“Why?” she cried.
I scooped her up in my arms and ran for the door, looking down at her in terror. “Why what?”
“Why didn’t you save me?”
I stumbled to a stop, shaking my head. “You’re going to be fine. Everything’s going to be fine. I’ll protect you. I’ll keep you safe.”
“But you didn’t,” she choked, blood spitting out of her mouth. Wet drops started splashing on my face and I looked up. The whole ceiling was red, droplets falling down like rain, washing me in blood. Her blood. I ran for the door, flinging it open, but it was too late. She laid lifeless in my arms. Her eyes were vacant and smeared with the blood that had poured from them. I collapsed on the ground, holding her close to me, crying and screaming as my heart broke. I didn’t even know what was wrong. She was just gone.
I lifted my head to the sky and started screaming. The sky opened up and started raining blood, filling my mouth as I cried out in agony. She couldn’t be gone. I couldn’t have lost her.
I jerked upright in bed, choking on the blood that filled my mouth. I rolled over, just barely leaning over the bed before emptying my stomach on the floor. My whole body shook and I could still taste the blood that had filled my mouth. I swiped at my forehead with a shaky hand, expecting to find blood, but coming away with white. I looked up. The ceiling was white. I flopped back on my bed and took in large gasps of air. It took a good ten minutes for me to calm down, but once the terror and pain passed, I was wide awake. I couldn’t stay here, not after a dream like that. I packed up my stuff and left a large tip for the cleaning ladies. Getting in my truck, I headed off for my next kill.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Hunter
I stood in the conference room with Derek, Alec, and Cap watching the news. Two days ago, Senator Brunswick had been found in his car dead. He hadn’t shown up to work in two days. Apparently, his security team knew that he was dead sooner, but had kept it under wraps because they were trying to control the backlash of losing such a high profile client.
Cap turned off the TV and turned to us. “So, what do you want to do?”
I knew he was talking to me. Knight was my friend, and he knew that I would go search for him. I wanted to follow him the moment he walked out the door, but Knight wasn’t the kind of man to accept company when he was hurting. He didn’t want me around and wouldn’t appreciate me tagging along. I had given him his space, but now it was time to go after him. I knew Knight would get reckless the more time that passed, and as much as I knew that he didn’t want to live anymore, I wouldn’t allow him to give up either.
“I’m going,” I said, having made up my mind. “I don’t expect anyone else to go along, and frankly, I don’t think Knight would appreciate anyone else showing up. He might kick me out as it is.”
“We can come along, but hang back,” Derek argued. “I don’t like the idea of you going out there alone. He’s kicked up a shit storm by taking out Brunswick.”
“Knight knows exactly what he’s doing. He doesn’t need my help, but I can’t leave him out there on his own.”
“He has his kids,” Alec pointed out.
I shook my head. “You guys don’t get it. To us, our kids are everything. To Knight…he loves those kids, but Kate was what made him into the man he was. If you thought he was dangerous before, he’s ten times worse right now.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t go,” Derek argued. “Hunter, I get that Knight is your friend. Hell, we’d all do anything we could for him. But maybe this is one fight you shouldn’t join.”
“Knight is…he’s like a brother to me, like any of you. I’m afraid that he’s going to do something stupid, and I couldn’t live with myself if I just walked away. If there’s any chance that I can help him and bring him home to his kids, then I’ve got to try.”
“How are you even going to find him?” Cap asked. “The man’s a ghost when he wants to disappear.”
I grinned slightly. “He is, but I also know how he thinks. It might take me a few days, but I think I can find him with Becky’s help.”
“Just be careful,” Cap said. “I don’t want to inform anyone else that another member is gone.”
“Do me one favor? Keep Lucy….”
“We’ll take care of her, man,” Derek nodded.
“I was going to say, keep her from coming after me. You know, maybe come with me to tell her I’m leaving and then hold her back as I run.”
Derek shook his head and walked out of the room.
“What? You don’t know how she can get,” I called after him. “Forget Knight, Lucy might kill me.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Knight
“Hello, Cheryl,” I whispered from behind Senator Allan. I felt her body stiffen and heard her gasp of fear. I had warned her I was coming. I gave her a whole week to prepare for my arrival.
“Wh-what are you doing in my house?” she asked, not turning around. The wine glass she held precariously in her hand shook, threatening to spill its contents. I slowly took it from her hand and set it on the table. Only then did she finally turn and look at me. The fear in her eyes was nothing compared to the way her body shook. Good, she should be very afraid, because while I scared the shit out of Brunswick, Senator Allan was going to feel pain. I had made up my mind that each of the people I killed would feel the fear, pain, and betrayal that Kate had felt from the time she was taken until the moment they put a bullet in her head.
“I think you know why I’m here.”
“P-please.” She shook her head slightly and a single tear fell down her cheek. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Were you in on the plans to take down the President?”
She shook her head rapidly. “No, I was never-”
I slammed my fist into her face, just barely restraining from beating the shit out of her. “Don’t lie to me. You’ll only make it worse on yourself.”
