Page 3 of Vicious Intentions

My brother’s blood had permanently stained my skin.

Why was I finding it more difficult to maintain a sharp focus, my need for revenge? Because of a woman, an innocent bird that I couldn’t wait to trap, then keep inside a gilded cage.

Perhaps for a lifetime.

Obsession.

My father had said that anything that became necessary in someone’s life was an obsession and should be condemned. I’d laughed at his statement more than once, but as I stood watching the beautiful woman crossing the campus grounds, I realized my behavior, my need to possess her, had become my greatest weakness.

Sage Winters had no idea she had not one, but three monsters stalking her.

I’d wanted nothing more than to destroy her, exacting revenge for a heinous act from years before. She was easy prey, vulnerable, and unsuspecting. The fact that her father had allowed her out of her protected cage meant he’d grown arrogant. I’d planned for months on using his overconfidence that no one knew about his true identity against him.

A vision of the worst night of my life flashed through my mind. Sage would pay dearly for my brother’s murder.

My father hadn’t needed to order me to go hunting. I’d done so myself, beginning at the age of thirteen. But it had taken me seven additional years to track my prey, two more to perfect my vicious plan. The life I’d been born into was violent, death just a part of the scenario.

I was very good at exacting punishment, my methods more creative than any other member of my family. I would enjoy taking what was most precious to my brother’s killer. My blood pumped wildly through my veins just thinking about the sweet release of retaliation.

The man known as the Iceman was an assassin, a hired gun for anyone who could afford his expertise. Little was known about the man who’d enshrouded himself in shadows, living another life as an upstanding citizen while using the darkness to hide his savage acts. However, I’d been provided with a gift years before, a single glimpse of a scar on his right hand, a burn from a mission that had almost taken his life.

In my years of planning revenge for the murder of my brother, I’d learned many things from my vicious father, including patience. I’d also been taught the best methods of seeking retaliation against our enemies were often the sweetest.

And the ones that would drive a stake through a man’s heart.

His daughter would become the vessel for my vindication.

However, my original plans had changed since watching her, stalking her over the past months. Now I wanted everything, craving not only her blood but her body as well.

Little did Sage Winters know that soon she would belong to three powerful, ruthless, and unforgiving men.

After her father watched her final surrender, only then would I allow him the release of sweet death.

“She is spectacular,” Hunter Augustine said from beside me. “I can’t wait for my first taste.” He was one of my two best friends, a man almost as evil and callous as I’d become. He could hide behind his wide grin and twinkling eyes, fooling everyone that he was a good guy, yet I knew his darkest secrets, his penchant for sadism. That was why we got along so well.

“One of many, I assure you.” Grinning, I threw him a look before heading toward the dorm she shared with a girl already in the clutches of the Elite. Our group was generations old, children of some of the most powerful men and women in the country, many of whom worked on the wrong side of the law. Our power was unequaled, our true wealth undocumented. And it was widely known that graduates of the exclusive college would one day rule the world.

As if we weren’t already doing so.

“Does her father have any idea she’s being hunted?” Cristiano asked as flanked my side, his once heavy Latin accent all but erased from his deep immersion in the American lifestyle. As the eldest son of the Moreno Cartel out of South America, his future was laid out almost exactly as mine was. Soon, we would both lead powerful crime syndicates, taking over from our fathers. He was almost as brutal as I’d become, which was why I considered him one of the posse.

The three of us were tight. We’d performed various required acts of violence over our years of servitude to the system, including eliminating enemies determined to bring down our families.

Loyalty was the first rule. Secrecy the second. Obedience the third.

Anyone who broke even a single rule was banished.

Or worse.

All three of us had gone through an initiation period that only the strongest, most resilient people could survive. Now we ruled the estate where the members lived, our dominance more powerful than that of our ancestors. Even the administration had no control over us. However, the capture and control of sweet Sage would be our finest hour.

“If he doesn’t, he’s a fool. I’ve heard The Iceman is in the process of retiring.” My answer was succinct. Maybe the fucker believed he could retire to Florida, spend his days basking in the sun.

“Where do you get your information?” Hunter inquired, his eagerness to enjoy the fruits of our labor well noted.

“You know I have my sources.” I’d spent years tracking The Iceman’s activities, learning everything I could about his actions, finally discovering his real identity that he’d gone to great lengths to hide. Xavier Winters had certainly aged significantly over the past few years, the birth of his only child a surprise to both him and his ageing wife. Most who knew him saw nothing but the pleasurable, kind man who owned a two-decade old Italian restaurant in Chicago as well as a food distribution firm servicing fifteen states. While many were aware of his extreme wealth, the fact that he didn’t flaunt it by driving expensive vehicles or supplying his wife with jewels and furs had kept him mostly off the radar.

That was how he’d managed to stay alive, able to protect his wife and only child. If it hadn’t been for the second slipup in his illustrious, decades-old career, I’d never have connected all the dots.

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