Page 3 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

“Wrists out,” he commanded, holding up one of the zip ties.

Screw that. Fifteen feet to my right, a dozen knives sat perched in perfect holders, waiting to help with my escape.

I lunged for one, but immediately, my ass slammed onto the unforgiving stone, one hand pressing on my shoulder. Worse, Hunter’s jaw clenched as he wrestled against my squirms, pinning my wrists together as he squatted down and zip-tied them.

Making my stomach sink. The ties hurt my skin—especially rubbing the already-raw spots from when Franco had tied me up—but what hurt the most was looking into the eyes of the man I’d fallen in love with. Only to be completely betrayed by him.

“Sit,” he demanded.

Then Hunter stood up, looking down at me—at the complication that threatened his good name, his freedom, and maybe even his life…

CHAPTER2

Luna

“Let me go.” I hated that my voice quivered.

If any part of the Hunter that loved me was in there somewhere, then maybe I’d be able to convince him to release me.

“I can’t do that, Luna,” Hunter declared.

I hated that my eyes burned—feelings were not the priority right now, for God’s sake. Yet there they were, barbed wires unraveling in my chest, cutting against my insides.

I could still run. Even with my hands tied, I could run—would try to run again. But he was faster, bigger, and armed.

It wasn’t lost on me. The tragic irony that he was the person I finally let down my guard with and trusted.

Hunter had been right. I was a magnet for danger. Staying in a cottage owned by the Windy City Vigilante, I’d fallen in love with him and moved into his murder mansion. Just for him to rip off his mask and reveal his true identity: a monster.

A monster—with blood splattered on his bare chest—staring down at me, while I sat on the floor, wrists zip-tied in front of my body, my back pressing to the damp wall of this hellish dungeon.

“You killed Dominic.” My voice was a mere whisper on account of this damn lump in my throat.

“We’ve been over this,” he replied in a low, even tone.Wehadn’t been over this. I had talked to a person who I thought was nothing more than a stranger—the Vigilante.

“It was you.” I swallowed. “All along, it was you.”

How could I have been so stupid? How could I have accepted his innocence so easily? Why? Because he was smaller than the Vigilante? Hunter Lockwood was incredibly intelligent. I should have realized the Vigilante might have taken extra measures to conceal his identity.

“You thought you could take justice into your own hands and get away with it.”

“Where justice failed,” he said. “I didn’t want you to find out this way.” It was the first hint of remorse in his tone, the first glimmer of pity in his cerulean eyes.

He stood in his room, surrounded by the weapons he’d used to end people’s lives. I wanted answers to all of it—why, who. I wanted to replay the events of the last few weeks with this newfound revelation, but that would have to wait. Right now, I needed to focus on escaping.

“You save her just to do this?” Franco laughed, sitting twenty feet to my right. The guy who’d tried to kill me earlier tonight found this amusing even though his ear holes were leaking down his neck.

“Shut the fuck up,” Hunter said.

Franco was right. With zip ties pinching my skin, Hunter had shown he had every intent of hurting me. Or worse…

“What are you going to do to me?” If I knew his plan, I’d have a better shot at disrupting it.

Hunter’s eyes snapped from Franco back to me.

I searched for any sign of the man I had known, any remnant of the love we had once shared. But his intense gaze, once a source of warmth and affection, had transformed into something cold and calculating.

“I can’t let you go, Luna.” His deep voice chilled my skin.

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