Page 164 of Altered

He crouched down beside David and shoved the barrel of the gun under his jaw. "Take it in. It could last minutes."

"You might want to step outside, ladies," Gonzalez announced with a chuckle as he leaned against the doorframe, watching on in gleeful amusement. "This is going to get bloody."

Neither one of us moved an inch.

"What was that, Davy-boy?" Hunter asked in a coaxing tone. "Did you try and say something?" He shook his head and tutted. "I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You're just gonna choke yourself quicker. Actually –" Pausing, he pulled his shirt over his head and then roughly forced the fabric into David's mouth. "You do just that."

I had to stifle a scream at the sight of Hunter's bare chest and back.

There wasn’t a slither of skin on his body unmarked

Welts, scars, bullet wounds, and huge, knife wounds dotted his body.

"Thought you killed me?" he continued to taunt, clearly reveling in the torture he was inflicting. "Youdid."

Crouching beside David's violently jerking body, he said, "But here's a tip – not that you're going to need it where you're going."

He tucked his gun into the back of his jeans before reaching into his boot and withdrawing a knife.

"The next time you kill a man?"

Hunter brought the knife down on.

"Make sure he staysdead."

And then he began to gut him from sternum to navel, ripping a gaping hole through his flesh, exposing intestines and blood.

With my mother's arms wrapped around me, I watched in a mixture of shock, fear, and gratitude as David Henderson closed his eyes for the final time, as death came for him in the most gruesome and unimaginably inhumane of ways.

"Always so bloody," Gonzalez groaned, scratching his jaw, as he looked down in amused despair. "Do you always have to make it so damn messy, Bolillo?"

Hunter shrugged nonchalantly. "Fucker got what he gave." He tossed the knife into the nearby sink and twisted his neck from side to side, clearly freeing out a knot of some sort. "We good, G?" Hunter extended his hand to the man. "We done?"

"Unfortunately, we are, Bolillo," Gonzalez grumbled, looking visible upset at the idea. He took Hunter's hand in his, then embraced him in a half-hug.

My body was shaking violently as I watched the exchange between them – as inconceivable pain attacked my cervix; the child in my womb demanding entry into a world that his or her father had just made a much safer place.

All the pain David had caused?

All the lives my paternal grandfather had taken?

All the other lives he had irrevocably altered with his poison?

He was dead.

He was truly gone.

It was finallyover.

"You're here?" I sobbed, breaking away from my mother's arms.

I took a step forward and then quickly shuffled back like a skittish foal, unsure of whether I could trust my mind. "You're reallyhere?"

"Yeah, baby." Standing slowly, Hunter turned to face me, blue eyes burning with intensity, he stopped just a few feet short of me and shrugged almost vulnerably. "Now, who does a guy need to kill around here to get a kiss?"

As much as I wanted to, Icouldn’tkiss him.

I couldn’t throw myself into his arms.

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