Chapter 55
Aiden
I pace the cabin as we wait. This is the only way to get Dagger here alone. I pull up the phone app for the tracker I placed under Mia’s car.
“We have a cabin like this,” he says. I don’t mind the guy, and I like how protective he is of Mia, even though he no longer has to be. It’s nice to know she has someone like this in her life.
“Fuck…” He shakes his head. “If these walls could talk.” He chuckles, careful with his words. He and I might be cut from the same cloth—he doesn’t mind me, but he also doesn’t really trust me.
“Yep” is all I respond. I don’t think I could count the number of bodies that have been hacked up in the bathtub down the hall over the years.
I check the time again and realize I should have seen her headlights by now. I check the app, and she’s still in the same place.
“Something’s wrong,” I say. “She’s stopped right past the turn and hasn’t moved.”
Mason grips the gun at his hip. “He caught on?”
I grab my MK18 and head for the door.
“Maybe. We’ll have to run,” I say, already halfway out the door. “We can make it in less than five minutes.”
“Well, let’s fucking go then!” Mason says, slamming the door shut behind us.
We race through long grass and brush alongside the gravel road, then to the top of the hill, where we spot Mia’s car lying upside down in the fucking ditch. I’m relieved to hear her voice in the distance, and as we approach, I can tell she’s yelling at Dagger.
I can’t wait to fucking destroy him.
My blood boils as I come to a stop, Mason just a few steps behind me. I have mere seconds to make this work.
My attention is stolen briefly by another car driving down the gravel road, but then I’m giving Mason orders.
“Cross up alongside the brush. Quietly. By the time you get there, I’ll have him bleeding.
I’m gonna hit him from here.” I set up my rifle and lie flat on my stomach, resting my arms on the edge of the road, then look through the scope.
“Dagger and someone facing away from me are with Mia. Don’t kill either of them,” I command. “No one dies quickly.”
“On it,” Mason answers, already moving. It’s so dark out here, Dagger won’t see him coming.
I don’t waste one more fucking moment. I set Dagger in my crosshairs just as the other person turns around and I can finally see her face.
It’s fucking Libby.
I am completely fucking shocked as she bends forward and kisses Mia on the lips.
What the fuck?
But Mia screams, and I see a rustle of grass beside them, which means I don’t have time to try to understand this clusterfuck. I take my shot, hitting Dagger in the right upper arm, as planned. I watch through my scope as he looks down in surprise.
“Got you, motherfucker.”
He fishes for his gun with his left hand, and I quickly take aim again, hitting his left upper arm this time. Dagger’s gun falls from his left hand to the grass.
“Come out, come out, you fucking cocksucker!” His words echo through the trees as his arms leak.
Libby screams and picks up Dagger’s gun. Christ. She’s pointing it at no one, aiming for the other side of the road. She has no idea where I am.
What the fuck did you get yourself into, Libby?
I take a deep breath as I line up my shot, then shoot her in the hand. She drops the gun and screams, stumbling backward as Mason crests the brush, gun first.
The moment he does, Mia scrambles back behind him in the grass. His gun stays trained between Libby and Dagger. When I see he’s got them contained, I drop my rifle and run.
I hear Dagger laughing, and as I approach, he falls to his knees. And Libby’s hand is bleeding pretty good as she begs Mason not to kill her. I pull my Glock from my hip, pointing it straight at Dagger’s forehead.
“You got the crazy bitch?” I call to Mason.
“Sure fuckin’ do,” Mason says, looking at Libby. “You mind telling me who the fuck she is?”
Dagger’s grinning like a fucking headcase. It’s now that I realize he’s high as fuck.
I shoot him in the foot just for fucking fun, and his laugh morphs into a howl as I turn and pull Mia up from the grass, wrapping my free arm around her.
“Okay, baby, you’re safe.”
* * *
Mia
I have no control over my trembling as Aiden pulls me into him, keeping his gun aimed at Dagger as he kisses my face.
“Are you hurt?” He kisses me again.
“No, just woozy,” I tell him.
“A little help?” Mason calls over his shoulder.
Aiden looks down, assesses me quickly, then kisses me once more.
“Stay here,” he says.
I nod, settling into the grass, and watch Aiden and Mason make quick work of tying Libby’s and Dagger’s hands behind their backs with their own rope, all while Dagger grunts out that we’re all gonna die.
