Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Fucking finally. Every time she screamed out the fake name I gave her, I was one step closer to losing my shit.
I knew my little dove’s curiosity would get the best of her, which is why I left my wallet lying on the floor for her to find.
She was going to find out sooner or later, so why not sooner?
I could practically taste the fear radiating off her, and she tried her best to maintain her composure at first. She’s cute when she’s angry, and boy, did she get angry.
Just thinking about it brings a smile to my face.
I’ll let her cool off for a bit, but I fully intend on keeping her as my gift this Christmas.
The walk to the woods is a peaceful one, calm and quiet, until the jarring ring of my phone breaks the serenity.
“Talk to me,” I answer.
“Everything taken care of?” David responds.
“Always,” I state, ducking down behind the trees.
“Good. Dean’s on a job now. I’ll have another for you in a few days.”
“Copy that. Hey, can you do me a favor?”
“What’s up?” David asks curiously.
“I need you to run a check on an Ella Jacobs. Native Colorado resident. Thirty years old. Family owns a cabin at my current location. I wanna know everything about her.”
“Sure, on one condition,” he deadpans.
“What’s that?” I ask, now the curious one.
“Tell me, is she safe with you or will she need rescuing from you?”
I chuckle. “Both.”
I hear David sigh through the phone, a deep, what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-this-guy type sigh, but then he says, “Don’t make me regret this. I’ll call you when I have something.”
“Thanks, man,” I respond before ending the call.
This woman just might be my undoing. I’ve been able to steer clear of emotions for several years now, only getting a random fuck in here and there, usually after a kill.
Killing pieces of shit for a living really gets the blood pumping, ya know?
But I haven’t actually felt anything since Laura.
At the thought of her name, a memory floods back from eight years ago.
Laura looks absolutely gorgeous as she steps out of the bathroom in our brand new home. We just moved into our first home together and are celebrating five years of marriage tonight. I love her even more now than the first day I met her, and I didn’t even think that it was possible.
“You look beautiful,” I tell her, finishing up my tie.
“You look handsome yourself.” She winks, adding some jewelry to her outfit.
We’re headed out the door ten minutes later, rushing to get to our reservation at one of the fanciest Italian places in town. I swing us through the valet line, handing the attendant an extra forty dollars in tips in a silent apology for the way I peeled into the lane.
Once we’re inside and finally led to our table by the hostess, I pull the chair out for Laura before taking my own seat.
I look up at her, and the way the lighting in here illuminates her skin makes her radiant.
I really won the lottery when she decided to take a chance on me.
I don’t come from much, but I’ve made a decent living in sales.
She is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
“I have something to tell you,” she blurts out, taking a sip of her water. She’s trying to hide a grin. “I wanted to wait until we got home tonight. I had it all planned out, but I just can’t wait anymore.” She’s practically bursting at the seams with excitement.
“Well, go on then,” I tell her, anticipating what’s to come.
She clasps her hands together and leans in, grinning from ear to ear. “I’m pregnant.”
My eyes widen, tears beginning to form. We’ve been trying for about two years now, practically giving up hope as test after test came negative. My own grin begins to form. “Are you serious?” I lean in, grabbing her clasped hands with mine.
“Yeah,” she breathes out, tears falling down her cheeks. “My period was seven days late, so I took a test while you were at work. I didn’t want to disappoint you again if it was negative,” she chokes out.
I squeeze her hands. “You could never disappoint me, my love.”
She gently wipes the tears from her cheeks to avoid ruining her makeup, and our dinner shortly arrives after.
The entire dinner is spent talking about our baby on the way, potential names and nicknames, what sports they might want to play, or if they’re gonna be more artsy.
We talk about all the family vacations we’re going to take and how we want to tell our families.
We round out the night with dessert, and as I sit here, looking at my beautiful wife, I just can’t imagine how I got so lucky.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy.
Once the bill is paid, we head back out to fetch the car, and once it arrives, we head back for what I hope to be a night of amazing sex.
Coming up to a red light, I stop before looking over at Laura.
Just as I lean in to kiss her, a black SUV pulls up and rolls down its window, the glint of a gun shining under the moon’s glow.
Before I can give a warning, shots ring out.
One, two, three, four shots, and the glass shatters.
One of them whizzes by my ear as I try to cover Laura as much as I can.
The fourth shot makes contact with my collarbone, and I grab it with a grunt of pain.
The car speeds off just as quickly as it arrived, and I throw the car in park.
“Laura, are you okay, baby?” I ask frantically, checking her over to make sure there aren’t any injuries, but she doesn’t respond.
“Laura, baby, can you hear me?” I ask, grabbing the sides of her face and tapping her cheek.
Her head slumps forward, and it’s at this time that I realize something is wrong.
Her eyes are closed, and she’s not responsive, but I don’t understand.
I don’t see anything wrong with her. I lean her head gently back against the seat.
“Hang on, baby,” I state, getting out of the car and running over to the passenger side. When I open the passenger door, it all makes sense. There, on the right side of her neck, is a bullet-sized hole, and blood is oozing down the side, the side of the door already having been covered.
“No, no, NO!” I shout, pulling her out and laying her on the ground.
I begin performing CPR just as other cars begin to pull up.
“Somebody, help me, please!” I scream. “Call 911!” With each chest compression I make, the tears begin falling faster.
