Walking up to the door, I studied the lock, trying to determine the best way to get out.
Maybe I can get a screw loose from the bed post and use it to pick the lock.
I moved back over to the bed, studying the steel posts. There wasn't a single screw in sight, making my idea impossible.
I continued to glance around the room, but the area was so bare I couldn't spot a single thing that would work to help me.
My thoughts were abruptly cut off as the doorknob began to wiggle.
Fuck.
I moved to hide behind the door as quickly and quietly as possibly.
I waited patiently, keeping my heart rate in control and keeping my body still.
The door pushed open before closing, and as a figure appeared before me, I attacked.
Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE: CROIX
“Crazy bitch,” Todd complained, rubbing the skin of his throat where deep red lines wrapped around it.
I couldn’t help the smile that curved my lips at the sight of him, his murderous gaze locked on the detective. I’d called him back to bring me a donor to feed from, and he’d been more than happy to oblige if it would give him a moment to slip into my room and slit her throat in her sleep. Only, she wasn’t asleep. She’d been awake when I visited her earlier, and even as I fed on the voluptuous redhead he’d brought by, I could hear the sound of rope scratching against rope as she broke free, the gentle creaks of the mattress as she moved about, releasing herself from her restraints. Tied to the bed, she was harmless enough. Free, the girl would be a pure fire and fury.
He’d once again asked for a kill he didn’t deserve, wanting desperately to prove himself, and this time, I gave the nod, not even bothering to warn him. Now as he stood beside me, his face taking on a deep red hue, I knew I’d made the right choice. He needed to be put in his place before he got himself murdered.
The arrogant fool. Ambition was a trait Slade loved, especially from humans. But stupidity was something he couldn’t forgive. Had he tried something so bold with Slade around, I had no doubt he wouldn’t be alive to speak about it.
“I’d watch your tone,” I warned. “As you can see, she’s still very much free, and I doubt I’d do anything to stop her should she decide to take your head again.”
“I could have taken her,” he grumbled, turning on his heel and heading toward the exit.
“Take the redhead with you.”
I heard him mutter something under his breath he thought I couldn’t hear, and I filed that information away for another time. Right now, my focus was on Detective Parker, who stood in the doorway ready to bolt at any moment.
My muscles tensed with anticipation, my predator side ready for the chase. She wouldn’t get very far, but I’d enjoy chasing that perfect round ass anywhere.
Her dark gaze flitted toward the door Todd left slightly open, and I could see the wheels in her head turning. Would she make it to the door before I caught her? The simple answer was no and I could tell she understood this the moment her shoulders slumped forward and she folded her arms across her chest.
“You can’t keep me here forever, you know?”
“Who said I planned on keeping you here at all?” I quirked my brow.
Without missing a beat, she responded. “For starters, if you’d planned on killing me, you would have just done so. It would have been easier, and with your abilities, you may have gotten away with it. You reeked of blood when you came in earlier, meaning you’d chosen not to feed on me against my will.” A small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes spread across her lips. “Thank you for that, by the way. It’s refreshing even a monster has limits to his cruelty.”
“A monster?” I scoffed in mock offense.
“You kill people. That makes you a monster.” She stepped towards me, her eyes never leaving mine and I could see a challenge in the way she set her jaw. Fuck, this little firecracker had balls of steel, and I couldn’t help the heat that snaked its way up my spine. She came to a stop mere inches away from me and pressed a finger into my chest. “Honestly, I don’t give a fuck what you plan to do with me, but the moment I figure out how to get away from you, you’re going down. You will pay for the innocent life you took.”
Innocent. There were millions of words in the dictionary and that was the word that least described Jenson. The man was evil, pure evil, and watching her defend the monster had me balling my fists, ready to lay waste to anyone who got in my way.
Fuck, I needed more blood. I needed something, anything that would quell the dark urges that bristled over my skin. Just thinking about him had a murderous rage slipping its way past my consciousness.
