Chapter 11
Xavier
Rage slowly bubbles to the surface.
“No way,” Davy says.
Kevin laughs. “Good one. Almost got me there.”
The fury mounts and mounts while I clutch the pizza so tightly that all the pepperoni squishes together.
“It’s true. She crawled in through my window and tied me to my chair,” Orion adds. “But if you don’t want to believe me, that’s fine. It’ll be my little secret that I had a taste of her delectable pussy.”
That’s it.
I lunge over the table, grab him by the shirt, and shove the pizza right into his goddamn mouth, the whole fucking slice. “Don’t fucking talk about her like that, motherfucker!”
He mumbles through the slice. “What? It’s the truth.”
“Stop fucking lying about Sunny!” I yell, stuffing the pizza so far down his throat he nearly suffocates from it.
“Wow, you’re taking this too seriously,” Davy says. “Calm down.”
“What the fuck, Xav?” Atlas barks, trying to get me off him.
But I’m anything but calm. I’m fucking furious that Orion dares to lie about her.
And if it isn’t a lie, that means she chose him over me.
It would break me into pieces.
“It’s. True,” Orion chokes out.
I shove the pizza farther into his mouth. “No. It fucking can’t be.”
Atlas rips me away from Orion long enough to allow him to swallow a bit of the pizza and spit the rest out. “Jesus Christ.”
“Then how come I know she’s visited the Tartarus Society to look for you?” Orion says between coughs and heaves. “Because she told me after she was done toying with me.”
“What?” I stop trying to fight Atlas to get him off me.
“She actually came to the door last night and asked about you,” Davy says, leaning back in his seat. “I said you weren’t home and asked if she wanted to party with us.” He shrugs. “Too bad she declined, would’ve loved to hit that.”
I nearly throw the entire pizza box at his face.
I’m fucking fuming at the thought that any of these fuckers would touch her, let alone invite her to one of their sex parties filled with pure debauchery.
“She’d cut off your dick if you tried,” I retort, then get up, snatching a slice of pizza so I can have breakfast to-go instead.
I don’t have time to waste on these fuckers. I gotta prove to Sunny that I’m stronger, faster, better than him, so that she’ll never need anyone else but me.
“Running already?” Atlas asks, smiling.
“I have an appointment,” I tell them, but then I focus on Orion. “You … stay out of her way.”
Before he can respond, I dart out the door. I don’t want to listen to him spout about how his time with her was amazing, and how he got to shove his nose and tongue into her pussy.
I can’t believe it actually happened. A part of me wishes he’s just saying his fantasy poetry out loud, but another part of me knows there’s no fucking way he’s able to lie about her looking for me when Davy and the others can corroborate that she came to the Tartarus House.
But if it is true … why the hell was she in Orion’s room?
What was she trying to get out of him?
And what does him eating her out have to do with finding me?
Grinding my teeth, I hop inside my car and start the engine. I’ll find out, one way or another, after I’ve convinced her not to kill me by throwing her a peace offering.
Time to pick up her lunch.
One hour later
I watch until that fucker steps out of his restaurant at the exact time as posted on Sunny’s list. He strolls across the street toward the same parking lot where I’ve parked my car, and I’m waiting behind his car so I can ambush him.
As he approaches, he pulls out a cigarette and pushes it into his mouth.
I raise my gun and wait until he’s in clear line of sight.
He stops walking the second his eyes connect with the barrel.
“Make a sound, and I put a bullet in your brain.”
The cigarette drops from his mouth.
“Open the trunk. Quietly. Don’t let anyone notice you’re under threat.”
His face contorts, but he still steps back twice before pressing the button on the trunk.
“You run, I will kill you,” I warn him, nodding at the trunk. “Now get in.”
He contemplates his choices for a second, eyes skittering about, so I click the safety off.
“Do you want to risk it? There’s no way back from death.”
He swallows.
Finally, he grabs the trunk and slowly sinks inside, and when he’s fully covered, I approach and fish two pairs of cuffs from my pocket. “Put one set on your ankles.”
He does what I say without protest. “What now?”
“Put the others on your wrist.”
I tighten them to make sure he’s not accidentally slipping out.
“Car keys?”
“Left pocket,” he answers.
I rummage in his pocket and fish them out.
“Please don’t kill me,” he begs.
