Page 60 of Passion and Payback

Wasn’t that what the research had been all along? Not merely to fulfill a curiosity or poke at a wound. Deep down, though not that deep, I’d known what I was looking to do…soon. Or maybe I knew I was waiting for something like the dealer confronting me. Something to give me the push I needed to finally commit to the dark act that had been steadily growing in the back of my mind.

Well, I’d found it in another unexpected place…the news. His face was all I could see. That smarmy, arrogant, self-satisfied smile that I’d once found slightly attractive now filled me with a disgust far blacker and more dangerous than any rage.

He was going to be mayor?

“No, he’s not,” I said in a low voice, watching my hands ball into fists. “He most certainly will not.”

Because I was going to fucking kill him.

KAI

I wasn’t surprised that Hunter grew silent when the ride showed up to take us back to his apartment. Or even when he didn’t say a word when we got back, and he walked to his room, closing the door behind him. I was worried, of course, but his silence made sense.

It was hard not to feel some sense of bitterness at the way our night had ended. It seemed like we were finally going to have something good to share between us, but the universe seemed intent on ruining every opportunity. I wasn’t sure if that was the universe or something else messing with us.

“I really hope it isn’t you,” I muttered to the picture of Lucas on the coffee table. “Because I’m trying my best to help him. And if it isn’t you, and you can do something about it, I’d appreciate the interference.”

Unsurprisingly, the picture remained silent, and I sighed, dropping onto the couch. I’d changed into more comfortable clothing and put the suit back in the bag. Now, loose pants and a shirt hung loosely on me as I curled my feet beneath me.

It took precisely five seconds for a familiar orange fluffball to find its way into the crook of my legs. He curled up, squinted pleasantly at me, and immediately began to purr.

“Hey, big guy,” I said absently, scratching gently behind one of his ears. “I’ve had kind of a rough one. How have you guys been faring?”

He continued to purr, and I resigned myself to being his petting machine for the night. Not that I hadn’t been assigned the role when I arrived at the apartment.

We sat there, a couple of the other cats showing up to warm themselves on me, but I scrolled mindlessly through my phone while they made themselves comfortable. Time trickled by, and I never heard a sound from Hunter’s room while I sat in the low light from the nearby lamp. That wasn’t surprising; he’d looked haunted and was probably working through everything, though I wished he’d do it with me to help him.

Deep down, I suspected I knew what was going through his mind. His last words had been a vow that the man, Callum, would never find his way into the mayor position. He hadn’t elaborated, but I didn’t think he needed to. I thought about his research, which hadn’t been all that thorough if he’d missed a detail like that. And I thought about the knife that had gone missing, even though I suspected I knew where it was…or who’d hidden it.

“Do I help him?” I asked aloud, whether to the cats, the picture, or anyone listening. An answer never came, but I knew deep down what my answer would be if asked.

After all, it wasn’t a case of three men who had simply hurt or wronged my best friend. These were three sick individuals who’d violated Hunter in the worst way imaginable and then tried to kill him after already killing the man he loved. All that pain and suffering, and for what? For Hunter to be forced to try to makehis life make sense again while he healed numerous wounds, and they got to live their lives free, clear, and happy?

No, in Hunter’s position, I’d be thinking the exact same thing. The difference between us, though, was that my soul had already had pieces removed by taking lives. He had only taken the one, and that had been on the spur of the moment. Could he really find it in himself to follow through on his bloody plan? To plan out and execute three murders?

It was a tall order, but I saw the dark look in his eyes when he swore the man would never become mayor. Hunter was a good man and gentle by nature, but there had been nothing kind or soft in his face. And that kind of rage could either burn itself out once there was nothing left to feed on, or it could dig deep and find a place to fester and twist inside.

As dark as my thoughts were, I still found myself nodding off, my phone falling in my lap. At some point, I became vaguely aware I was not alone. Stirring back to the conscious world, I opened my eyes to find Hunter standing next to the couch with a blanket in his hand and a blank expression.

“I didn’t mean to wake you up,” he said softly. “You looked comfortable.”

“As comfortable as someone can be slumped over,” I said with a chuckle, checking the time on my phone. “Shit, have you gone to bed?”

“Yeah, right,” he said with a snort. He scooped up the little cat so he could drop down onto the couch beside me. “I kept thinking about that news report and hearing his voice again.”

“Yeah, I…pretty much figured that was going to live rent-free in your head for a while.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” he said, leaning against me as he finally settled in.

I wrapped my arm around him, holding him close. “If I had a way of making this better for you, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

When he didn’t respond, I felt a pit form in my stomach as he frowned in thought. “Yeah…I guess.”

I looked him in the eye. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on in your head? Because I’m pretty sure I caught the hint earlier.”

“Hint, what hint?”

“When you swore he wasn’t going to get to be mayor.”

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