Chapter 43 Rory
Rory
Iwhip my head towards the front of the house, feeling it surge through the bond before it’s smothered, and then I take off running. I get out in time to see the car lights disappear. That spike of fear before she smothered it is all I need to know. Bonnie is in trouble.
“No!” I turn around, frustrated and sinking into a deadly place inside me.
Pix stands behind me, his expression dark and stormy, but not alarmed.
“You! Where has she gone? Who was that?” My snarl of rage is quiet but deadly.
Pix scowls, not at all cowed by my unspoken threat. He brushes his hair back and turns away from me. “Meg, and how the hell should I know.”
When I turn away from him in an effort not to cut his throat, I find Cyn staring at Vale.
“Don’t even think it, Cyn!” I threaten, my body shaking with the violence of that warning.
“Rory, speak to me,” Bonnie’s father says commandingly. He’s slipped out of the house and has been watching our interactions, but something must have tipped him off to how bad things are.
The only reason I consider speaking to him is because he’s Bonnie’s father. But if he gets in my way, not even that will save him.
“Bonnie just left with Meg,” I say tightly.
“So what?” Pix challenges. I’m getting sick of this fucker.
“She was scared,” Kota murmurs. “She was really, really scared.”
Her father stands up tall, his expression flickering through several emotions. “Bonnie was scared?”
“Yes,” I say and turn to Vale. He’s looking at the ground, but his personality has shifted, and the dangerous side of our pack leader has emerged.
Mitchel Sanderson pulls out his phone and dials a number.
“Who are you calling?” Pix asks, but his voice has lost the edge, and he sounds like he might cry.
“Desi, answer your fucking phone right now,” Mitchel snarls and hangs up. “Right, she would have left something, a clue as to where she went. She’s not dumb; what did she leave?”
A spark of hope ignites in my chest and surges out, leaving me panting. What did she leave? Thank these psycho killers for their preparedness.
Kota trots off, looking around, and returns with a tiny little scrap of black paper. It’s like the corner of something has been torn off. I want to steal it from him, but I resist.
Vale reaches out and snatches it out of his hand. “I’ve seen these before.”
He stalks off, crossing the road quickly, and we follow him back to the house.
He goes into the room she’s left all her packed up moving boxes and an antique dresser.
We’ve been unpacking it slowly; we just keep getting distracted.
He rifles through her belongings, making a mess of them, until he comes out with a handful of envelopes.
“She’s been getting these for months. Two arrived yesterday,” Vale mutters.
He picks them up and opens the top one, ripping the envelope in his haste.
“No. No, no, no. Bonnie, what did you do?” Vale exhales roughly, then holds his breath. His knuckles turn white, and the letter in his hands starts to shake.
I snag one of the others and rip it open. My stomach sinks.
“He thinks it’s her?” My voice is cold, and for the first time in my life, I think I feel true fear. It’s a feeling I’m not familiar with, and I hate it with every fiber of my being.
Bonnie’s dad takes the letter out of my hand and reads it. “What is going on?” he growls. He drops the letter and picks up another one.
Vale exhales roughly, but he doesn’t answer Mitchel; he looks directly at me. “Get ready.”
We snap to attention. He just took our leash off, and now we’re going to go hunt this fucker and make him pay.
We go to separate rooms, ignoring the questions being barked at Vale.
I get dressed, lining myself with all my favourite weapons before pulling my mask on.
When I return, Vale stares at Sanderson and pulls his mask on.
The big alpha isn’t cowed even a tiny bit.
“Have you got her tracker?” Vale asks Cyn.
Sanderson inhales sharply. “You put a tracker on my daughter.”
“No,” Kota’s mask is roaring in rage, and I know underneath, his teeth are bared in a hideous smile. “I put a tracker in her.”
“Yes, we all have them,” Cyn says, looking at his phone. “It’s heading to the cabin.”
“Let’s go.” Vale says darkly.
Instead of heading to the front of the house, we go to the back where, deep in our new shed is a black, chunky car that looks like every other black chunky car, except all the windows are blacked out.
“I’m coming,” Sanderson says and climbs in.
Vale shrugs.
I feel myself sinking to new levels of rage and fury the longer I think about it. Why does this killer have so many lives? Clearly, serial killer Marrow has mixed up his serials, but I promise that this is his last life and his biggest mistake.
Blood lust pounds in my head.
Sanderson’s phone rings.
“He says he knows her,” Pix says. “Meg left a Morse code note in the secret place.”
“You know where we’re heading?” Sanderson growls.
