Page 72 of Dark Torment

JONATHAN

Done.

That son of a bitch will wake up in an hour with no money to his name, and no way to trace it. I’m sure he’ll try, but the FBI won’t be able to find it either. I made it look like Philip was the one to get rid of it all, sending small payments to different routing numbers that all lead back to my accounts... eventually.

It will look like he’s trying to hide the money because of illegal activities rather than having it stolen from him.

I’ve even gone to the extent of deleting all evidence of the contract he posted on the dark net just to be safe. The one that I found and accepted in order to keep Olivia safe.

The only contracts out there now are his other attempts, and it was almost too easy to find the evidence of them.

All I had to do to find the identity of the shooter was trace the payments from his bank account. I’ll leave him to the feds that have already gotten an anonymous tip. Drawing unneeded attention to Philip’s past criminal connections and having them all disappear along with Ben, is more attention than we need.

Then there are my plans to make that vile piece of shit Olivia calls a father suffer. I have every intention of killing him, but I can’t go with the fucked up and messy kills I’m used to. I have to make it look like a suicide, and with all of the groundwork I’ve laid, they won’t even question it.

A man like Philip Breton losing his son, and supposedly all of his money, then being investigated for crimes against his only daughter? They’ll assume he had a mental break and took his own life.

I’ve been planning this since before we left Kentucky, but it’s taken a longer than I’d originally planned because Olivia needed my undivided attention and love.

After she lost her home, she was an emotional mess, and I couldn’t bring myself to leave her while she slept at night. But she’s doing better today, and asked me to start working on it. She’s sick and tired of living her life in fear, and she wants Philip to pay.

I’m only too happy to give her everything she needs and wants.

“Are you ready?” she asks, walking into my office with a solemn look.

We’re going to meet the fire chief at her house to do a walkthrough and see if there’s anything we can salvage. I hope to fuck there is, because she needs some good in her life right now.

“Of course, sunflower. Are you?” I ask her, closing my computer and walking over to take her in my arms.

She sighs, leaning into me and wrapping me in a tight hug that I love. It’s like she needs to hold me tight to prove that I’m real, and I can’t get enough of it.

“No,” she whispers, her voice breaking. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I need to do this.” She squeezes me tighter for a brief moment before releasing me and wiping the tears from her eyes.

I wish I could cut that bastard to pieces while he’s alive. One piece for every tear of pain he’s caused my girl.

* * *

Olivia

This is quite literallythe worst thing I’ve ever had to do, and it’s breaking my heart.

Everything good that I’ve ever known was inside this house, and to see it ruined is breaking me apart. If Jon wasn’t here with me, I don’t know that I would have had the strength to do this.

“We’ve brought everything out that was even slightly salvageable. More of the structure collapsed today so it’s not safe for you to go inside,” the fire chief explains, and I swallow down the pain.

In a way, I’m glad I don’t have to see the extreme details of my life ruined, but God. Why? Why would he do this to me?

I know Jonathan is going after him soon. That he postponed his plans for my father in order to support me until last night, but I’m sick and tired of living my life in fear and uncertainty at this point. I just want it to be over with.

So, I did the one thing I wasn’t sure I was capable of doing. I asked Jon to deal with him.

I don’t know all of his plans, but I know enough to know it won’t be like Ben or most of his other kills. There’s a darkness inside of Jon that I’ve seen glimpses of. A darkness I can tell craves blood.

I don’t have to see it to believe it. Shelby went into enough detail about Jeff’s murder for me to understand that. Not to mention him being covered in blood the night we came together.

Ben’s blood.

I don’t think they’ll ever find a body, though. I saw him burning something that morning before going to my house, but I was too far away to see what was inside, and I didn’t want to.

---