Page 75 of Ruthless Rebel

“Woah it’s a cake, mommy!” Cassie squeals, getting excited, but when I look between the three of them, they look just as surprised as I do, so I can only guess it’s not from any of them.

I reach for the envelope inside just as my phone rings.

“Lincoln,” the person on the other end greets me, and I frown in confusion, pulling the phone back to look at the contact name.

“Lily, is that you?” I ask in confusion, not sure why she would be calling me, she never does, and even Elle frowns my way as she looks between me and the cake.

“Yes, I’m looking for Logan, is he there?” She asks, sounding upset, and I’m already shaking my head.

“No, I haven’t seen him all week,” I reply, knowing she should know this. She sees Logan during the week more than I do, given they live near one another. “I texted with him early this morning, but I haven’t heard from him since then. I just tried to call him but he didn’t answer, so maybe he’s still in class.”

There is a long pause before she replies softly, “No, he didn’t have class. Today is our parent’s anniversary, he never misses it, he wouldn’t, I think something’s wrong.”

With my eyes still staring down at the cake, a sickening feeling washes over me, as I hold the phone between my shoulder and ear,and rip open the envelope in my hand to find a note.

Did you think you beat me?

All you did was raise the stakes…

Cutting off the call without another word, I dial Logan again, and again, and again, all of them going unanswered, then I dial Asher and his phone goes straight to voicemail. An uneasy feeling starts in the pit of my stomach, as I reread the words three times before their meaning sinks in.

I can hear Elle repeating my name, trying to get my attention, but all I can do is mutter in response, “I raised the stakes.”

Everyone starts to move around me, and I vaguely hear her shouting orders down the phone, as Marcus leaves the room with Cassie, and Jace pulls out his own phone to check on Riley, all trying to make sense of what is going on. Yet all I can do is reread those damned words, and know that for whatever reason, this is far from over, and if Billy wasn’t the one behind all of this, who is?

Two hours later,we're all situated around the dining table with the house on lockdown. Arthur and Helen came first, I’m guessing Lily called them, and despite whatever panic they must be feeling, they instantly took Cassie to her bedroom to keep her occupied. Zack sent a few men to watch the Deckers, before he arrived with Lily and Max in tow. Some of the other security guys are also here watching the perimeter of the house, as I go over everything that's happened. We don’t know much right now, just that both Logan and Asher are unaccounted for.

There are countless files stacked up in front of us, including the images of the five men who were killed by Billy, and the other note I received at the office. I haven’t spoken, not a word, because where do I even start? How do I even begin to tell my family that we might lose them both, and that it’s all my fault?

I always knew something like this could happen. Fear was engraved in my soul before I was even old enough to know what it was. I was raised by blood-soaked hands who knew only how to inflict pain, and no matter how hard my mother tried, I knew I didn’t deserve her love, just like she didn’t deserve to die. No, that was my fault. I kept her in the dark to protect her, but instead I failed her, just like I’ve failed them, and now I’m going to lose them too. They tried their best, but at the end of the day, even a monster in love is still just a monster.

“Superman,” Elle says gently, slipping into the free seat on my left. “We need to know what’s happening here, we can’t help find them if we don’t know what’s going on.”

I can’t even bring myself to look at her, and when she slides her hand onto my arm, I snatch it away, pressing my hand to the center of my chest like it might ease the aching pain there.

“It’s all my fault,” I tell her, not seeing the point in denying it. “I did this to them. They told me to be careful, to stop, but I didn’t listen,” I force out, ignoring the pounding of my heart, as everyone in the room starts to listen closely.

“What’s your fault, Lincoln? What did you do? What didn’t you stop?” Elle pleads, and when I still don’t look at her, she reaches out and grabs my chin in her hand, forcing my eyes to her. “Lincoln we’re family, there isn’t anything you can tell me that I won’t understand. We’re bonded, you and me, remember?” I’m sure she sees the emotion shining in my eyes, just like I see it in hers, and fuck does it slice right through me.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this, the war was over, she fought and she won, and she deserved her happy ever after, not this.

Yet still I nod stiffly, slipping out of her hold, and reaching for the first file on top of the others.The thickest one. When I put it in front of her, she glances between it and me until I nod, and then she opens it, slowly flicking through page after page, each containing the name and photograph of all the men I’ve hunted.

She opens her mouth to ask who they are, but I cut her off. “I killed them, all of them.” I don’t bother sugar coating my words, or even trying to lie, we are way past that now, and I know the time for keeping secrets has come to an end. “My father was a serial killer, he used to torture, rape, and kill women in the basement of our house. He was the perfect family man in public, but whenever my mother would go out of town, he became the monster I knew him to be. At first I would hide in my room, pretending it wasn’t real. Those were the easier nights, the harder ones were when I was forced to help him clean them up. I can’t remember their names or faces, just the look on my mother's face the night she caught him and he killed her. Then I killed him.” I reveal my history to all of them, without a trace of emotion in my voice because none of it matters anymore, not without them. “Since the end of the war I’ve had this need, this hunger, just like my father, so I started hunting,” I say, nodding towards the file in her hand. “Turns out there are a lot of sick men in and around Black Hallows just waiting to pay for their crimes.”

The silence that follows my statement is filled with tension, and I can feel them all sharing looks, but my gaze remains fixed on the table, until Zack asks, “Where are all the bodies?” Not a surprising question, since he always runs cleanup for the group, and my stare flicks up to him, before I move it to find Jace, who I can see putting things together in his mind, yet still he doesn’t reveal my secret to anyone.

“I had a cabin in the woods, I would watch them, learn their routines, and then take them out there and make them disappear. It was the perfect setup.” I rub my hands over my face, not caring for the deep dive into my life, not even with the people I trust most in the world, but still I slide forward the first note and photograph for them all to see. “I came home from the wedding to that waiting for me at the office, and I knew the cabin was compromised, so I called Jace and he helped me make it disappear.”

Both Elle and Marcus snap their heads towards him, but he holds my gaze, his loyalty unwavering.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Marcus asks, looking slightly offended to be left out of the loop, but more concerned than anything else.

“You guys just got married, you don’t need to be dealing with this,” I sigh, wishing that all of them would just let me go so I can deal with this the only way I know how. “Hell, I thought I’d already dealt with it, or at least I thought Ash had.”

“Was that the cleanup he called for?” Zack cuts in, and Elle’s eyes go wide.

“What damn clean up?” She yells, still not having all the pieces to put together, and I exhale, rising to my feet.

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