Chapter 33
33
T he hunt was about to begin.
Reaper famously hosted a play party every year to close out the auction, and this year’s theme was predator and prey. It was as though he’d chosen the theme specifically for me even though it had been planned for almost a year.
Reaper was in his usual shirtless attire with leather pants and platform boots that made him even taller. He presided over his party with easy authority, but he was less at ease than I’d seen him at one of his regular parties. There was more posturing here.
I’d already watched him turn some of the most influential people in the world away at the door, and he’d made the Mad Wolf from the auction stand there while Ruby Belmonte sucked Reaper’s dick before he let them into the party. She must’ve been the tasty morsel the Mad Wolf had been waiting to bid on.
She looked like trouble. The kind of trouble I liked watching with my man, even if the Mad Wolf looked like he was considering some murder of his own. I could tell Reaper was testing him, making him prove he could stay in control no matter what shit Ruby pulled in here.
Reaper had a remarkable ability to juggle so many people’s needs and weaknesses and conflicts simultaneously, all while maintaining an air of godlike nonchalance. I was barely managing to handle my own turmoil.
I was wearing an outfit borrowed from Styx—a pair of black leather pants and a black tank top—plus Reaper’s jacket. It felt practical but sexy in a way that none of my usual attire ever did.
King had been watching me for hours across the party. Every time I caught his eye, I cringed in fear and wrapped my arms around myself, careful to let him only see the old Juliet, the one who’d be terrified she was about to be returned to her husband. To be fair, I was terrified, but it wasn’t because I was going back to him. No matter what happened, I was never going back to him.
He leaned against the wall and smirked, ever the patient hunter.
I was done being patient.
King watched as I cornered Reaper behind the bar and splayed my hands across his bare chest, savoring the feel of his arms wrapping around me.
“Promise you’ll be the one to catch me in the maze,” I said urgently, loud enough for King to hear.
“I’ll always find you,” Reaper promised with a scalding kiss on the side of my neck. He worked a hand under my top and cupped one of my breasts, rolling my nipple between his fingers as he nibbled the spot right under my ear, making me shiver with need.
Even in those awful circumstances, with my husband standing there likely plotting my death, I wanted Reaper beyond reason. I wove my fingers into his long hair and pulled his head down for a kiss that made my stomach swoop. He groaned low in his throat like he felt it too.
I pulled back. “Maybe we should just fuck in front of everyone, let my husband know what it looks like when I don’t have to fake it…”
King heard me, and so did the people around us. They laughed with delighted shock, glancing back and forth between King and me.
“Looks like you might’ve lost your wife, Kevin.” One of the guys nudged him like this was all a game.
Another man in King’s position might’ve exploded, but King only tucked his lips between his teeth and nodded like he’d made a decision. His eyes flashed with hatred, but he turned and made his way to the edge of the room closest to the patio doors.
Reaper laughed along with everyone else, but there was tension in his jaw. “He’s about to snap. You lure him there and then get the fuck out of the way, Juliet. We’ll do the rest.”
A subtle glance across the room reminded me of exactly who the we encompassed. Grim’s frightening blue eyes bored into me with zero show of emotion, and I was struck by gratitude that he was on our side.
“I love you,” I blurted to Reaper, leaning my face against his chest and listening to his heart pounding.
He shook his head. “None of that shit like you think this will go wrong. Tell me that when it’s over.”
For all that he wanted to deny these might be our final moments together, the kiss he gave me was deep and fast, but marked with possessive intensity. With one last significant look, he released me and shifted back into his role as host of the party.
King's eyes never left me when I made my way to collect a red wristband that would mark me as prey for the hunt. I hugged the jacket around me tighter to check the gun in my pocket, letting King think I was afraid.
Reaper strode to the center of the room, pulling everyone’s attention to him. God, he was sexy when he was in his element.
“Those who want to play will choose to be predator... or prey. Prey flees. Predators pursue. And if a predator catches their prey, they can have their filthy way with them. For this game, we’ll follow the tried-and-true safe words. Red means stop. Yellow is a pause. All of our lovely prey will be wearing red wristbands. Understood?”
I allowed someone to put a red wristband on me—the last time I’d let anyone think of me as prey. There would be no safe words in my hunt.
Everyone had to stay on the grounds, but most would be too excited to stray far from the party. Reaper looked straight at me as he said, “It’s time. Prey, your five-minute head start begins... now.”
I sprinted with the rest of the prey into the manor house but quickly split off from the group and headed for the hedge maze. I had five minutes to lay my trap, five minutes before King would be allowed to come for me.
The maze was eerily quiet and well lit since it was surrounded by surveillance cameras, but the hedges themselves were a dark tangle of leaves where anyone could be lurking. I’d been brave until I was alone, but now I trembled with nervous anticipation. Grim was already in here ahead of me, and Reaper would be right behind King. I just had to get to Grim.
I stifled a scream when I turned a corner and found my father standing there, aiming a gun straight at me. “Juliet. Glad I found you.”
We’d been trying to goad King, but clearly I’d underestimated its effect on my father.
“How did you know I’d be here?” I blurted when it became clear he wasn’t going to lower the weapon.
