She Was the Treasure All Along novel Chapter 311

He stared at Loyce’s hand like he’d just seen a ghost. She looked like she could still be in college—so how in the world was she strong enough to stop him cold?

Loyce’s eyes stayed ice-flat, almost bored. “Tch.” An impatient sound slipped out of her. The hand pinning the club jerked upward in a sharp, slicing motion.

*Rip—!*

Using the club’s shift to her advantage, Loyce flicked her wrist. A slim blade appeared in her fingers as if it had been there all along, and she cut toward his knuckles.

Cold, razor-sharp metal kissed his skin. Gavin Quinn’s soul practically left his body. He shrieked and let go on instinct.

*Thud.*

The heavy club dropped onto the thick carpet. And Loyce’s knife was already there—steady, precise—resting against the artery at his wrist, right where his hand still hung in the air, frozen. The edge pressed lightly, lightly into that thin skin. A fraction more pressure and she’d open something he could never close again.

Gavin went rigid. He forgot how to breathe. A chill of death crawled straight up his spine and flooded his limbs.

Up close, Loyce’s face didn’t so much as ripple. Blocking a lethal swing, tearing the club, putting a blade to his pulse—she wore the same expression someone might wear brushing lint off a sleeve.

“My weapons aren’t for you to—” Her gaze slid over his fear-twisted face, then dropped to the tiny bead of blood at his wrist. Her eyes turned glacial. “—cut kids open, strip them for parts, and dump them in the ocean like trash.”

*Bang!*

The game room’s heavy door blasted open.

One-Eyed Buck filled the doorway like a walking wall. The stench of blood and gunpowder rolled in behind him. His single eye swept the room, landed on Loyce—safe—and then on Gavin, pinned in place like a specimen with a knife at his wrist.

Sapphire’s face was a mess of tears. She’d never imagined Loyce had this kind of reach—never mind that she could command pirates.

Trembling, Sapphire forced the words out. “Can you… not kill Gavin yet? He still has the photo negatives. The… ones of me.”

Loyce didn’t look away from Gavin. “Stop.”

Gavin was barely clinging to life. His face was swollen beyond recognition, teeth missing, lips split. He wobbled upright—and in the same breath fished a small remote out of his pocket, laughter turning wild and cracked.

“Photos?” he wheezed. “You think you’re getting off this ship and going back to pretending you’re some society darling?”

He raised the remote, eyes fever-bright. “I almost forgot to tell you. There’s a bomb on this ship. You kill me, you’re coming with me!”