“Then tell me why she wants you dead.”
He frowns. “What? Who?”
“Sunny,” I grit.
“I don’t know who that is.”
I roll my eyes. “Sure you don’t. Have fun.”
I attempt to lower the trunk lid, but he suddenly blurts out, “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you!”
I pause with a raised brow.
“She’s a friend of a friend. I don’t know her personally. I just heard him say her name once or twice.”
I push the gun into his forehead. “Who and what does she want from him?”
“Guy’s name is Mike. I don’t know what their relationship is. I just supply him with drugs.”
“Drugs for what?”
“Surgeries.”
“Where?” I ask.
“I don’t know the location. They’re everywhere. Hidden. It’s the Bones Brotherhood.”
Bones Brotherhood? There it is again.
“I just know Mike does some work on people.”
“What kind of work?” I shove the metal into his forehead so deeply that it bruises him.
“Organs. Bodies. Anything is for sale if the price is right.”
Fuck. He’s talking about trafficking organs and people.
As he opens his mouth again, I slam the trunk lid shut. “I’ve heard enough.”
I drive halfway up the mountain toward Spine Ridge University, stopping at the abandoned house near the side of the road that’s been used by lots of junkies over the years, called The Shack.
The run-down, overgrown building, with its broken door and shattered windows, is an eerie sight every time I pass by.
It always reminds me of the one time I went to the fair with my family and got lost in the Haunted House because Silas came running after me with a plastic knife.
That dickhead loves to torment his own siblings more than he loves to torment his victims.
I park the car right outside, pull my bag of supplies from the back seat of my own car, then open the trunk.
THWACK!
A foot in my chest knocks me off-balance, and I stumble backward.
“Get the fuck away from me, fucker!” he yells as he tumbles out of the trunk, falling on his ass, before crawling away.
I chase him and catch him halfway across the road. “Too fucking late!”
I fish my knife from my pocket and ram it into his thigh.
He howls in agony, struggling against the metal cuffs around his wrist as blood seeps from his wound. “Fuck!”
I twist the knife, then pull it out of his flesh.
He tries to turn around and hit me with his cuffed fists, so I grasp his face and slam him into the concrete.
“Fuck …” he groans.
“I told you not to fucking make a fuss,” I growl, as I lift his ankles and drag him toward The Shack.
His nails dig into the ground, carving up the soil as I haul him with me. “No!”
“Yes.”
“I don’t deserve to die over some drugs!”
“Then you shouldn’t have angered Sunny,” I reply, pulling him into the house.
The hallway is stained with blood from a previous encounter between Silas and Levi, but I still drag him into the main living room area, or what it’s supposed to be, because all that’s left is a grimy couch and one flimsy, wooden chair.
“But I don’t even know what I did!”
“Sit,” I bark, shoving him into the chair.
He groans in pain as I pin him down and open my bag of supplies to take out the rope I bought at the hardware store. I wrap the rope I brought with me around his chest.
“Whatever it was, it can’t be this bad,” he says.
“If Sunny has you on her list, it’s bad enough,” I tell him, as I secure the rope tightly.
“What list?” he asks.
I circle him. “You’ll answer to her now.”
I walk into the hallway and pull out my phone, texting her secret second phone the location details anonymously, along with the prize.
Sunny
I’m halfway down the mountain when one of my phones buzzes. I park my motorcycle along the road and pull out my phone to check, but there aren’t any messages even though I’m a 100 percent sure I felt it.
What the …
I pull my bag off my shoulders and fish out my other phone, the one number I never hand out to anyone except the people I trust.
And the message there makes all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Unknown: I have your next target at The Shack. Come and get your kill.
Fun?
Who sent this, and how does this fucker know who I’m hunting?
Fury courses through my veins, and I shove my phone back into my bag violently, throwing it over my shoulders, before I hop back on my motorcycle and immediately make a U-turn.
Goddamn the son of a bitch who thinks he can meddle in my affairs.
I don’t need to text them back. That text wasn’t a question, but an invitation, and I’ll find out who’s behind this within a single fucking minute.
I race back up the mountain toward The Shack, parking right next to the car that’s there and blocking the driver’s door so they can’t escape if they tried. I jump off and check the license plate. Frowning, I pull out my phone and hold up my list until I find it.
This car belongs to my next target.
He drove here in the victim’s car?
