He raised the gun in her face. Behind him, the mist parted. The rocky outcropping of Round Island loomed in front of them. The beach stretched out to its right. The current worked the bow of the boat toward the little stretch of beach. Any second now. She braced for it.

“You’re going to pay for everything,” he vowed. “You’ll regret ever trying to keep my wife from me. I’ll make sure you regret bedding that Neanderthal cop. You’ll beg me to end you. And when I finally do, when you’re nothing but a stuttering, shuddering shell of a female, I’ll do the same to your entire family.”

“Fuck. You,” Remi enunciated, then dropped to the deck and grabbed on to the base of the bench seat a split second before the boat’s bow dug into the rocky bottom.

Vorhees was knocked off his feet. He fell on his back, hitting his head on the boat’s wheel.

Her kick landed exactly where it had been destined to. Right in his balls.

“That’s for Camille, you stupid son of a bitch.” She took his head in her hands and brought her knee to his face. “And that’s for me. I’ll leave the rest of it up to Brick. And you’ll wish you’d never been born.”

She sprang out of the boat, landing in frigid waist-deep water. The adrenaline, the fear, the rage, kept her moving toward land as the sky lightened all around her. She heard a splash behind her. Knew he was coming after her. He had nothing left to lose. But she had everything.

Her legs felt numb as she dragged herself toward shore. She couldn’t afford to slow down.

Finally, she dragged herself to shore and started a labored jog on numb feet.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” This wasn’t a nightmare where she couldn’t run. Couldn’t scream. This was real life. Light was turning the sky from black to the palest blue. It would be a beautiful sunrise, and damn it, she wanted to see it. She wanted to see a few thousand of them with Brick. Sunsets, too, and everything in between.

She ran as fast as she could even as she heard him closing the gap between them. Even as his ragged growls got closer and closer. She ran even as his hand closed around her hair, yanking her backward.

“No!” Her scream wasn’t loud enough. Her lungs burned. Her heart ached. She couldn’t see the boat. Was Brick close enough to watch? She couldn’t let him see this.

With her last bit of strength, Remi yanked the palette knife out of her back pocket and jabbed it into his leg.

“You bitch!” he howled. “You fucking little bitch!”

He dragged her head back again, and this time, when the barrel of the gun pressed against her cheek, she knew it would be the last. She braced for it.

“Brick,” she whispered. If that was the last word she said in this world, it was enough.

She could sense the tension on the trigger and braced.