, as if she were the one standing inside that blaze, the flames all but burning her heart to nothing.
Benjamin lifted her face and forced her to watch. "Look closely. This is the price of hurting Veronica!"
Lindsay watched her brother become a handful of ash, and forgot even to cry.
The next instant, a sweet, bloody taste rose in her throat. She heaved up a mouthful of blood and slid into unconsciousness.
When she woke from the nightmare, she was inside an iron cage.
A black cloth draped over it. Veronica's voice came through. "You all understand Benjamin's instructions, don't you."
A man's voice answered. "Don't worry. I promise we'll make her die ugly."
Lindsay felt no surprise at all.
How long passed, she didn't know. Then the cloth was pulled away, and under a violent burst of flashing lights she couldn't even open her eyes.
She heard only the roar of the crowd around her, and the host's voice. "Welcome, everyone, to the arena!"
"Tonight we have just one piece of prey, and three hounds! Place your bets—who do you think will win?"
Lindsay opened her eyes. She was inside a maze, cameras everywhere, and they told her exactly what this was: a bloody livestream, her life nothing but a chip on the table.
She had no weapon. Her hands were even cuffed.
Benjamin didn't only want her dead. He wanted her to die in shame.
"Place your bets. The game begins!"
At the host's command, the cage in front of her swung slowly open.
Lindsay staggered out, and from somewhere not far off came the barking of dogs.
Run.
She didn't want to die yet.
She bolted forward on instinct.
A maze had to have an exit.
She'd gone only a short way when a mastiff appeared ahead of her, its eyes lit with menace.
Run, or—
There was no time to think. The mastiff lunged. She threw up her arms to block it, and the sharp teeth caught the chain between her cuffs, grinding out an ugly screech.
She spun fast, slipped behind the dog, and hauled the chain tight.
The mastiff held on for a few minutes before its jaws finally loosened, and she seized the moment to wrench the chain hard around its throat.
Her brother's death. Veronica's lies. The fact that she was still alive.
"I am not dying here!"
As the mastiff dropped, the host marveled, "First time I've ever seen prey this fierce! Thrilling!"
The second hound came soon after, and she dug out its eye with one hand.
The third went down too.
Just as she let herself believe there was hope, a tranquilizer dart struck her body.
In the haze she heard, "This maze has no exit at all. We haven't had prey this good in a long time. She'll earn us plenty—don't let her die so easily."
When she came to again, they'd put her in a small partitioned room, the wounds the hounds had torn into her wrapped in gauze and aching dully.
She grabbed the chair beside her and smashed it against the sealed window.
The men keeping watch outside heard the noise and rushed in to check, and when they found her gone: "Find her, fast! If she's not back, the boss will have our heads!"
Lindsay, hidden under the bed, waited until they'd left, then slipped out of the room with care.
On willpower alone she walked from dark until dawn, and when she passed the seaside cemetery, she stopped.
The cemetery caretaker saw her and placed the urn into her arms. "Miss Donaldson, what's happened to you—"
She shook her head and said softly, "Thank you."
At first light she reached the Delgado mansion, drew the gasoline from her own car, and soaked the grass all around.
With shaking hands she struck a match, and the instant it hit the ground, the flames shot up.
She raised her middle finger. "Burn."
Benjamin, Veronica—both of them could go straight to hell.
With the last of the gasoline in her car, she drove to the county clerk's office.
When Raymond Henson arrived, he saw Lindsay barefoot, her feet caked in mud, blood seeping through the gauze on her body, a ruin of herself.
He crouched down, wiped the mud from her feet with his own sleeve, careful about it, then lifted his face and asked, "Miss Donaldson, I never imagined you loved me this much. To come to me even in a state like this..."
The last of Lindsay's strength gave out, and she fell into his arms. In the haze, she heard him say, "Then I'll give you the whole Delgado family as your wedding gift."
