Chapter Fifteen
Valen
Six years ago, I would have called the police on Michael. Would have restrained him and waited for the proper authorities to handle it. Back then, I believed in the system. Believed that justice was handed out in a courtroom and that evil people got what they deserved.
But prison had taught me better.
The system was a fucking joke. It had failed Seraphine when it let Cyrus walk free.
It had failed me when they put an innocent man behind bars.
And it would fail again if we called the cops and handed Michael over.
They’d see a young kid with no criminal record and probably give him a slap on the wrist. Then he’d be free again and would end up killing someone else.
Michael had come to my mountain with restraints and sedatives. He’d spent God knew how many weeks spying on me, on us, planning Seraphine’s death. He planned on torturing and killing the woman who mattered most to me.
The old me would have shown him some type of mercy.
Would have probably made it quick and clean.
But mercy was only for those who deserved it.
In prison, if you fucked up, there were consequences. The kind that came with broken ribs and bloodstained hands.
I wasn’t being cruel for the sake of it.
I was doing this so Michael would understand, even in his final moments, exactly what happened when you threatened someone, especially someone who belonged to me.
Maybe if criminals faced real fucking consequences, there wouldn’t be so many victims suffering.
Seraphine believed I was protecting her. And I was. But I was also protecting everyone Michael would have hurt had I let him go free. Because there would have been another victim at some point.
There always was.
Michael screamed through the duct tape, but I kept my attention on the hole I was making in the ice. I’d given him more of the sedative so he’d be easier to transport on the cargo sled attached to the snowmobile. We were twenty miles away from my property line in the middle of nowhere.
I took in a deep breath, letting the icy chill run through me. The sky was so clear, you could see millions of stars out. It was beautiful, peaceful even.
Except for the soon-to-be-dead man screaming.
I’d been to this spot several times on my trail runs. It was isolated, surrounded by a deep forest. The only things out here were animals, which made it the perfect spot to dump his body. Nobody would find him.
Ever.
Once satisfied the hole was big enough, I stalked over to Michael and lifted him. His legs were so cold, they gave out almost immediately. I could have just left him out here naked and he’d freeze to death. But that was too merciful.
I grunted, dragging him by his bloody zip-tied wrists over to the hole in the ice.
Tears streamed down his face, which only infuriated me.
He’d come out here to kill Seraphine, and he had the audacity to cry?
If I wasn’t so eager to get back to Seraphine, I would have taken extra time with him.
You learned all types of creative ways to make people suffer in prison, and I had an arsenal of ideas.
But she needed me right now.
I ripped off the tape, enjoying the way he screamed in pain.
“Valen, wait! Please! You’ve got it all wrong, I swear.” His voice cracked like the pathetic weasel he was. “I admire you. I followed your trial, every headline. They made you out to be a monster, but I knew we were the same, you and me.”
“The same?” I squeezed my eyes shut, pinching the bridge of my nose. He was fucking insane, and I didn’t have the patience to deal with this. The urge to crush his face in was overwhelming, but I wanted him to be wide awake for what was about to happen.
“Yes!” His eyes were wild, spit flying from his mouth. “She ruined you, and I only wanted to finish what you started. She’s poison, you know it! She’s not worthy enough to be your girlfriend.”
“My girlfriend?” I chuckled darkly. “You think she’s something as simple as that?” I wrapped my hand around his throat, dragging him closer to the hole. “She’s carved into my fucking soul. So don’t ever reduce her to a word that insignificant again.”
He clawed at my wrist, scrambling. “I can help you. We can… we can share her.”
I froze for a second, pure red-hot rage flashing through me. A sound came from my throat that resembled a snarl.
“Please, Valen. I’ll do anything,” he sobbed.
“Anything?” I quirked my brow.
“Yeah, anything.” There was a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Like he thought I was about to let him go. Good. I wanted him to feel like there might be a chance he’d live.
Because there wasn’t.
When I laughed, that small spark of hope disappeared from his eyes and filled me with absolute fucking delight.
Enough playing with your food.
I lifted him up and pushed him legs first into the hole. He screamed the entire time, like the pathetic coward he was. His head bobbed up, his zip-tied hands frantic to grab on to anything. But it was useless.
