Page 34 of Hunted Vengeance

“Not until she’s safe and fucking sound,” he mutters.

And she will be. I will find her. It may not be until her wedding day, but she will be with me then. Before she takes a single vow to the man who thinks he’s marrying her. The plan we had, the wedding day with all of the people and distractions, is the way to go, even if waiting for a couple of weeks feels like I’ll be waiting for a goddamn lifetime.

COLETTE

I haveno idea where I am. My father didn’t even have to blindfold me or anything to disorient me since I rarely go anywhere. My sense of direction is horrible, so the fact that I rode around in the back of a car for a couple of hours before ending up somewhere in the woods doesn’t make me feel any better or worse than just staying at home in my room.

I’m a thing to be shuffled around—an animal to be relocated as seen fit. I’m just in a new stable, is all. Thankfully alone. I don't know what to expect because I can’t imagine that I’ll be sitting here all alone in a cabin in the woods for long.

There is no way my father would leave me here by myself. Not when he always has someone watching me at any given moment of any day… or, at the very least, watching my door. Just because I don’t see any cameras here doesn’t mean they aren’t hiding somewhere.

I sit on the sofa facing an old television. It’s one of those thick ones, flat in the front but long in the back. You could definitely not hang it on a wall anywhere. I couldn’t even guess at how old it is. I don’t even attempt to turn it on. Not sure I would even know how if I tried.

I don’t know how long I sit in silence before the front doorknob begins to turn. I’ve never been to this cabin before, but the way that my father just waltzed inside makes me feel as if he owns the place, and I can’t help but wonder why he would own a remote cabin in the woods just a few hours from Manhattan.

The door swings open, causing me to jump when it does. I’d become so lost inside my own head that I’d forgotten someone could open it to begin with. The man who walks through the door is not who I expect to see.

Although it shouldn’t surprise me. I just didn’t expect it, so I’m caught off guard. I suck in a breath, and my eyes widen as I watch him walk through the door, turn to lock it behind him, then face me.

“Colette,” he purrs.

After a chill of dread slides down my spine, my entire body shrinks as I try to make myself as small as humanly possible. I thought I would have a few weeks before I would be forced to be in a room alone with him.

“Hello, Malcolm.”

He stays where he is, thankfully keeping his distance from me. I don’t know what is supposed to be happening here. I almost tell him that but press my lips together and decide against it.

“You are wondering why I’m here,” he states.

It’s not a question. He is telling me that I wonder why he’s here, and it’s true, I do, so there’s no reason for me to comment. Instead, I sit and wait. My entire body trembles, and as much as I attempt to hide the way I’m shaking, I’m sure I fail.

“I’m here because I don’t trust your father.”

I.

Almost.

Almost.

Laugh.

He shouldn’t trust my father. I wouldn’t if I were him, and I don’t. Malcolm takes one step toward me, but just one. My spine stiffens even straighter as I wait for him to pounce. I very much feel like a lamb being led to the slaughter, and I wish I were just about anywhere else right now.

“I don’t trust him not to fuck me over. And if he fucks me over, then I’ll do what I want to you… I’ll probably do what I want to you anyway, but he fucks me over, it’ll be tenfold.”

I want to ask him just what my father is supposed to do for him, give him, or whatever the case is, but the way his eyes narrow on me and his jaw clenches, I think maybe it’s not the best idea to ask any questions right now.

“You are a quiet little thing. I wonder what it would take to make you scream,” he murmurs.

Sucking in my lips, I press them together in an attempt not to scream. There are a million different things that are flying through my head, but I can’t verbalize any of them. Then he begins to move closer to me.

One foot in front of the other until he’s blocking the blank screen of the television from my view. I watch as he crouches down in front of me. Slowly, as if I’m some scared animal, he reaches forward and touches the side of my cheek.

His soft fingers slide from my cheek to my temple. It feels like slithering snakes. I don’t know how else to describe the sensation of his hands on my skin. At the engagement party, he didn’t touch my bare skin, and I’m regretting that he’s touching it now.

“A pretty little wallflower that will take what I give her because I own her,” he rasps before his lips curve up into a smirk. “Or rather, who I will give her to.”

I release my lips, and my eyes widen in surprise at his seeming confession. He doesn’t go into it any deeper, but my confusion is real, inside and out, and I know that as observant as he is, he sees it—feels it.

---