Page 20 of Vengeance of Childhood Proportions

A shadow fell over me and I flicked my eyes to the left to see a very pissed off Jason standing next to us.

Chapter Ten

Jason

I stareddown the taller man, not giving in an inch. What the fuck was Holly thinking, getting close to this guy? He wasinvestigatingher. Or perhaps I didn’t give her enough credit and she was getting close to himbecausehe was investigating her. She was going to use what I trained her to do to find out what he knows.

Smart girl.

I didn’t give her enough credit sometimes. Mostly because I didn’t really think about shit like that.

From the time I was young, maybe five or six years old, I’d known I was different. My parents had known earlier than that, but it wasn’t something I’d registered until then. I had no empathy, no sense of right and wrong. I was smart, very smart, but I got bored so quickly that I didn’t apply myself often.

I liked pain, both receiving and giving, but mostly giving. I liked seeing fear in people’s eyes, liked to hear them beg for me to stop. It got me riled up in a way I didn’t fully comprehend until I hit puberty.

People weren’tpeopleto me. They were things, a means to an end. I could care less if they were good or bad, who they were to society or who their families were. Didn’t matter to me. Theywere a music box of blood and bones. Nothing more, nothing less. And fuck, how I loved to make them scream.

I didn’t have friends. I had people who were useful to me, like Valentino. I’d become a master of manipulation, mimicking those around me to the point where some might even call me ‘normal’. Valentino had something I wanted, so it benefited me to keep him alive and to not make him bleed.

Holly was the exception. I didn’t love her, mainly because I didn’t know what that emotion was. I felt pride towards her, maybe kinship, but nothing so specific as love. The morning I found her after her attack, I thought she was dead. To be honest, there was even a moment where I’d questioned if I’d killed her as I’d gotten blind drunk the night before and couldn’t remember where I was or what I had done.

When I saw she was alive, bent over and bloody, I’d felt what I could only describe as curiosity. I might even go as far as to say, an interest. Not in her, but her attacker—and later I would find out it was attackers. I’d thought that was the end of it. It happened, life sucked, move on.

But then I learned what Hagley had done. The pompous worm had paid people off to cover up the attack.Thatwas when I felt rage for the first time in possibly my entire life. I nearly killed the weasel myself when I’d discovered what he’d done. I’m still not entirely sure what stayed my hand, but I did know one thing:Hollydeserved to be the one to do it.

I hadn’t specifically waited until she was eighteen to start training her because that was what some dumbass law stated made her an adult. It was just when she was able to walk out of the asylum her fucking parents had put her in without having to break her out. Plus, if I was going to take on a protégé, I needed to make sure she would be worth my time.

Holly’s desire for revenge matched my bloodlust, and when we learned the extent of how many people were involved… Fuck,I’d never been so excited. I might have even felt happiness. The elaborate scheme was exactly what I needed to keep me entertained. I was finally not bored.

And this special agent thought he could ruin my fun? To bringmeto justice? It was laughable. But I’d looked at the dickhead’s records before giving them to Holly. It grated on the nerves to admit that he was a good detective.

He liked to find ‘the truth’. Whatever the fuck that was.

If Holly wanted to keep fucking him, that was her business. I couldn’t give a shit. But if the douchebag got in my way? Well, then I might just have to kill him, too.

Chapter Eleven

Mal

Master Kade was notwhat I was expecting. I knew his reputation, but I had been picturing a guy more like me. Tall, broad shouldered, and chiseled jaw. Pretty sure Dr. Lopez, the shrink that worked with my department, would have something to say about the fact that I had placed my sexy owl’s Dominant friend as a near replica of myself in my head, but Dr. Lopez wasn’t here so I could ignore that fact.

Master Kade was older than me by a decade or more. His ash blonde hair was cut short, almost like a military cut. He was compactly muscular with beefy arms and stood at five-eleven. His eyes were cold, like a cat’s. When he looked at my sexy owl, I did not see affection, nor did that coldness lessen. He was too…withdrawn.

I didn’t like it.

“Dani,” he snapped, “let’s go.”

When she stepped forward, obeying the order without question or hesitation, every protective instinct inside me screamed. He was notherMaster. He did not get to order her around and she did not have to obey.

I stepped between them, putting my back to her. I crossed my arms over my chest, widening my stance. My gut screamedat me that Master Kade knew how to fight, and he wouldn’t go down easily. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that, though. This was the most convenient club to my house, and I did like the place.

But it was just a place.Shewas a person.

“She does not have to go with you if she doesn’t want to,” I told him sternly.

Rather than get defensive though, something akin to amusement crossed his face. But it was off. Like Master Kade knew a secret that I did not.

I didnotlike that look. It was arrogant and condescending. It was a look a suspect usually gave me when he thought he was about to get away with something.

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