I pull off my helmet and replace it with a mask to make sure no one recognizes me, then stalk into the house. I pull out my knives, aiming before I even enter the living room.
The man on the wooden chair in the middle of the room has a towel stuffed into his mouth that’s secured behind his head, and his face is all beaten up and bloody.
He’s tied up with ropes, both feet and hands cuffed.
There’s a gaping wound in his thigh that’s soaking through his jeans, and the blood drips all over the flimsy chair and broken-down floor.
Perry.
His eyes find mine, and he squeals against the fabric, jerking against the restraints.
“Hello, Perry. Do you know who I am?” I shove my knife underneath his chin, sliding past his neck as he swallows.
He shakes his head.
“I assumed you wouldn’t, but I’ll thoroughly introduce myself to you,” I say. “You’re just gonna have to wait a little bit longer. I have a stalker to catch.”
Whoever did this was prepared…
They’re here. And I’m not letting them get away.
I walk around Perry and head into the kitchen, inspecting every corner of the room to make sure whoever texted me isn’t here, before I head upstairs. I kick open the first door I find and hold out my knife, ready to strike.
Nothing.
I lift the sheets and look under the bed, but no one is there, and when I tear open the closet, it’s empty too.
Where could he be?
I check the next room’s corners and closets, not skipping a single inch, but the person I’m looking for is nowhere to be found. I step out of the last room and glance out the window.
A demonic mask glints in the daylight.
Gotcha.
I bolt down the stairs, skipping several steps, then rush through the living room toward the road outside.
THWACK!
My knife lands in the bark of the tree behind which the masked guy just ducked for cover.
Fuck.
The guy bolts off through the woods with a backpack strapped to his shoulders, and I go for the chase, ready to hunt him down. I’m not letting this fucker out of my sight, not this time.
He zigzags past the trees haphazardly, nearly tumbling over a lone rock, and I laugh.
“Can’t even keep your footing?”
I throw another knife, and it lands right beside his feet.
He crawls off the ground and runs off, leaves scattering about as he attempts to get away from me.
“Yeah, run like a dog with your tail between your legs!”
I’m in hot pursuit, darting right after him like a cat on the heels of the mouse she’s going to catch. When we’re in an open clearing, he suddenly turns around and pulls out his own knife, standing his ground.
A smile forms on my face. “Oh … decided you’re going to fight me now? Exciting.”
“I don’t want to, but I will if I have to.”
My eyes narrow.
Why do I recognize that voice?
He throws one of his knives at me, and it flicks against a rock beside me. “Missed.”
“Don’t come near me,” he growls.
“Or what? You were the one who came looking for me. Well, here I am, bitch,” I scoff.
“I brought you your target. What more do you want?”
“Well, for one, I wanna know who’s stalking me,” I reply, playing with my knife. “Second, I work on my own.”
I throw my knife, but he reflects it with a new one of his own that he just pulled out of his second pocket. Damn, I’m surprised he came prepared. He’s got skills. I’m impressed.
“Then fight with him, not with me. I’m not your enemy,” he says.
“You made yourself my enemy the moment you involved yourself in my business.”
I throw another knife, but he keeps dodging them like he’s been trained, and something about that just doesn’t sit right with me.
Suddenly, he turns around and bolts off into the woods. He’s quick for a small fucker, but I’ll get him.
He passes a tree, and I throw a knife so hard it pins his bag to the bark.
“Fuck!” he screams, tearing off a piece of his bag as he pulls away.
But the second he’s freed, I tackle him to the ground. He spins onto his back and attempts to crawl away, but I stomp on his chest with my heel, and he muffles a groan which sounds more like a strangled moan.
His hands suddenly wrap around my ankle, my eyes immediately focusing on his, and time seems to pass slowly as he seems to turn into a puddle underneath my foot.
What the …?
“Sunny,” he murmurs.
How does he know my name?
Grinding my teeth, I remove my foot, shaking him off to straddle him instead. “You’re mine now.”
I shove a knife underneath his throat.
“No, no, no,” he mutters, as I rip off his mask.
But my jaw drops as I stare at the one person I didn’t expect to lie underneath me, his brown hair with textured, messy layers casually falling over his bushy brows and dark doe eyes.
Xavier.
Frowning, I say, “You really didn’t learn your lesson, did you?”