“If you knew the truth about Jenson, I promise….”
“I believe in the law. If he’d done anything to deserve what was done to him, we would have held him accountable.”
“Right, because politicians are so forthcoming with their deepest desires,” I deadpanned, stepping closer to her.
If my actions or words had any effect on her, she didn’t show it. Instead, she took another step closer to me, closing the distance between us until she was but a breath away from me.
She squared her shoulders, thrusting her finger into my chest again. “You criminals are all the same, finding fault in anyone who dares stand up for the good people of this city in hopes it’ll allow you to continue preying on the weak and spreading destruction.” Her brown eyes lit up with determination as she continued poking at my chest, her voice thick with emotion.
The weak?
“You’ve got me all wrong,” I said, taking another step towards her. She took a step back this time, perhaps something in my expression letting her know just how dangerous I was. I didn’t want to intimidate her, but I couldn’t stand by and watch her defend that monster while she regarded me the bad guy in the scenario. I’d never hurt the innocent. I’d never do half the things Jenson did to helpless women and children, all to get his rocks off. He’d deserved his death, and it was time I showed her exactly who she was so intent on defending.
I backed her into the room and closed the door, making sure to lock it before wandering off to gather the evidence I’d collected.
Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX: TORRENCE
My limbs may have been free, but I had no doubt that I was still just as much of a prisoner as I was while being bound. I didn’t allow myself to lower my guard as I waited for Ripley to return. Instead, I studied the room, looking for any weapons I could use to my defense. My rope was taken after I was stopped from strangling the human with it. And I have no doubt Ripley wouldn't fall for the rope trick anyway.
The human, on the other hand, was far too arrogant. I could tell that he’d be an easy target when he’d walked into the room. His swagger had been confident, his lips turned up at the corner. His hand had already been reaching for his gun, but there was nothing hurried about the movements. As if he didn’t need to be worried about me.
And I’d made him regret it almost instantly. I'd completely caught the man off guard when I threw my body at him. By the time he’d realized the hell he’d walked into, it’d been too late as I propelled my body onto his back. I’d coiled the rope around his neck, pulling tight as he tried to buck me off of him.
I'd only gotten a glimpse of Ripley out of the corner of my eyes. But I knew from the small smirk on his face and his relaxed posture as he watched me wrangle the human like a wild animal, he wasn't going to be stepping in anytime soon.
By the time, he’d finally pulled me off of the human, the man had almost been unconscious. He may have quipped about how he could have handled me after he’d been saved, but everyone in the room knew I had his number.
Ripley wouldn’t have been as easy to take down, though, and he hadn’t been impressed with my attempts to talk him into willingly turning himself in. I’d known I would have to apprehend him forcefully, so when he’d told me to wait, I hadn’t put up an argument. He was coming with me either way, so I
could give him a little longer to try to plead his case. As if whatever evidence he kept claiming to have was going to make me change my mind. Too bad for him, I wasn't going to. I didn't become a woman of the law only to let off every criminal who had a good reason for what they did.
I had cousins who believed in that line of reasoning, but that logic hadn’t been transferred over to me.
I folded my arms over my chest, blowing out a deep breath as I waited patiently for Ripley to return.
I was only left waiting for a few moments longer before the door was pushed open and the man reappeared. His eyes were harder than before, and from the rigid set of his shoulders, I found my own muscles tensing up in preparation for any sort of attack.
He stepped fully into the room before shutting the door behind him. His brown eyes moved over my face for a moment before dragging lower. For a moment, a flicker of heat sparked into his brown orbs as they lingered on my chest.
I tried to ignore the response that it activated in me, knowing it wasn’t the time, place or right person. But I couldn’t hide the uptick in my heart rate and I knew Ripley heard it when his gaze met mine before his brow lifted.
"Well?" I asked, not liking the sudden tension in the air.
