Page 176 of Hunter's Revenge

“Me?” I give him a narrowed look. “How? Brian died in a car crash. How the fuck is that my fault?”

“He was run off the road when he was leaving your house. Your father’s enemies came after you, but they mistook him for you.”

“What?” I can’t fucking believe what I’m hearing.

“A foolish but honest mistake as you looked so similar. Remember how people used to say you could have been twins? That’s what happened that day. They thought Brian was you. When he died, the reports came back showing that the break wire in his car had been cut. I knew then he was murdered, and I didn’t stop until I tracked down his killers. I got the truth out of them before I killed them. But then I realized the problem wasn’t just them. It was you.”

I stare back at him stunned into a stupor of silence. All this time, I never knew more blood had been spilled because of me.

Brian’s blood.

He died because of me.

My God, I’ve been completely mistaken.

“Why didn’t you just tell me what happened?” I stutter.

He shakes his head and rubs the barrel of the gun along Gwen’s temple. “The time for talking had passed. Just looking at you enraged me because it should have been you who died.” He’s shouting now. “You, Malik. It should have been your father who buried you. It should have been him who tracked down your killers. It should have been… it just fucking should have been you. Yet here you are, still alive while my son never stood a chance.”

“I’m sorry.” I am. I wouldn’t say so otherwise. I am sorry it wasn’t me. Brian didn’t deserve to die in place of me.

“Keep your fucking sorrys. I could have accepted if my boy had died at war fulfilling his duties, or even if it truly was a car crash. But not what happened. A mistake in identity. I was always against you joining the Navy because I worried about whatcouldhappen. I thought your father’s enemies would use it as an advantage to get to you. That’s exactly what they did when a deal went wrong and your father pissed off the wrong people.”

“I would never have known that.”

“It doesn’t matter. It happened anyway, and your family should have factored in the dangers of bringing your world to ours. But you all think you’re gods and you can take whatever you want.” His eyes blaze like a feral animal’s. “I sought my revenge on you. I wanted you dead, but I wanted you to suffer first. When Diego’s father found out what I was doing, he approached me with an offer of ten million dollars and a plan to take you. He didn’t want you to ruin his billion-dollar business plans with your investigation. The Navarros saw an opportunity when they met me and offered me the same. We both took what was mutually beneficial to the other. The only downside was faking my death.”

The truth is like venom in my soul. Poisonous and deadly, waiting to consume me.

“Why didn’t they kill me? They had me for nearly a year.”

“I wanted them to torture you and break you down bit by bit until there was nothing left. I wanted you to feel my pain for losing my son. I wanted you to beg for death, but I’m told you didn’t. Instead, you survived to avenge me. Look at us now.”

“Yeah, look at us. What happens next, Jim?”

He gives me a sadistic smile. “She dies while you watch.”

“No.”

Gwen shudders against him. I step forward, freezing when he cocks the hammer on the gun.

“Yes. It seems like the perfect punishment for you. Brian never got to have a wife or a life. And here’s the thing—I don’t care what happens to me now.”

Blind panic pulses through my brain and every nerve in my body. How the fuck am I going to get Gwen out of this situation alive? I barely have seconds to come up with a plan to save her.

“Jim, let’s talk about this. You can’t think this is right. She’s an innocent. She has nothing to do with us. Why don’t you just let her go and kill me? That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

He laughs. “I did until I saw the way you looked at your wife and realized death still wasn’t enough.”

“Malik, I don’t have a clear shot of Captain Davison, but I’m going to provide a distraction.” That’s Zakh’s voice in my earpiece on the communicator.

Hearing his voice gives me some hope.

“This is wrong.” I try to keep Jim talking until Zakh gives me the distraction.

“Fuck you, you—”

Suddenly, a round of bullets hits the floor near Jim. It gives me that split second of an opening to do something.

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