Chapter 10
HUNTER
Ican’t believe I just told her…that. Words I’ve never uttered to a soul.
The scars still feel fresh, and I wonder what nightmares will haunt me tonight.
No matter how many people I kill, the ghosts still linger, taunting me. Reminding me what they did. What they took from me.
Gabby was the only person who’s ever truly cared for me. She gave me unconditional love, shielding me from the horrors she faced daily, doing her best to give me a good start in life.
If only she had lived, I wouldn’t be like this.
I wouldn’t be a monster.
But that’s not how my story goes. My sister died, and I killed the people responsible. Every last one.
Then I killed more.
So many, I’ve lost count.
The first was my mother. I made her watch the video of my sister’s desecration as I enacted it scene by scene, minus the repeated rapes.
I still hear her pleading with me.
She has remained my favorite kill.
What does that say about me? Would Gabby have wanted me to spare her? It’s hard to say, because I was still a child when I knew her.
A knock sounds on the door. I thought Fiona would be smart enough to know not to needle me when I’m like this, but I think she’s trying to be compassionate, not realizing that I need something very different.
I open the door and fix her with a dangerous gaze. “What do you want?”
Her eyes are two big round emeralds that make me forget my anger for a moment.
Just a moment…
She moves nervously, fidgeting as she gathers her courage.
“Well?” I ask sharply.
“I need a favor.”
“I don’t want another therapy session, so if you’re asking me to open up—”
“That’s not it…though I wish it was.” She downcasts her eyes.
A calmness washes over me. I see something in her. Something that scares me.
“I want you to kill Brett,” she blurts, “and I want to watch.”
And there it is. It’s me that I see. I’ve somehow placed my dark seed in her, and it’s taken root.
There’s no point in arguing with her because those aren’t words you say lightly, but I warn her anyway. “There is no going back when you go to the places I’ve been.”
“You think I don’t know that? I’ll never be the person I was, but you had no part in destroying that stupid girl. I’m different, and while I’ve never hated myself, I’m glad that girl is gone. I need her to stay that way.”
I bring my hand to her cheek, forcing her to look up at me. “You were never stupid. The world was just terribly cruel.”
“And it continues to be.”
It’s not lost on me that I sought to comfort her. Every day we’re together brings out something new in me. It’s like glimpsing at another life. A reflection of who I could have been.
Like that movie Sliding Doors.
She’s walking in my world, and a part of me desperately wants to walk in hers, back when she was who she was meant to be and not the hardened diamond she’s become.
“I want to see you work, Hunter. I want to see the terrible things you can do.”
“You’re not worried?”
“I’m only worried that what you do won’t be enough.”
Looking into her eyes, I’m lost, completely unable to speak because what she’s said is so raw and primal and true.
And I feel it in my bones.
Because I’ve been there.
On the precipice of ruin.
That’s when I found myself.
My dick hardens from the realization that she and I are so alike. Unable to stop myself, I kiss her, sealing my mouth around hers and forcing my tongue past her lips. She moans, her tiny hands gripping my cheeks, driving me to madness.
But this is not a time I should lose control, so I pull away, gripping her arms so tightly as I shove her, there’s bound to be marks when I let go.
“What did I do wrong?”
“Tomorrow I’ll find him, and you’ll have your revenge.”
“Promise?”
My lips curl up in an involuntary smile that no one else could pull from me. “I give you my word.”