His knee bounced up and down.He was going crazy stuck in here hiding while she was out living her life.Free.
Freedom was everything.And she’d taken it from him.
He stared at her picture saved on his burner phone.Let the rage sweep through him.“I’m coming for you, Cass.”The love he’d once felt for her had become bitter hatred the moment she’d turned on him.
He studied her address on the map to get a visual.Her house was about a thirty-minute drive from his current location.It was early afternoon.He would have to risk going there now to do the recon, in the daylight, even if it put him at increased risk.And there was no guarantee she was still staying there.
It was up to him now.Better that way.He couldn’t trust anyone else to do this.
And he was running out of time.
He ran the sleeve of his shirt across his sweaty forehead.He knew Cassie better than anyone.Knew her weaknesses.
He would watch her.Wait for his moment.Then end this.
He got in the rental and risked the drive into Crimson Point.His pulse thudded in his ears as he turned down her street.He kept his hat pulled low over his forehead and sunglasses on.
It was a quiet neighborhood, way different from their condo right in the heart of Vegas, with tidy yards shaded by mature trees shedding their leaves all over the place.Like a damned movie set.
He would be bored out of his fucking mind living here.Couldn’t believe that Cassie had chosen this town, this dull, ordinary lifestyle.
Ruining her life had been the initial plan.But after two separate failures to make that happen, and two murders, he had run out of options.He needed to finish this, then get the hell out of town.Find somewhere to lie low until he came up with an exit strategy, use his limited resources and dwindling cash to go to ground.
Maybe he’d go to Cuba.They didn’t have an extradition treaty with the US.He could hole up down there, make a new life.His money would go a lot further.Maybe eventually he could buy a place on a white sand beach, get himself a classic car to fix up, and live the good life out of reach of old Uncle Sam’s long arm of justice.
His hands tightened on the steering wheel.Cassie’s house was halfway up the block.A shingled, two-story house that looked like it was at least a hundred years old.
It was the opposite of everything she’d had with him, a sleek and modern condo with a killer view of the strip and mountains.Everything Vegas had to offer right on their doorstep.
But she hadn’t wanted any of it.Or him.Had probably never even really loved him.Why else would she have turned on him in the end?Her betrayal was unforgiveable.He couldn’t let it go.
He studied her house as he cruised by slowly, brainstorming ideas.There was no time or money to plan anything elaborate, and he would be working solo.
The memory of her walking into that party fueled him.The look on her face.Shock.Horror.Disgust.
As if he were some kind of criminal deviant.
Fuck her and her high moral ground.She thought she was better than him and the others.
The hard knot of hatred that burned in his chest expanded.He hated her with an intensity that shook him.But not enough to camp out and shoot her dead in her driveway or bust into her house and kill her inside.Her neighbors were too close.He didn’t have a death wish, even while drunk.
There was another way.Risky, but the more he considered it, the better it seemed.He would have to make this an in-and-out job, working fast under cover of darkness without being seen.
“Yeaaah,” he drawled quietly to himself, smirking in satisfaction.“That’ll work.”
She deserved what was coming.
Tonight, he would finally get her back for what she’d done to him.