“Stay with me, baby. You can’t leave me.
I love you. I need you. We’re gonna have a baby!
” My vision begins to blur through the watery mess, but I don’t stop.
It’s not until EMS arrives eight minutes later and has to pull me off of her that I realize she’s not coming back.
I’ve tried to forget about that night for the last eight years.
But it’s damn near impossible. Although, since that night, I haven’t been able to feel much, physically and emotionally.
Something shattered inside my heart and brain that night.
Something I haven’t been able to get back.
Unconsciously, my hand touches the site of the bullet hole just below my left collarbone.
I spent weeks in the hospital recovering, and when I was finally released, I never felt more alone.
I went home to an empty house with her belongings still lying on the floor, in the closet, and they smacked me in the face at every turn.
With every reminder of her loss, a piece of my heart and soul shattered, each piece becoming sharper and jagged with no hope of ever being put back together.
Anger consumed me, and the need for revenge festered with every negative thought. They were never caught. They killed her, and they’re still on the run. You’re weak. A real man would have gotten justice. She’s dead because you couldn’t protect her.
I began researching everything I could about that night.
Every police report, every article, and I even asked a few friends in law enforcement who owed me personal favors.
One of them was able to get me camera footage from the traffic cams in the area.
Unfortunately, the plates were stolen, so the case never really went anywhere, but that didn’t stop me.
I followed each path, talking to people they came in contact with along the way until I ran into some people less willing to give me the information I needed.
If they didn’t talk, I killed them. And once they did talk, I still killed them.
I found out that it was a gang-related crime.
Everyone who was involved dropped one by one until I made it to the coward who pulled the trigger.
I made sure his death was slow and painful.
A man need not be a professional when it comes to seeking revenge for the woman he loves.
You’d be surprised how far adrenaline, red-hot rage, the need for revenge, and a weapon get you.
“It wasn’t personal,” he said, choking on his blood from the blows I rained down on his face. “It was just part of our initiation. We had to make a kill before we could join the gang.”
“It was personal to me,” I seethed before taking the knife and slicing his throat open from one side to the other.
Despite killing the people responsible for Laura’s death, the rage never subsided.
I still felt angry. I went through a reckless phase, killing anyone I perceived as a shitty person.
The man taking a piss in an alleyway, the ones who disrespected women doing their jobs, and the ones who just pissed me off.
I was careless. I didn’t care whether I got caught in the act.
In fact, I made it a game. I wouldn’t leave any trace of evidence behind to intentionally get caught, but I wouldn’t run if someone stumbled upon me in the act.
I figured it would be a way to pay for my sins.
If I were caught in the act, that would be fair. I just never got caught.
Then, David, being David, picked up on my trail.
He tracked me for months, and when he finally approached me with a business offer I couldn’t refuse, I took it.
Now, I get to kill the real shitbags. The men who prey on children and get away with it.
Now I have a purpose. However, since the night Laura died, I haven’t been able to feel anything, even the cold.
I don’t know if that means I truly am dead inside, but I haven’t been able to explain it.
I just know that while I was cock-deep inside Ella, I felt her.
There’s no escaping me now. I need to know what this means.
Realizing I’ve zoned out, I peek back over to Ella’s cabin and see blue and red flashing lights.
That little minx. I told her not to call the cops, so now it looks like she’ll need to be punished.
Unsure of how long they’ve been there and how much time I have left before they begin a perimeter search, I head through the woods and to my safehouse.
Once they’re gone, I’ll head back. I had planted game cameras around the forest, pointed directly at her cabin the first night she was here, so I’ll be able to monitor their whereabouts.
My phone’s ringtone lights up the forest with a melody, sounding much louder in the serene quiet amongst the trees. Pulling it out of my pocket, I check the Caller ID and answer.
“Talk to me. What did you find?” I ask.
“Well, not much. I hate to say it, but your girlfriend is a little boring. Father died from cancer a few years back. Her mother and sister still live in the state. She moved across the state line to Kansas to go to college. She has a job at a bookstore as a manager. She met her boyfriend, well, fiancé, in college. Clean record, no arrests. Her social media makes it seem like she has a rather nice life that you probably shouldn’t fuck up,” David states bluntly.
“Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t ask for your opinion, now isn’t it?” I retort. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, actually. That fiancé of hers, Liam Johnson—he has a record. One I don’t know that she’s aware of, otherwise, I doubt she’d be with him,” he explains, and it piques my curiosity.
“Go on,” I respond.
“Well, it looks like while he was a senior in high school, he was accused of raping three women at a house party with a few of his buddies. Drugged them and even recorded some of it.”
“Then what is this shitbag still doing walking around free?” I seethe, clenching my jaw.
“The judge granted him leniency. Said he was a ‘bright young man’ and ‘had his whole future ahead of him’ before giving him probation as his only consequence. They didn’t even leave it on his record. I had to dig for it.”
‘Well, it looks like we need to pay the sonofabitch a visit then. Send me his photo. I’ll add him to my list of shit to do.”
“Already heading your way.” A ping comes through, and his image pulls up.
“Thanks, David. Let’s just keep this between us, shall we? Dean already disapproves of me venturing off course a bit. Although I do think he’d understand in this case.” I chuckle.
“Yeah, yeah. Call me if you need anything else.”
The line goes silent, and I slip my phone into the back pocket of my jeans before entering the safehouse.