He narrowed his eyes. “Your husband told me just before the hunt. Had a chat with him last night, and we came to realize we’d both be better off with you dead. We can play the pity of your tragic death to make him untouchable in an election.” His face twisted with hatred. “You’re a disgrace to the Bryson name. I should shoot you now, but I want you to watch your whore boyfriend die first.”
Adrenaline surged through my body so rapidly, it drowned out the fear. I wouldn’t let him hurt Reaper.
Could I draw my weapon faster than he’d pull the trigger? I had a gun in my pocket and a knife in each boot, yet I had still been fool enough to be caught unarmed because I’d been focused on getting to Grim. I slid my hand into my pocket and palmed the gun.
“Toss it here,” he barked in a voice he’d never used with me before.
I pulled it from my pocket but didn’t throw it away yet.
I looked over his shoulder, hoping Grim would appear before King did. Surely he’d start working his way back soon if I didn’t make it to the meeting point.
“Looking for the other one?” Terror squeezed my lungs when he blew a short whistle.
Grim walked around the corner behind my father with his hands up, and Eric followed with a knife against Grim's back.
No!
I thought I was going to puke, but Grim looked bored, like this was beneath him. As soon as my father turned back to me, Grim's eyes slowly tracked down to the gun that was still in my hand, then up and back, like he was indicating Eric behind him. He adjusted his wrist to show me he had a knife in his sleeve, then his eerily pale eyes flicked to my father. He wanted me to shoot Eric, and he’d take care of my father…which was good because I wasn’t sure I could kill my own flesh and blood. Eric was another matter.
Grim made eye contact with me for an instant, making sure I understood, before he dropped the arm that held the knife so fast that for a split second, I couldn’t even process what he’d done. But I raised my gun and shot Eric in the chest without a second thought.
My father fell to the ground with a knife protruding between his shoulder blades. Eric dropped to his knees with blood leaking from the wound in his chest. He gasped twice, then collapsed.
I froze, trying to process how quickly it had happened. For all his faults, my father was a monumental figure in my life, and now he lay dying before me. I waited for pain or grief to swallow me whole, but all I felt was relief. The puppet master would pull no more strings.
I exhaled slowly, steadying myself for the real fight ahead.
The world suddenly swung sideways and the gun flew from my hand. Before I could make sense of what was happening, someone snatched me by the hair and fired two shots in Grim’s direction. Grim disappeared, but I couldn’t see if he was okay because the grip on my hair wrenched my neck the other direction.
I cried out, and the grip tightened, shaking me roughly. “Shut up, bitch.”
If I’d had any doubt it was King, I knew for certain once I heard his voice.
I tried to twist out of his grip, but he forced me to my knees just as Reaper turned a corner and strode towards us. His face contorted with rage when King aimed the gun at my head.
Terror consumed me as all my worst fears seemed to come to life. King was going to hurt the people I cared about then kill me.
King looked back and forth between Reaper and Grim, the latter of whom was leaning around the turn on the other side of us. King had to know he wasn’t getting out of this alive, which made him all the more dangerous.
He yanked on my hair again, jerking my body.
“Drop your weapons, or I blow her brains out.”
“Don’t!” I called out anxiously, earning me another rough jerk of my head.
Reaper and Grim ignored me, tossing their weapons to the ground.
Then Reaper edged towards us slowly and snarled, “You’ve only got time to kill one of us, you piece of shit. There’s no way killing her would be as satisfying as killing the man who spent the night balls deep in your wife. Everyone saw me make you my bitch in that auction.”
“Reaper, no !”
King laughed bitterly. “You’re right.” He released me and swung the gun towards Reaper. In a haze of frantic desperation, I lunged for the knife in my boot and drove it backwards into King’s stomach. He fired his weapon as he cried out in agony.
I screamed and ran for Reaper, reaching him just as his knees gave out. Shirtless as he was, it was easy to spot the bullet wound in his shoulder as blood ran from it. It had a clean exit wound and didn’t appear to have hit anything major.
I glanced back to make sure King wasn’t going to fire again. He had a knife embedded in his right hand as well as his stomach, and he’d dropped the gun. Grim must’ve thrown the knife at the same time as I stabbed King, throwing King’s aim off to save Reaper from a fatal hit.
“He shot you!” I wept as I frantically pulled my shirt off and tried to staunch the wound.
Reaper’s smile still took my breath away even when he was bleeding all over the ground. “You once asked me what could possibly be worth getting shot?” He put his hand on top of mine over the wound. “You. You’re worth it.”
“He could’ve killed you!” I tried to keep it together to maintain pressure on his injury, but the horror of it all was catching up with me now that we were out of mortal peril. My whole body shook with shock.
He swiped a tear from my cheek. “Vampire, remember? Can’t kill me with a regular bullet.”
I choked out a laugh.
“You want to kill this motherfucker or can I?” Grim said calmly from where he stood over King’s pleading form. “I can keep pressure on that if you want to be the one to pull the trigger.”
I’d imagined killing King too many times to count, had fantasized about the satisfaction it would give me. He sounded just like all his victims begging for mercy, but he’d find me no more merciful than he’d been. He didn’t matter anymore. The real satisfaction was in knowing I’d survived him.
“You can,” I said dismissively, and King started to weep. “He means nothing to me. The only man I’ve ever loved is right here.”
Reaper pulled my head down to kiss me softly. “I love you too.”