Page 45 of Be My Sinner

Monsters.

Will I be able to murder both of them?

I would like to immediately reassure myself that I will, but the answer doesn’t readily come to the surface. I once thought I could slit their throats and not lose a second of sleep. That they were no different from anyone else I have hunted and killed so far. Men who think they are at the top of the food chain. They take what they want without a thought to the consequences.Thieves of freedom.

The truth is that theyaredifferent from those I have hunted. I have to force myself to begrudgingly admit that, regardless of the internal anger that the knowledge brings. They’ve always been different, and I’ve been avoiding the truth all along. There is a reason I didn’t start with them when I began killing off members of the Brotherhood.

Memories of a past long gone have always plagued me. Those same memories make me weak when I need to be strong. My purpose now is to survive and to avenge my brother and mother. To see the Order of the Brotherhood of the Sacrament burn to ashes at my feet.

They killed your brother. Gabriel is gone because of them.The thought blares through my brain, much like the alarms that are still going off. Fire lights me up inside, cracking my tight hold on my leashed rage. The one that begs to be let loose from the tight confines I keep on it. Let me out, it demands in vicious screams.

Those two fuckers are breathing while my poor brother lies six feet underground, being consumed by insects. My brother trusted them to have his back. He thought they were his brothers, his best friends, and in the end, they either didn’t protect him or they killed him themselves.They took his life one way or another.I need to remember that whenever I have a moment of weakness where they are concerned.

Sins.

Both of them have sins that require retribution. Consequences must be paid in blood. As much as I want to remember them as the boys I once knew. Those boys are long gone, and in their place are demoralizing, bloodthirsty demons. It’s time they met their match and were put down.

With one last look at the screens, I see Sammy making his way effortlessly out of the house and toward Ezekiel’s location. He’s hunting him through the thick foliage surrounding the property, careful not to set off his own traps. I watch as Ezekiel heads towards the old groundskeeper’s shed on the side of the property. He’s as good as dead if Sammy gets him. Sammy won’t hesitate to end the threat he perceives to my life, nor should I.

It’s time to let loose my monster and hunt these men of the Brotherhood. The men who did nothing to stop the further destruction of the Camrose family, and have been having their fill of their privileged life as the next reigning generation of the Brotherhood. That life ends now. They will be greeting the devil before brunch.

I make my way out of the hidden underground tunnels that run below this property. The stupid Brotherhood never realized how close we were to the old abandoned silver mines. It took Sammy no time to figure out their underground labyrinth, and extend it right to the house, creating a failsafe for us. This is how we have been coming and going undetected for years, right under the Brotherhood’s overconfident noses.

As I pass the room where we hide most of our arsenal, I step inside and grab the high-powered crossbow hanging on the wall, and some of my carbon arrows. This weapon is used to take down large animals when Sammy and I hunt game. It will come in handy hunting Abraham Mercier. Right now, he’s one of the largest feral animals in my woods.

I strap the arrow pack to my side, sling the crossbow over my shoulder, sprint back down the tunnel, and head towards the hidden exit further down from the gate. It’s hidden inside an old tree that Sammy hollowed out years ago, giving us an escape route if the Order ever came for me. There are two more exits, just like it, hidden up to a mile from the house. Sammy never leaves anything up to fate if he can avoid it.

I make the sprint in just a few short minutes, climb up the trim ladder strapped to the wall, and through the trap door. Once I’m inside of the hollowed-out tree, I pause. I drag air through my lungs, allowing my breathing to slow down, so that I don’t give myself away once I step out of the safety of the tree.Focus, Dinah, we have a killer to dispatch to hell.

My large, sharp hunter’s knife is strapped to my right thigh. I have a smaller version strapped to my ankle, hidden by my boot, and six small titanium knives strapped along my left arm in my sheath. My shoulder harness holds two Hellcat sigs and two more magazines. If that wasn’t enough of an arsenal, I have a small taser that Sammy created that will take down a grown elephant.

I’m ready to take on Abraham Mercier and Ezekiel Rothesay. Fuck, I’m prepared to take on the whole Brotherhood if I am being honest. I lower myself and move slowly through the bushes and trees closest to my exit, stopping every few seconds to listen to the world around me, and see if I can determine where Abraham is hiding. He’s not used to hiding or running for his life. It will make my task easier to destroy him.

The forest is too quiet; no birds are singing, no sound of insects, no small animals going about their business. Everything is eerily still. That’s my first warning that he’s close. Nature knows when a predator is within its mix. The sun shines through the heavy clouds, trying its hardest to break through the thick tree canopies above us. The ground is still a bit damp from last night’s rain. The scent of earth, leaves, and vegetation surrounds me, and gives me a perfect backdrop for hunting.

I know every inch of these woods. I could run through them with my eyes closed. Sammy has trained me in them for years, and part of that training included being hunted through every inch of shrubbery surrounding me. Abe won’t be able to hide for long.

A small noise up ahead, and to my left, sounds in the quietness of the air. To anyone else, it would be inconspicuous. A small animal perhaps running through the ground, the wind rustling through the trees. I know, however, it’s the first of many mistakes Abe has just made. He might as well wave a big fucking red flag that says come and get me.

I shift the crossbow silently into position, notching the arrow and adjusting the scope as I move noiselessly through the area, searching for my prey. Up ahead, a lower branch on a thick old oak moves. My eyes find the target through the scope. A shadow moves within my sightline, dark, large, and trying its best to hide from me.

The lyrics from an old song from the world long gone, sung byBing Crosby,which my momma used to sing to me, enter my mind and bring a sadistic smile to my lips.

“If you go down in the woods today,

you’re sure of a big surprise.

If you go down in the woods today,

you’d better go in disguise!”

Oh, Abe’s in for a big surprise, alright. I press my finger on the trigger and release the first of my arrows, aiming for where his shoulder should be. There’s no sense in killing him too soon. After all, where’s the fun in that? I might want to hang him from a fucking tree and let him swing like he did my brother.Fucking dark, I know.I want to hear his screams of pain, and his curses, before I hear the intoxicating sound of his last breath leaving his body. My whole body shudders with the anticipation of those screams.

A thud followed by a gasp of pain is my reward. The sound is an aphrodisiac to my senses. I quickly notch another arrow and let it fly in the same direction, but slightly lower. This time, there is just the hushed sound of a gasp of air as the arrowhead embeds into the thick tree trunk.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I sing the words to him as I move gracefully through the underbrush. “Abe, do you want to have a picnic in the woods with me? You’re on the menu.”

I get no reply from the spoilsport but let loose another arrow as I see a bush further up ahead twitch. No sound of pain greets my ears, and that brings me a massive sense of disappointment. I scan the area around me, straining my ears for his footsteps or his breath sounds. Just as I am about to take a step forward, something enormous and heavy crashes into me, making me lose my grip on the crossbow and go tumbling down to the forest floor.

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