I hunched down, peering down at him as he thrashed. His eyes were frantic, pleading for help. But soon the ice-cold water took him down, and then silence.
It was over too quickly. If I’d had it my way, I would have carved him up for hours, kept him alive the whole time. Watched his blood run out and relished in his pain.
But Seraphine was more important. The need to see her dug deep into my bones, and I packed up my supplies and headed back home.
The silence of the woods surrounded me as I drove my snowmobile back to the cabin. I stripped my clothes and tossed them into the fire, desperate to touch the only thing that felt good in my life.
After I showered and changed into clean clothes, I found Seraphine curled up in my bed, her dark hair spilled across the pillow like some gothic queen’s.
I sat on the couch in the corner of the room, watching her.
The fire illuminated her body and the steady rise and fall of her breathing.
She looked so peaceful lying there, I was mesmerized by her.
I’d spent so many years hating her, and now I would kill anyone for her. The irony wasn’t lost on me that we’d built trust on violence and revenge. It was fucked up in every possible way. Two broken people with a chance to be whole, bonded by secrets that would horrify most people.
But watching her sleep in my bed, wearing my shirt, trusting me to keep her safe, I knew I wouldn’t change a single twisted moment that had brought us here.
She stirred when I sat next to her on the bed, pushing a piece of her hair behind her ear.
“You’re back,” she murmured.
“How are you feeling?” My fingers trailed across her cheek, and she nuzzled into my palm.
“Better. Tired.” She sat up slowly, her brows creased. “Is it… handled?”
The question hung in the air between us.
“Yes.” I studied her expression, waiting for the fear to show up on her face. “Michael won’t be hurting anyone ever again.”
“What about his snowmobile?” She nibbled on her bottom lip, and I could tell she was overthinking everything.
“I’ll take it deep into the woods tomorrow.
Make it look like he got lost in the storm, ran out of gas.
” I wasn’t worried about his snowmobile, or his car, or anyone coming to look for him.
“People go missing all the time in these mountains, especially in the winter. A city guy like Michael? They’ll assume he didn’t understand the terrain.
There’s nothing to worry about, Seraphine. It’s over with.”
She visibly relaxed, relief flickering across her face. “Good. He was going to kill me.” She shuddered, fisting the blankets in her hands. “How did you…”
I could’ve lied. Told her I made it fast. Shot him and dumped him in the water. Could have let her believe I was the merciful man she probably thought I was.
“I made him suffer. I wanted him to know what real fear felt like before he died.” I kept my voice steady. She needed to know I had no remorse for what I’d done.
Her eyes widened just slightly, but she didn’t pull away from me. “How?”
“Threw him in the lake alive. Let the water fill his lungs while he realized nobody was coming to save him.” I searched her face for disgust but saw none. “He begged. Cried like a child. And I felt nothing but pure satisfaction watching him drown.”
She was quiet for a long moment, searching my face. “You wanted him to suffer.”
“Yes.” There was no point in lying to her. I needed to know if she could accept me for the monster I’d become. A man who was capable of cruelty, but never against the ones I cared about. “He came here planning to torture and kill you. He deserved a far worse death than what I gave him.”
“You’re waiting for me to be scared of you, aren’t you?” Now it was her turn to search my face. “That’s why you’re looking at me like that.”
“You came up this mountain looking for a killer, Seraphine. And you found one.”
She bit on her bottom lip, shaking her head slowly. “He was going to kill me. Slowly, for his own entertainment. I’m not upset that he suffered. Does that make me a monster too?”
“No.” I weaved my fingers in her hair, tugging her to me. Her lips parted on a gasp as she gripped my shirt. “That makes you mine, little lamb.”
I brushed my lips against hers, savoring the taste of her.
I’d killed for her tonight. Taken a man’s life, although he’d deserved it. And I knew deep down inside of me I would do it again.
I’d do anything to keep her safe. Lie, steal, destroy anyone who tried to hurt her. She was slowly becoming the only thing in my fucked-up world worth protecting.
And if that made me a monster, then so be it.
*** ***
The next day was surprisingly peaceful, with Seraphine and I spending most of it in bed. We ravished each other like animals, like we were both afraid to let the other one go. I worshipped her body like a goddess, because that was exactly what she was.