Page 76 of Ruthless Rebel

I reach for the other file, the one with the photos of the five men Billy killed, and then I lay them out on the table. “After I received the note I went hunting for who sent it,” I start off, tapping on the last picture of the guy who hand delivered the note. “He dropped it off with Eliza at the front desk of the office, and then a week later he was dead, and all roads led me to a man named Billy Powell,” I add, quickly reaching for the file on Billy and grunting as pain shoots up my side.

“Lift up your shirt,” Elle suddenly demands, standing to her feet beside me as I turn to her about to refuse, she pushes on, “Don’t fucking try me right now, Superman, lift up your fucking shirt.” I move to do as she says, unfastening the buttons, but she steps forward and snatches it open herself, gasping at the angry red scar that greets her. “Oh, Lincoln,” she chokes out, blinking back tears I don’t deserve. “What happened, tell me please?”

I turn back towards the table, reaching for the picture of Billy, not missing the way everyone’s eyes drop down to the souvenir he gave me. “I went after him, but somehow my intel was off. I killed a few of his men before he landed a cheap shot and I escaped,” I explain, shoving my shirt closed. “I wasn’t going to show up here bleeding, and chance running into Cassie, so I went to Ash, he patched me up and let me sleep it off.”

“Then he went after Billy,” Zack cuts in, connecting the dots, and I nod.

“Yes, Ash killed him,” I confirm for the sake of everyone else.

“Killed him?” Seb snorts. “He fucking annihilated him until he was unrecognizable, and then carved out his heart and took it with him.”

That actually brings a smirk to Elle’s face as she mumbles fondly, “Yeah, that sounds like him.” Before she looks between his photo and the note. “Then what?”

I shrug. “Then we thought it was over, every avenue I looked into led to Billy, and Ash took him out. I thought it was done, finished, until today.”

Both our eyes stray over to the cake, and then suddenly she is snatching up both notes and studying them closely. “Whoever this is, they called you Superman, that’s my name for you, who else would know that?”

She’s right, I hadn’t even thought about the fact that they called me that, I was too focused on the cabin and what it meant. I look between everything on the table, and even more fear and worry starts to churn inside of me.

“Whoever this is, they are coming after me, they know me” I claim, picking up both notes and studying them. “The first note was dropped at the office, showing they could get to me at work, the second came here, showing they know where I live. They could have taken any one of you,” I add, as the pain in my chest intensifies, and Elle connects the dots at the same time as I do.

“They took Ash and Lo because you care about them,” she says, watching me carefully.

“I more than care about them,” I snap, and she nods, having already come to the conclusion from the way I am reacting, but I can’t help it.

They’re gone, Logan and Asher are gone, and we might not get them back. That realization has me slumping back into my chair in defeat, pain flowing through not just my side, but my heart too. I can’t do this, I can’t lose them. Elle watches me the whole time, and it only makes it worse, because if I lose them, so does she. Arthur and Helen lose a son, Cassie loses a father, no, losing them is not an option. I’ll die before I accept that fate.

“We can’t lose them,” I whisper, and Elle slides her hand back into mine.

“Then let’s find them,” she replies simply, not wiping the tear that falls down her cheek, as she focuses back on the files spread out on the table. “You know, I thought Logan was exaggerating when he said these guys look like you,” she adds, flicking her eyes across the five victims I didn’t kill. “They all look like you in one way or another,” she remarks, and I take in their blond hair and green eyes, one of them even has glasses, but it just doesn’t make any sense.

“Maybe it’s tied to one of the men you killed, revenge perhaps?” Max cuts in, his eyes wary and never straying too far from Lily, who is tucked under Zack’s arm and hasn’t said a word since she arrived.

“I was careful in leaving no trace behind, but it’s worth a shot,” I say, not sounding convinced at all, not with how much panic Iam feeling.

As always, Elle steps up. “I want every person in this town with a criminal record looked into. I don’t care if it’s murder or tax evasion, if they’ve got a damn parking ticket I want to know about it,” she commands, separating all the men I hunted into smaller piles, and then giving them out to the security guys. “Check out their next of kin and all known associates, people talk and I want to know what they are saying,” she tells them, and they nod, heading out to hunt instantly, but all I can do is remain seated.

I pick up my phone and call them both again, swallowing the bile that rises in my throat as both phones are now going to voicemail.

Where the fuck are they?

Elle then turns her focus to me. “You and I are going to find where this cake came from and who sent it,” she demands, searching my sorrow-filled eyes with her own. “Are you with me, Superman?” She asks, and for the first time ever I realize I love this girl like she is a part of me, just like I did my mother.

“I’m with you,” I breathe, squeezing her hand, and she smiles.

“Good, then let’s go hunting.”

38

LOGAN

Ican still remember the sound of our car colliding with another when I was five years old. There was screaming, crying, glass breaking, metal screeching, it was awful. I can remember the doctor's face at the hospital as he told the social worker our parents didn’t survive. I can remember the feel of Lily’s hand squeezing mine as we walked into what would become our new home. I can remember being woken up in the middle of the night and finding a broken and scared Elle in my living room. I can even remember what it felt like to walk into a house and find Zack bleeding out on the floor.

I thought I had experienced the worst life had to offer.

I was wrong.

They got me as I left the florist, I was picking up flowers for my parents grave, and I’d parked my car down a side street. I was so focused on texting Lily to let her know I was on my way that I never even saw them coming. Five of them jumped me and tossed me into a van, until I was dumped, god knows where, tied up, and left to rot. I don’t know how much time passed before Asher was brought in, but sometime later they opened the door and dumped him next to me.

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