Page 116 of The Hunt

As she faltered, I leaned in to kiss her neck. “Don't be ashamed of your desires, baby,” I murmured. “It’s okay if you want him to hurt. All you have to do is say it.”

She took a deep breath and lifted her chin. “I want it to hurt,” she said. “I want him to feel all the pain he’s inflicted on me and others.”

JJ’s choked protests reached a fever pitch, words stumbling over themselves in frantic pleas, but I blocked them out. Ev’s lips parted, her breathing shallow and erratic as I guided her hands.

“If you aim rightthere,” I muttered, letting the tip of the blade rest on a precise spot. “It’ll go through his diaphragm. A quick, clean cut through that, along with the liver, will cause a pneumothorax. He won’t be able to breathe properly after that, so he’ll be gasping for air while he bleeds out from the liver wound. It’ll hurt like a motherfucker, too.”

It was a messy way to go, but JJ didn’t deserve an easy death.

Ev steeled her jaw and nodded. “I’m ready.”

With my hand guiding hers, she pushed forward, the blade slicing through flesh and muscle this time. “Good girl,” I murmured against her ear. “That’s perfect.”

A gurgling sound escaped JJ's throat as the knife slid deeper, and a fresh spray of blood splattered across Ev’s face. Her breath hitched, a strangled grunt of effort escaping her lips, but she didn't pull back, her fingers tightening on the handle beneath mine. We moved together, a morbid choreography of vengeance, until the blade was buried to the hilt.

JJ’s strangled cries echoed through the cold, foggy air, along with his wheezing, gasping attempts to draw breath. Ev watched him silently, face etched with fury, until his eyes turned glassy and his body finally went limp.

A heavy silence fell after that. I felt Ev trembling, the adrenaline beginning to wear off.

I waited for her to release the handle, then slowly withdrew my hand, my eyes never leaving her face as she rose to her feet. It was a mess of crimson; blood splattered all over it. It was all over her hands and shirt too, even streaked along her neck where she must’ve wiped her hand without thinking. Every single piece of her radiated chaos, raw and unfiltered.

She’d never looked so fucking beautiful.

27

Everly

My gaze lingeredon Jake’s lifeless body, his face now slack and pale.

I dragged my eyes away from him, my breathing shallow, and saw Rhett watching me. His dark eyes bore into mine, intense and unreadable—the same look he’d given me many times before. It used to make me shrink, convinced it was hatred or disgust. But now, I understood what it really was:want. A raw, unspoken hunger.

I thought he might kiss me, but he didn’t move closer, didn’t touch me. Instead, his deep voice broke the silence, soft and steady. “How are you feeling?”

My lips parted, but the words didn’t come right away.

I looked back at Jake’s body. Weirdly, I didn’t feel the way I thought I would after taking his life. No pang of guilt, no gnawing regret. Just... relief. He could never hurt me again. Never hurt anyone again.

“I thought I’d feel bad,” I finally said. “But I don’t. Not even a little bit.”

Rhett took a step closer. “Like I said earlier, some people don’t deserve mercy,” he said in a low voice. “He deserved exactly what he got.”

My gaze lifted to his eyes again, and for the first time, I didn’t flinch under the weight of his stare. The darkness there didn’t frighten me anymore. It mirrored my own.

“I’m sorry for everything I did to you,” he went on, voice gruff. “I should've said that earlier.”

“Sometimes you say things through actions instead of words,” I replied, lips curving in a ghost of a smile. “You've done plenty of that.”

Rhett glanced over at Jake’s body again, and his jaw tightened. “I guess that’s true.”

“On that note…” I bit my bottom lip, hesitating for a moment. “I have to ask you something.”

He looked back at me, a question in his eyes. “Yeah?”

“Before you knew the truth about how I ended up here… would you have killed me? Or let someone else kill me?”

“Never.” He swallowed, and a muscle in his jaw clenched. He almost looked angry at me for asking. For doubting him. “Never.”

“But why?” I shook my head. “You always hated me. And you thought I was a real player here, so I should’ve been fair game to you, right?”

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