Ripley shifted slightly before his face returned to a serious expression. My gaze dragged down to his hands where he held what looked like a stack of photos, the white rims peeking out in my direction.
"Is this the evidence that you have?" I asked him, pointing a finger at the stack. “Because I can promise you no matter what you say or do, none of this is going to hold up in court. But if you just come with me now-"
“Shut up, Detective Parker," he briskly cut me off, his jaw tight.
My brows pulled together as I stared at him, not liking his tone or his words.
Fuck helping him get a lesser sentence. I hope the judge throws the book at him just for the way he disrespected me.
But I kept my thoughts to myself as I waited for Ripley to expose the photos to me. I would continue to play along with his little game for a few moments longer before I finally apprehended him.
He took a step closer to me, and I tracked his every moment until he was standing nearly toe-to-toe with me.
I leaned my head back to stare up at him, and since I'd been instructed to not speak, I raised an eyebrow instead.
"You say that I'm a monster, but this, what I hold in my hands, this is the work of an actual monster," he said, his voice low and steady.
I brought my gaze down, and while his fingers slightly obscured the first image, what I could see was enough to make me sick.
A girl lay on her back, naked, her skin decorated in black and blue bruises. Lacerations near her neck stuck out against her pale skin. Her eyes were bloodshot as if she'd cried enough tears to drown Hell's Point.
Ripley's hands moved, taking the top photo off of the stack and revealing another right under it. Like the last victim, this one was completely naked, but most of her brown skin was covered by the politician who had his body pressed down into hers. The woman's hands were tied to a post above her head, and from the tears in her eyes and the way her mouth was pulled open into a scream I could hear through the photo, I knew there's no way she consented to this.
I’d seen a lot of things in my lint of work, but bile rose into my stomach as I stared at the photo. I had to bite down on my lip to keep it all in as Ripley forced the stack of photos into my grasp, his hands warm but his voice so cold as he spoke. "Flip to the next photo, detective."
I lifted my gaze to stare into his own, studying the blank orbs. His gaze moved over my head, his jaw clenched and his fists balled up. "Flip," he ordered, his voice hard even as he refused to bring his gaze back down to me.
My lips pinched together as I flipped to the next picture in the stack. This one was different from the others. Because, after years of being in my job, I knew a dead body when I saw one and unlike the other girls in the photos, this one was not alive.
She had long, wet, black curls that cascaded over her shoulders as she lied in the center of a bed. Her tan skin was covered by soaked clothes that stuck to her body. And when my eyes moved to her wrists, covered in blood, I knew exactly what I was looking at.
"That's my sister, or at least what I found of her after Jenson raped her." Ripley bit out. "She'd been missing for weeks before she returned home, and though she said that she was fine, that she'd been out of town with friends. I knew it wasn't the truth. It's why I'd gone to check on her, because I knew something wasn't right with her." His gaze finally met mine, and the fury I saw in them was enough to steal my breath away. "I found her in her bathtub, her wrists slit. I tried to..." His jaw pulled tight, and he visibly took a deep breath. "I tried to do everything I could to save her, including turn her, but she was already gone. So I devoted every waking minute to finding out what happened to her. That's when I came across Jenson."
Even though I knew where the story was going, I couldn’t allow myself to look away from Ripley or the intensity of his gaze.
He shook his head. "He was so lousy in covering up his tracks because he just knew there was no way anyone would ever hold him accountable for what he did. And he was right. With all the evidence I found in his home, the photobooks, the videos, the recordings, no one was ever going to convict him, at least not a judge. They would never punish him." His gaze crashed into mine. "So I did."
A confession is what every detective wants, and yet, in this moment, with the photos in my hand and the feeling in my gut, it was the last thing I wanted.
"You were right, Detective Parker. I did it. I dug my knife through his skin while making sure he knew it was because of what he did. I kept him alive for hours on end, listening to his screams and knowing they were nothing in comparison to those of his victims. I basked in the blood I shed, knowing it wasn't even a fraction of what he'd done in that very same house. I killed him, and I don't regret it in the slightest." He stepped closer to me. "The question is, what are you going to do about it?"
Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN: CROIX
I stood before her, my hands raised in surrender as I waited for her to do her job and cuff me. I had no intentions of letting her take me in, but I needed to see how far she’d go to do so. Was her job more important than the justice I’d dealt out for all his victims? Did the truth about the man change her mind?
As I stood, that tinge of darkness hidden in her brown eyes sparked to life as her full lips pressed into a straight line. Determination knitted her brows together for a brief moment before her shoulders sank. Her eyes began to glisten before she swiped a hand over them.
“I’m just…” She shook her head, her jaw hard as her eyes refused to meet mine. “I know what you did wasn’t right, regardless of what that monster had done, but I can’t say he didn’t deserve what he got.” Her eyes finally met mine. “I’m not going to arrest you, but I can’t guarantee no one else will.”
“They’ll try,” I said with a smirk.
She quirked her brow before the corners of her lips twitched slightly, and it was clear in her expression she’d changed her mind about me. I was no longer the monster she thought I was, hell-bent on death and destruction. I was something different and maybe she wasn’t sure what but I knew her perception of me was changed.
Her stomach rumbled and I let out a curse. It was only on rare occasions I had a human guest, with the exception of Todd, and it hadn’t occurred to me she might need to eat.
“I’ll grab you something to eat,” I offered, stepping away from her.
Relief slid through me when she didn’t protest, instead following me into the kitchen and leaning her slender frame against the marbled island as I opened the fridge. A frown tugged at my lips when I saw there was nothing in there but a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, courtesy of Todd and I doubted she’d be content with those items.
She slid around the island to stand beside me and peered into the refrigerator. A light la
ugh spilled from her lips as she pushed me aside to collect the items.
“Who puts bread in the fridge?” she guffawed, setting the ingredients on the countertop and rummaging around in a few drawers before pulling out a knife and a plate.
She set to work slathering a load of peanut butter onto two slices of bread and setting those slices on a plate. Once she was done, I picked up the ingredients and discarded them in the trashcan beside the fridge. After the stunt Todd pulled, I had no desire to have him inside my home long enough to need them.
Watching her eat was a lesson in restraint. Everything about it was a turn on, from the appreciative moans that fell from her lips to the way her mouth moved as she chewed. More than once I imagined a few different ways she could put that mouth to better use, and once again, my cock was pressed incessantly against my jeans.
“So,” she said between bites. “How long do you plan on keeping me here?”
For as long as I could, I thought inwardly, having no desire to let her go. But now that she was no longer a threat to me, I had no reason to make her stay. I don’t know why the thought of letting her go had my hands balling into tight fists. Was it the attraction I felt toward her? Not likely. I’d been attracted to women before and had never wanted to spend any real time with them. But Torrence was different. She still held that darkness that pulled at me, making me want to dive in deep and figure out everything I could about her.
“You’re free to leave.”
Even as I said those words, I wanted to come up with something, anything, to keep her around. I wanted her to forget I’d kidnapped her and had her tied to my bed. Fuck, everything about the situation was complicated, but I still wasn’t sure why the thought of her walking out that door made me anxious.
I turned away from her, making my way to my room. And it was only when my eyes landed on that stack of photos I realized why it bothered me so much. I’d never opened up to anyone about my sister. Sure, others knew what happened and were willing to help me exact my revenge, but no one else knew how it truly affected me and how it haunted me still. I’d spent restless nights thinking of the last time I’d spoken to her, the depth of emotion in her voice, the way she stumbled over her words as she tried to assure me everything was okay, and the slight hitch of breath as she tried desperately to hide the fact she was crying. All I’d wanted to do was go to her, to make sure she was okay. And when I found her, I wanted to tear the entire world to shreds because a world without her in it was meaningless.
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