“The camp. I’m right behind you.”
I slowly turn my head towards Sanderson. This fucking nest of serial killers is going to come in handy tonight.
“They say like attracts like,” Kota murmurs. “He’s going to find out.”
I pull out some weapons and hold them out to Sanderson. He studies them and then selects a pair of knuckle dusters and a particularly sharp butterfly knife. Funny, I would have pegged him for a blunt instrument killer.
“We got the wrong people,” Cyn says abruptly. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
I consider it. “That leaves only betas, then.”
“Yes, exactly. Which one of them?” Vale murmurs. “Quincy, the people pleaser. Kendall had the obsessive compulsive disorder, and Justin was the weirdo bug-obsessed possible jumper.”
“What do you know about Marrow?” Sanderson asks, turning around from the passenger seat to stare at us.
We’re silent for a long time.
“He always does the same signature, even when he tries to hide it by doing something else, he has to do that one thing. It’s like…he can’t help it,” I say bleakly.
“Obsessive compulsive disorder,” Vale growls out.
“It’s Kendall,” Kota says with a growl.
I flex my shoulders as Vale flies down the road, going faster and faster. A motorbike catches up and rides beside us. He turns his head and watches us through the window. Vale presses the button for the window to come down and makes a circling motion and points straight ahead.
Pix accelerates and takes off, roaring up the road, disappearing from view.
Tension climbs into my body, getting stronger and stronger. I count the seconds, and when we get close, start deliberately unclenching my muscles and let my head fall into the zone.
“Ready?” Vale asks unnecessarily.
“Always,” Kota says, and I know under that screaming mask, he’s smiling widely.
“Yes, let me go in first,” Cyn says quietly.
I look at him sharply.
“You got it,” Vale says. “Make it last a long time, Cyn. Show him the meaning of fear.”
“Rory, have you got some of your experiments on you?” Vale barks out.
I tap my dart gun that is already loaded with a dangerous concoction of drugs that will have him tripping off his ass.
“I do.”
“Plug him the minute you get a chance. I want him to live in his nightmares. Kota?”
“Yeah?”
“Disable him. I don’t want any accidents. Get our girl out of there.”
Sanderson snorts. “What am I supposed to do?”
“You can help me skin him alive,” Vale says in a malevolent hiss.
Sanderson’s smile is slow but wide. “I like it.”
Vale parks the car, and we all rush out.
I scan the surroundings while Cyn checks his tracking app.
The cabin door is open, and there’s blood on the porch.
I check the ground and see that there was a scuffle or a fight, but I can’t tell where the tracks go.
I lift my gaze and stare at the path into the park.
This is where it all restarted for us all those months ago. I never would have thought I’d be here, be changed like this. But I will die to keep her safe.
We haven’t been idle; Mitchel has been teaching us how to survive out here. This place is as much home as the concrete jungle was. He’s going to find out just how ruthless we can be.
I am not afraid to go in there.
“He’s taken her into the park,” Cyn says in amusement. “He took her into her home turf? Ballsy move.”
I hesitate when I see something blue lying on the ground. As I get closer and can see around the massive tree, I realise it’s Desi and Meg. She’s crouched over him, her eyes wild, holding his stomach. Pix is kneeling over a first aid box and is filling a syringe.
“Meg?”
She whips around, tears streaming. “Go save her!” Meg barks out. “She’s your scent match, so you go save her. She needs you.”
She’s screaming; she can’t stop. Her eyes are wild and huge, but she’s still furiously ordering a bunch of serial killer alphas to go do as she says.
Part of me wants to growl at her, but the rest of me accepts her hysteria as love and care and respects it. Because she is Bonnie’s, too.
“I’ll stay,” Sanderson says. I can see how torn he is.
“Why?” I ask, needing to know.
“Because this is Bonnie’s territory. The only people who might be able to bring her back from the bloodlust she’s going to be buried in are you four, and if he’s done something…I don’t think I could see that. So, go save my baby girl.”
Vale tosses the keys to him. “Take the car. We have another on the way.”
The huge alpha picks up Desi and carries him to the car. I don’t bother watching anymore. He will live or he won’t. Nothing we can do will change things.
I check my gear and then look at Cyn and Vale.
“Ready?”
Kota thumps his chest with his fist. “Oh, yeah, I’m ready.”
Vale turns and silently starts to move. We fall into line behind him. We carry no packs, nothing but our weapons and the deadly, deadly skills we have developed from years of murder.
We don’t need anything else.
The park falls silent, even the birds stop singing.
The world holds its breath, and we hunt.