Page 11 of Hunted Temptation
“Like how?” he asks.
I close my eyes slowly before I open them again as I collect my thoughts. “In the worst way you can imagine.”
He grunts, then clears his throat before he speaks. His voice is low, grave, and I can feel the pain that slices through him, maybe because it slices through me as well. We know how absolutely depraved humans can be.
So when we imagine, it’s the worst of the absolute worst way that someone can harm another. And I think that’s exactly what’s happening with Elodie. I can’t think about the details, can’t even begin to imagine them, because if I do, I’m not sure that this job is going to go off without some serious hitches.
And I have this little side job because I’m damn good at it. One of the best, actually. So I cannot have this go down messily.
I need to continue on my path.
Continue with my mission and find the top motherfucker in this whole ring.
End him.
Whoever he is.
I don’t know if it will change anything, but I’ll sure feel a hell of a lot better. With each piece of shit that dies by my hand, I swear to fuck the weight on my shoulders is becoming lighter.
Maybe soon enough, I’ll be able to breathe without tasting putrid acid, too. Maybe soon enough, I’ll be able to close my eyes at night and sleep. Maybe those nightmares will disappear.
And maybe one day, I’ll even be able to love. Though that’s probably never going to happen. I wouldn’t know the first thing about love, so it’s not something I’ve really ever aspired to do. The other guys have it, and that’s great, but I’m pretty damn sure it’s not for me.
“You think she’s being used?” Boden asks.
“I do,” I say. “I tapped into the video surveillance at the house. Scoggins has every room in that house outfitted with a camera, except his own, the bathrooms, and his office. That includes a camera on his daughter. In her bedroom.”
Boden doesn’t speak immediately, but after a moment of silence, he clears his throat before he replies. “Just doing a quick search. I’ll send something more in depth later, but she went to the public high school, got decent grades, no clubs, nothing special.”
“Her mother?” I ask.
I don’t know why I didn’t look deeper into her mother myself. Maybe I thought she would appear somewhere in the house or something. There wasn’t a wife listed in Scoggins’s folder, but that doesn’t mean anything.
The wife would never be my target, so maybe there would be a picture or something, but that’s about it, just like with Elodie. It’s just my dick that’s got me looking deeper into her… deeper… pun definitely intended.
“Dead,” Boden states. “Not sure how, but it seems as if she died when Elodie was just six months old.”
“How the fuck?” I ask.
“She was young, too,” he murmurs. “Too young… only nineteen.”
“How old was Scoggins?”
“Thirty.”
As much as I want to know more about the situation, that is really all I need to know. Sure, it would be the pot calling the kettle black, considering that’s about the age gap between me and Elodie. However, I’m not a gigantic sick piece of shit, so that’s a big difference.
Chapter Four
VAUGHN
Scoggins’s GPSstops at a building, but it’s not labeled on the tracker map. Looking up the address, I frown at the sight. It’s a large warehouse located in an industrial area. There is no name listed anywhere that I can find in a quick search. An empty building in an industrial area, and he’s going there at night.
I wonder if this is where he was last night. It probably was. Writing down the address, I send Hale a text and ask him to figure out who owns this place. I’m not sure it matters, but if someone else who is part of this whole ring owns this building, that could be seriously fucking helpful in my search.
HALE: I’M ON IT
Leaning back in my chair, I wish I could see what the hell is happening in that place. Since I can’t, I shift my attention back to Elodie. I wish I could shake her, but I’m obsessed. Watching her is my new favorite pastime, even when she sleeps.