Mason laughs. “Truck?” he asks Aiden.
Aiden nods, and Mason tosses Dagger into the open box of Dagger’s pickup.
Aiden tightens the knot around Libby’s wrists, and she cries out, asking them not to hurt Dagger, but he ignores her and hoists her into the back of the pickup to join Dagger.
Aiden returns to me and kisses my forehead. “My fighter…Rhiannon.” He scoops me up, and I begin sobbing quietly.
I’m totally spent, adrenaline crashing while I settle against his warm chest and let my tears stream down my cheeks. They’re tears of relief that Aiden and Mason came when they did and tears of heartbreak, knowing that my sister was murdered.
Nic didn’t want to die. Her life was stolen.
I sit in the front seat, between Mason and Aiden, and we quickly reach the cabin. As Aiden lifts me out of the truck, I thump my fist gently against his chest. “Dagger killed Nic! He killed her!”
I turn my head so Mason can hear as he prepares to pull Dagger from the back of the truck. “He gave Nic the drugs, Mase.” I sob. “She didn’t want to die.”
Mason goes deathly still, processing, and then he goes fucking apeshit. A sinister growl leaves his chest as he yanks Dagger from the tailgate, throwing him violently across the gravel yard. Mason straddles him, gun in hand, and pistol whips him over and over.
Every sickening crack brings me peace, as do every single one of Libby’s screams.
“You put a fucking needle in her arm?” Mason’s voice booms through the quiet night as he presses his gun to Dagger’s forehead.
“Wait!” Aiden tells him, still holding me tight. “Killing him now is letting him off easy. Let’s get them inside.”
Mason looks back at me in Aiden’s arms and says quietly, “You were right. She didn’t want to die.”
I try to sniff back fresh sobs, but there’s no stopping them as Aiden carries me toward the cabin.
“Shhhhhh,” he murmurs against my hair. “I promise Dagger will die, and he’s going to suffer. And so is the bitch he brought with him.”
“You’re gonna kill a president?” Dagger calls out, his words slurring. “Good luck explaining that to your clubs.”
Mason laughs, and Dagger begins to struggle, as if it’s just dawned on him that he’s not living past tonight.
Dagger screams when Mason shoots him point-blank in the kneecap and smiles even wider. This is a side of Mason I’ve never seen. A very dark side that I understand more than he knows.
Mason grips Dagger by the collar and drags him behind us up the steps, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. “You’re gonna be fish food, you fucking sack of shit,” he tells Dagger and deposits him by the front door.
Mason heads back to the pickup and returns with a struggling Libby, who keeps crying out that she doesn’t want to die.
“Go to the back room. You aren’t watching this,” Aiden tells me, flipping the lights on as we enter the cabin.
“Set me down, please,” I tell him coolly.
Once I’ve steadied myself on my feet, I breathe deeply and take a seat in a chair. “I’ll stay right here,” I insist. “I’m going to be the one to kill him.”
Mason glances at Aiden then at me. “No,” he says with determination. “You can stay, but you won’t be the one to do it.”
Aiden nods. “Agreed, but aside from killing him, Mia, whatever you need to do, I’ve got you.”
I nod. The idea of making Dagger squeal like a fucking pig settles something deep within my dark and stubborn soul. I can’t wait to see Dagger die. I hate him.
But I’m angry at Libby. I move slowly across the room to where Libby is tied up.
She plotted to kidnap me, and fuck only knows what she would have done had they gotten me back to wherever home is.
She had a choice and chose wrong. For what?
Some obsession with Dagger? “You were going to help him torture me?” I ask.
“I thought you were my friend! Dagger is using you!”
Libby looks at me, her white T-shirt covered in dirt, her makeup smeared down her face, and her eyes wild. “I love him,” she cries. “He said you need a sister, one who will love you the way your sister can’t anymore.”
I almost feel sorry for her, until she speaks again.
“It’s not your fault she was a dirty little slut who was going to rat on my man.
” She doesn’t have the chance to speak another word before I cry out and strike her throat hard with the outside of my hand, right against her carotid artery.
Her head falls forward, out fucking cold.
“No fucking mercy for her. She’s just as fucking guilty as he is,” I say coolly to Aiden and Mason, who are staring at me in surprise.
That’s right. I’m more like both of you than either of you fucking know.