Wicked Stalker (Captives of the Onyx Brotherhood #1)

Thirty-One

Gabriel

Another message comes through as I reach the gates to the Compound and slam my palm on the entry pad. It beeps as it reads my palm, but the gates won’t open until the guards have thoroughly searched my car.

I want to scream into the intercom and demand they let me in right away, but I can’t risk acting suspicious. At the slightest hint of trouble, they’ll detain me and call Kendrick, wasting precious seconds that Eve doesn’t have.

My hand shakes as I reach for my phone. The last message, a video of that traitorous motherfucking bastard Wally punching my Eve, almost made me crash my car. My own goddamn assistant, and he laid hands on my girl.

I hesitate for a second, too terrified to see what he’s sent. If he’s hurt her again, I might just lose my mind. I give myself a single breath to steady myself and open the message.

For one icy moment, my heart stops. A body lies crumpled, blue dress stained a deep red across the chest. In that second, it’s Eve I see. Dead on the floor, eyes vacant, all the beautiful life in them gone forever. Gone because of me .

A scream builds in my throat, then I blink and see the hair. Blond, not brown. And Eve wasn’t wearing a dress like that. Adrenaline burns my veins, still urging me to move, as I force myself to study the woman’s face. The vacant eyes don’t belong to Eve. It’s not her.

The swell of relief almost drowns me, and I gasp in a breath that hurts my tight chest. It’s not her.

My fingers are gripping the phone so tight the veins bulge in my hand, and I force myself to loosen it as I take another painful breath. A line of text follows the picture.

ANONYMOUS: She’s next.

Before I can react to the words, a guard knocks on the window, and I drop the phone with a yell.

Fucking hell. Get it together.

Luckily, it lands on the seat, and I blank the screen before steeling myself and opening the door. Act natural. Try not to come across like a complete lunatic.

I recognize the guard. He’s in his fifties and, unlike a lot of the others, seems to enjoy gate duty. He’s always chatty, which is just what I don’t want. He gives a friendly nod as I exit the car. “Afternoon. You been anywhere nice?”

“My dad’s funeral.”

I blurt it out without thinking, but it’s the best thing I could have done, because his face falls. “Oh, I’m sorry, sir. Very sorry for your loss. I’ll make this quick.”

“Thank you.”

He gives my car a quick once-over, then a loud, electronic buzz sounds, and the gates start to open. I drive through, then an idea hits me. “Hey, I’ll be heading out again in a few minutes. I forgot my wallet, and I’m hitting the bar tonight. Can I leave the car here? Save you checking it again on the way out? ”

He clasps my shoulder. “Of course. It’s no trouble.”

“Thank you.”

Avoiding another search will save me valuable minutes. I run the short distance to the main Compound, then force myself to slow. Running will attract too much attention. Please, please, please don’t let me run into Jacob or Seb. They’ll see straight through me and know something is wrong.

I’m drenched in sweat by the time I reach the initiates’ quarters. The thick cotton of the shirt rasps against my skin, and I want to tear it off but won’t waste the time. I open my door and beeline straight for my computer.

The PC seems to start in slow motion, even the whirr of the fan sluggish as I drum my fingers on the desk. What’s happening to Eve as it runs through its stupid fucking start up sequence? What is he doing to her as I fumble my encryption key, fingers as graceless as sausages?

Then there’s the download onto my portable SSD, the blue bar filling up fraction by agonizing fraction. My phone sits on the desk, an unexploded bomb with the power to rip my soul into shreds.

Once I’m sure the download is well underway, I head to my room and open the bottom drawer. There, brand new and unused in its case, sits the pistol Jacob reluctantly sourced for me. I pull it out and load it as we practiced at the range, and though my fingers shake, I manage it without incident.

After the incident with Cole, we spent several evenings there, and he said my aim is pretty good for an amateur. I’ll let the asshole who abducted Eve take my research if it keeps her safe. But if things go wrong, the pistol is my plan B.

An entire ice age passes, but finally, the bar fills up, and I stuff the drive into my pocket. I take a second to shoot off a text.

ME: I have the research. Location?

A dropped pin comes through. Before I can work out where it is, another photo arrives. A wicked-looking pair of garden snips.

ANONYMOUS: Hurry. I just showed your girl these, and I think she might have pissed herself.

That fucking cunt.

I’m doing what he wants, and he’s still playing with me, scaring Eve for no goddamn reason other than sadistic fun. Once I get Eve safe, I’ll find him. I swear it. He’ll pay.

I’m so intent on racing back to my car that I don’t see Kendrick until I almost knock him over. My shoulder bangs into his, and he lets out a shocked gasp as I try to hurry away. “Gabriel. Wait.”

I want to run, to power to the gate as fast as I can, but I can’t. He’ll warn the guards, and they’ll stop me. I have to stay calm. My muscles scream in protest as I grind to a halt and face him.

“Kendrick.” I nod in what I hope is a friendly greeting.

“I was just on my way to see you. I saw you’d returned. How did everything go today?”

There’s concern in his words, and it grates on every inch of my nerves. Why him? Why fucking now? “It went as well as it could have.”

It comes out edgy and defensive. A slight twitch of his brows indicates he doesn’t like my tone, but hopefully he’ll give me a pass due to grief. “Well, that’s good to hear.”

Awkward silence. I have no good reason to be racing toward the gate, but I need to move. I clear my throat. “Thank you. Have a good evening. ”

Stiff. Formal. Suspicious as all fuck. His frown deepens, and he seems on the verge of saying something else, then sighs. “You too. If you decide to drown your sorrows, be careful.”

