Page 26 of Dead Bled Ringer
I got up and rushed to the fireplace, picking up a poker with my trembling hands. As the intruder managed to land a blow on Hunter’s jaw, I slammed the makeshift weapon as hard I could across his back.
The intruder twitched with a howl of pain, and Hunter yanked him back as he lunged at me.
“Get out of here, Angel!” he ordered angrily, his dark brows drawn over his eyes. “Run!”
“It’smyhouse!” I said indignantly, and I hit the intruder again in the front, and this time I heard the satisfying crack of his ribs.
“I swear to God, Angel, if you don’t listen, I am going to spank your ass so red!” Hunter hissed furiously as he kneed the intruder in the gut and put his big hands around the other man’s throat.
But Hunter wasn’t the boss ofme, and I raised the poker again as I heard a clatter down the stairs and turned to see my husband there.
Wait, what was Henry doing up and still dressed? He looked like shit, five o’clock shadow on his face and his suit rumpled and stained.
“Hunter, stop!” Henry yowled.
Hunter jerked around to face Henry, dragging the intruder’s body with him and my husband’s eyes widened.
There was something in them that I’d never seen before.
What was that expression? I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it tasted strange, wrong, under my tongue and I instinctively shuddered away from it.
There was weakness there in Henry, an oily strange weakness that made my stomach flip-flop with nausea.
“Fuck no,” Hunter said coldly.
Hunter’s back was turned to me so I couldn’t seehisexpression but I could see the face of the intruder as Hunter yanked his mask off.
He looked vaguely familiar. . . like I’d seen him somewhere before. . .
The other man was big and beefy, with a massive bull neck, but somehow he was looking up at Hunter with sheer panic in his expression. His giant ham hock hands were grappling desperately at Hunter’s, but somehow Hunter was the strongerone,Hunterwas the one whose powerful hands began to twist around his neck.
I couldn’t make myself look away. It seemed unreal that I was sitting here in my silky trophy wife pajamas watching my brother-in-law choke a man out in front of me.
Hunter kneed the other man in the chest as he struggled, his purple face twisted in agony.
“Hunter—” Henry began again, taking a step into the room, but it was too late.
“If you think I’m leaving this piece of trash alive after I caught him trying to smother her. . .” Hunter said, almost conversationally, his voice so cold it sent shivers down my spine. “Then you’re an even bigger idiot than I thought.”
And there was a hideous crack that I knew I would hear over and over in my nightmares, as the intruder’s neck snapped.
I shrieked as his head lolled at a strange, ungodly angle, and Hunter dropped the body heavily to the ground.
Blood rushed into my ears as the sudden silence thundered around us.
“Pick it up, asshole,” Hunter snapped to his twin, pointing at the dead body.
Henry said nothing, and I saw him swallow hard and automatically bring his hands up to straighten his tie, then he dropped them when he remembered he didn’t have a tie on.
“Angelise, I—are you all right?” my husband asked in a strange, grating voice. “I’ll—get a better security system. This shouldn’t have happened.”
“Security system?” I shrieked, “I’m calling thepolice.”
I grabbed for my phone and Henry threw himself across the room, falling down at my feet and clutching at my pajamas.
“Please, no, baby! Don’t call the cops! I promise I’ll fix this. Just give me another chance.”
“Fuck no!” Hunter snarled. “She’s getting out of here.”