She held her cheek, slowly looking up at me. She knew I wasn’t fucking around. She nodded, tears pouring down her face. “Yes, I was in on the plans.”
“And what did you think of my wife?”
She didn’t know if I had questioned Brunswick or not. She didn’t know if I would catch her in another lie. I could see the indecision on her face, but she decided to go with the truth in the end. “I thought she needed to be eliminated.”
I nodded slightly. “And what did all of you decide?”
“We decided not to do anything about her. Burke said we weren’t going after your family.”
“Then how the fuck did my wife get taken?” I growled angrily.
She shook even more, her hands clasped tightly as she tried to hold it together. It shouldn’t matter, but I wanted to know what they were thinking, how they had come to the conclusion that my wife was expendable.
“That was all Cortez. He didn’t agree with Burke. He thought he could move things along faster.”
“Well, Cortez is dead now, so I would say that didn’t work out too well for him.”
“Please,” she pleaded. “I’ll do anything. Just don’t hurt me.”
“Don’t hurt you? Do you think my wife got the same mercy when they held a gun to her head? Do you think she was at peace when they put a bullet in her head?”
She whimpered, pissing me off even more. I slammed my gun across her cheek, knocking her to the floor. She scrambled backwards, trying to get away from me. “Please, I’m a woman. You can’t do this.”
I slowly stalked her across the room as she continued to back away. “You’re a woman, so I shouldn’t hurt you? What about my wife? She was a woman. She was a good woman. She was a doctor that healed people. What the fuck have you done that makes you so worthy of life?”
“I- I work for the people.”
I laughed humorlessly at her pathetic answer. “You work for yourself. That’s the only reason that you would attempt to murder so many people. You know, that’s the problem with our system nowadays. Everyone’s trading favors to ge
t what they want. It’s all about what best suits them and not what actually helps the people.” I knelt down on one knee in front of her as she stopped against the wall. “You know, the last time that someone tried fucking people over to line their own pockets, I went on a killing rampage and wiped them all out.”
“Killing is illegal,” she cried. “They’ll catch you and you’ll go to prison.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Do you really think that matters after you’ve taken my life from me? Did you really think I would back off just because you tried to destroy me?” I shook my head slightly. “You see, the thing about a guy like me is that if you fuck with me, I’ll fuck you back harder. You won’t be spared because you’re a woman, and it’ll probably be worse for you. Do you know why?”
She shook her head slightly. Her tears were all dried now. She was finally getting that there was no way out of this for her.
I lowered my voice and leaned forward, whispering in her ear. “Because I want you to know exactly what my wife felt. I want you to feel her pain and know that when you sentenced her to death, you sentenced yourself.”
I stood and stepped away from her, grabbing a chair out of the kitchen. She was scrambling for the front door when I came back. I lifted my gun and shot her in the thigh. She cried out and fell to the ground. Tears and snot fell down her face as she tried to move away from me.
“It’s time to pay, Cheryl. I promise, I won’t go easy on you.”
Driving all night to another state was brutal. Sleep didn’t come easily after my last nightmare. All I could think about was revenge for my wife. I lived it and breathed it now. There was nothing else I thought of. But at night, when I couldn’t think anymore, when the planning became too tiring, I thought of her. I remembered that first year with her. I remembered slipping into her house and watching her sleep for hours.
If I had known what would happen to her, I wouldn’t have gotten involved with her. I would have continued to stalk her, watching her while she slept or sitting across from her clinic to keep an eye on her. It would have killed me, but I would have done it to keep her alive. Nothing was worth watching her die the way she did.
I pulled over at a rest area when my eyes felt too gritty to keep them open any longer. I didn’t need a bed, and frankly, I didn’t deserve one. The light from the streetlight reflected off the gold locket that hung from my rearview mirror. I gently took it down, fisting it in my hand. It was all I had left of her. That’s what it felt like anyway. I opened it up and looked at the pictures of my three kids. How was I going to live without them? It would kill me, but I couldn’t see them again. I couldn’t put them in danger. They would be better off with someone else, someone who didn’t have blood on their hands.
What could I offer them? I was a killer. I had it right when I first met Kate and told her I could never give her the life she wanted. I had told her that I could never marry her or have kids with her. Why had I wished for more? Why had I gone along with Cap’s insane plan to make a new life? I should have let her believe that I died in that fire. It would have been a better life for her. One without all the pain and suffering that she had been through.
I dropped my head back against the seat and closed my eyes. Memories of our life together assaulted me, making my chest squeeze painfully. I didn’t want to go on without her, and I didn’t want to live with only the memory of her.
“She’s beautiful,” Kate whispered, staring down at our baby girl.
Raven was beautiful, but I was too busy staring at her mother right now. I was in awe of Kate and her capacity for love. I was jealous of my new daughter, because now Kate’s love was divided. It was no longer just the two of us, but I also knew that our daughter was part of the two of us and would only continue to strengthen our bond. I never thought I could love anyone, and now I had two people that loved me, would look to me to protect them and comfort them when they were hurting.