“I will.”

Before he can say anything more, I’m moving. My friendly guard passes me my keys and waves me through the gate without incident. The relief as my car passes through it is a cold drink of water on a hot day.

The Compound never felt like a prison before, but that's because I never tried to do anything the Brotherhood wouldn't have approved of. It's not just Eve and the rest of the Wards who are trapped here. If Kendrick wanted to confine me, he could.

It's an unpleasant realization.

The location Wally sent through is twenty minutes away, still deep in the forest. Guided by the blue triangle, I take a turn down a narrow, branching route I never noticed before. An endless bumpy ride later, and I come up on a clearing that holds a couple of broken-down storage sheds and some rusty husks of earthmoving equipment stripped of half their working parts. Grass grows around the tracks.

There's a van parked by the larger shed, and I force myself to study the scene rather than race in. It should be a simple exchange. Walk in, hand over my research, leave with Eve. But I can't quite believe it'll be that easy. Giving them my research doesn't remove the information from my own head.

If they want to be the first to do something profitable with it, they'll be in direct competition with me. It would make sense for them to take me out of the race.

And keep Eve for themselves.

A fresh deluge of anger surges along my veins. To the world, she's already dead. No one is looking for her. Whoever my traitorous fucking assistant is working for could keep her, sell her, whatever they want. I can't take any chances.

What advantage do I have? I pull out the gun as the answer comes to me. Then I press the barrel against the hard drive.

I'm sure it looks as ridiculous as it feels, but I don't care. It's the one thing I have that this asshole wants. The gravel crunches under my boots, and I leave the door wide open as I head toward the larger shed.

“Over here. She’s been waiting for you. I was about to start chopping.”

The voice is familiar but different. The same southern twang but harsher, and without any hint of a stammer. It rasps on my ears. I liked Wally. Even trusted him, as far as I can trust anyone not a Brother. And how the hell did he make it through the security checks?

I angle toward the double doors, knuckles white on the gun, finger off the trigger. I can hear Jacob’s voice in my head. “Don’t blow your own stupid head off.”

They’re open, which surprises me, though it shouldn’t. It’s not like anyone is just going to wander past out here. The sight that greets me makes my hands shake, the gun barrel tapping against the hard drive like a nervous tic.

My Eve is strapped to a chair, faced away from me, though she’s craning her neck around as far as she can. She’s tied hand and foot, zip ties trapping her in place, and even from here, I can see the deep red grooves where the plastic has dug into her skin. A filthy rag acts as a makeshift gag.

I can just see her wide, frantic eyes and the clean tracks of tears through the dirt on her cheek. One side of her face is red and swollen from the asshole’s punch, and it’s all I can do to keep myself from spinning, searching for him with my gun. Eve mumbles through her gag, high-pitched and urgent, but I can’t make it out.

“Throw that gun down, or she ends up like the bitch on the floor.”

I can’t help a quick glance down at the woman’s crumpled body lying in a puddle of blood at Eve’s feet. It just solidifies my certainty that this isn’t going to be the simple exchange it seems. I grip the gun tighter and search for Wally.

He’s standing a few feet from Eve, pistol pointed right at her. A shot even I couldn’t miss, and his aim must be far better than mine. I study him. Part of me expected him to look different, that he’d suddenly have transformed to look the part of the villain. But he’s still the same unassuming, geeky guy I thought I’d come to know well.

Except for the cruel smile on his lips as he meets my gaze. “It didn’t have to go down like this, you know. All the work I put in to infiltrating your fucking Compound, and you still only gave me the scraps of your work. My bosses were getting pissed.” He gestures with the gun. “Drop it.”

“I don’t think so. You hurt Eve, I destroy my work.” I raise the drive, and his lips twitch.

“You’ll blow your own hand off.”

“I don’t give a shit. Untie her, let her walk out to my car, and I’ll give you what you need.”

Eve’s mumbling rises in pitch, more desperate to be heard. It prickles up my spine. She’s trying to warn me of something.

Wally stares from Eve to me, then shrugs. “Whatever. You’re untying her, though.”

He pulls the garden snips out of his pocket and throws them to me. They land, spinning, at my feet. It feels like a win until I realize how awkward it’s going to be, holding the gun while I do it. How much more vulnerable it makes me .

But if it gets her out of there, I have no choice.

I retrieve the snips and tuck them under my arm, gun still pressed to the hard drive. When I reach Eve, I almost crumble. I want to touch her, kiss her, tell her I’m sorry and that I’ll never let her get hurt again. Instead, I crouch, place the hard drive on the floor, freeing one hand, and set to work.

I free her ankles without too much difficulty. Her hands, though, are cinched so tight there’s not much to work with, and I’m clumsy with my left hand. Her skin is so raw that when I try to force the snips into the gap, she whimpers into her gag. It’s a brand in my heart.

Several unsuccessful attempts later, I’m drenched in sweat, and Eve’s wrists are bleeding. It’s impossible. I glance at Wally, who watches impassively, gun still pointed at Eve. Moving as slowly and deliberately as I ever have, I bring my gun hand up high enough to use my thumb to help work in the snips. It’s still pointed at the drive, but would I destroy it?

Finally, finally, I get the snips in the right position. “Just a second,” I whisper to Eve and snick them shut.

As they bite down, Eve screeches into her gag. I jerk at the sound, just as white-hot agony rips into me, tearing me in two.