Page 16 of Wicked Revenge

If only it were that simple.

Alek looks at me once we are inside, a silent question in his eyes. He wants to know what King said to me when he whispered in my ear. I nod at him. “He threatened Em if we fail, didn’t he?”

I might be the leader of our group, but he has the biggest heart. Emma stole his heart the moment she came into our lives. I know he would die for her without a thought. We all would. His protectiveness of our family rivals mine, and that’s saying something.

“We won’t fail,” I tell them both, looking into each of their eyes, before putting the SUV in drive and heading back to our house to grab our gear. It’s time to start a hunt of our own.

This time, the hunter becomes the prey.

Chapter 8

Over the last three days, I’ve stalked my mark, Jackson, learning his actual name only yesterday when one of the other Kingsmen called it out.

I never picked a nickname for this one.

Nothing seemed to fit, and I never really wanted to think about him. He was cruel and got his rocks off by brutalizing me. He wasn’t the worst of the men who guarded me, but he was bad enough.

When he was on guard duty, he’d slip into my room and put me on my knees. He’d slap me repeatedly and force his half-soft dick down my throat. On days it seemed like slapping wasn’t enough for him, he would take his knife to my skin.

He got off on beating me until he had to hold me up by my hair to finish on my face. My body would be so limp that he would rip out chunks of my blonde curls.

I can see nothing has changed. He’s still the same limp dick asshole who gets off on hurting people, but that is not the most disgusting thing I’ve witnessed over the last three days.

No, the most disgusting part is watching him visit his elderly mother, hugging her and kissing her cheek as he comes and goes. She must not know her son is a disgusting rapist.

They say a mother’s love is blind.

It almost makes me blind with rage because he can still visit his mother, while they killed my Grams. I can never visit her or feel the comfort of her warm embrace.

They stole that from me, and if I was a lesser person, I would take that away from him before I kill him, but I’m not. I don’t kill innocents like they do.

I watch from the shadows as he leaves his mother’s home for the third day in a row. I have to wonder if he is visiting her so much because he knows his time is up.

He gets in the driver seat of his blue truck that sits in her driveway, backing out and heading back towards town. I follow at a distance. Staying true to his routine for the last few days, he heads to King's mansion which sits in the forest on the other side of town.

Pulling the truck off into the woods, I get out and walk ahead on foot to a safe spot. This would be easier if I could do this on my bike. Ella’s dad's old truck sticks out like a sore thumb, but she let me borrow it so I wouldn’t be recognized.

I watch as he pulls up to the security box that sits beside the large iron gate. He rolls his window down and says something to the two guards who walk out. Their heads snap up immediately, and they sweep the area with their gaze, looking for something.

Me. They are looking for me. Good.

He can feel me following him, but they will never see me, just as he hasn’t any of the times he’s whipped around looking for me. They must be satisfied that no one followed him. One of them radios in while the other walks back into the box. A second later, the gate slides open, allowing Jackson to pull through it.

He will be here for a few hours at least, if the past few nights are any indication. He is scared and doesn’t want to be alone.

I need him to be alone. His time is up.

My feet move silently through the forest edge as I walk back to the truck. I’ve got one stop to make before I go hide out in his house and wait for him to return.

Tonight, I take from him what they should have taken from me.

***

The drive back to town is quiet, the radio silent, the sky darkening with pinks and purples as the sun sinks down beyond the trees. I try to mentally prepare myself for what is going to happen tonight.

Not the killing part. Killing is easy for me now. I’m preparing myself to be face to face with one of the Kingsmen again, to be outside of the shadows that allow me to watch but stay safe.

This mental preparation is a new step in my routine– one I didn’t know I needed until I came face to face with my first mark here in Shadow Forest. I didn’t have this issue when I was hunting for Aspen, but those marks had never hurt me like these men have.

---