“Yeah, she is,” I said with a smile. Kate looked up at me and the softest smile touched her lips. I leaned forward and kissed them gently. “I got something for you.”
“You did?”
I smirked at her and pulled the locket from my pocket, holding it out in front of her. Her small grin turned into a bright smile. She took it from me and opened the clasp, looking inside at the tiny picture of Raven.
“Hudson, it’s beautiful. Thank you.”
“And there’s room to add more,” I pointed out.
“More?”
“More,” I repeated. “I know that I’m not a perfect man, and I know that you could do better than me, but I want a big life with you. I want to fill our house with kids that look just like you. I want to make you happy.”
“I am happy,” she said, almost like an admonishment. “Are you sure you want a whole house of kids? That’s a lot to take on.”
“I want whatever you want. I just want to see you happy. If you want to stop with Raven, then we won’t have any more. But if you want ten wild kids running around, then that’s what I’ll give you. I just want to keep seeing that smile on your face.”
“That smile is there because of you, not what you can give me. Don’t you know by now that all I need is you?”
I gazed into her eyes, shaking my head slightly. “I’m beginning to see that.”
I jerked awake and rubbed at my eyes, only then realizing that I was crying. I sat up and wiped at my face. I needed to pull myself together. I couldn’t keep doing this. I couldn’t fall apart every time I thought of her. I had one objective in mind, and I couldn’t make that happen if every time I closed my eyes I thought of her. I needed to keep moving, to just move on to the next target and take them out. They needed to pay, and I needed to finish this once and for all. I had three more senators to take out before I hit my final targets. They would be easier. They wouldn’t see me coming, but they would feel me. And they would feel my wrath.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hunter
“What do you mean you’re leaving?”
I stuffed a few shirts in my bag and turned to Lucy. “I have to do this. Knight needs me.”
“He doesn’t need you. He doesn’t need anyone but Kate, and she’s gone.”
“That’s why I have to do this. Lucy, he’s falling apart. I know it. He’s out there somewhere and he’s drowning. I can’t let him do this alone.”
“So, you’re going to risk your life for his revenge?”
“What would you have me do? I wouldn’t be the man you married if I sat on the sidelines when my friend needed me.”
“But he didn’t ask for you to go along. In fact, he just left all of you behind to clean up his mess.”
“Lucy, I know you’re not Knight’s biggest fan, but he’s my friend. I can’t just walk away.”
I knew she was fucking pissed. I could read it all over her face, but she just nodded as tears filled her eyes. “Just remember, you have a family waiting here for you. You’re all we have, and we need you here with us.”
“I know, and I wouldn’t do anything to sacrifice what you’ve given me. I will come home to you and our kids. I promise you that.”
She slugged me in the arm and held back a grin. “Sometimes I really hate you.”
“No you don’t. You try, but it’s never worked.”
“Yeah, well, you’re really pushing it this time.”
“I know.”
I pulled her into my arms and kissed her hard, filling it with a promise of things to come. I loved my wife and my family, but sometimes a man had to go his own way and do things to make sure no one he loved was ever hurt again. Those men that went after Knight, they would come after all of us if we didn’t stop them. Maybe the others weren’t thinking that way, but that was the first thing that crossed my mind. So, I would go help Knight track these guys down, and I would make sure they could never hurt anyone ever again. I slung my bag over my shoulder and headed out to my truck. Cap was waiting for me outside.
“Did you come to say goodbye?” I
asked.
“I came to tell you that Becky is trying to track Knight right now. She has a last known location, but that’s it. She’s expanding her search right now. If you head toward Virginia, she should have something for you soon.”
I nodded. “You could have told me that over the phone.”
“Just be careful.” He held his hand out for me to shake. “Bring him home in one piece.”
“That’s the plan.”
I took his hand and gave it a shake before getting in my truck and pulling out. There was a lot riding on me getting to Knight. I had a feeling that if I didn’t reach him in time, I would be coming home alone.
“Senator Allan is dead,” Becky said into the phone.
“Fuck. So, I’m too late.”
“I’m tracking him as best I can from here, but you know how Knight is. Every time I think I’ve found him, he’s already moved on.”
I scratched at my chin, trying to figure out what best to do. “Who’s closest to Allan?”
“Um…it looks like New York. Senator Selleck.”
“Knight’s not going to move on without knowing what their schedules look like. Can you see where the senators are going to be over the next week?”
“Alright, I’m on it. Just give me a little time to hack into their systems.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
I hung up and stared out the window at the rest area. Banging my fist against the steering wheel, I had to take several deep breaths to keep from beating the shit out of something. I needed to get to Knight. I knew that he was falling off the deep end. I couldn’t afford to waste any time guessing where he was going. If he pushed too hard, he would make a mistake and end up dead. But that wasn’t my biggest concern at the moment. I knew what life was like for him before Kate came into his life. I knew he wouldn’t go back to that. And if he didn’t go back to that, but he didn’t come home with me, that only left one option, and I was going to be damn sure he didn’t take that route.
GoodKnight: A Reed Security Romance Page 14