I screamed and thrashed, kicking and hitting my captor with everything I had. It wasn’t until his hand closed over my mouth—cutting off my hollering—that I heard what he was saying. Ah shit.
“Riley! Riles, babe, cut it out!” Jasper yelled at me, keeping one hand over my mouth while his other wrapped around me like a straight jacket, keeping me from hurtingmyself. Not that I needed it anymore. The second my mind cleared enough to realize this was my rescue party rather than my murderer, I was like a puppet with cut strings. My whole body sagged, and a whimpering sob worked its way free of my throat.
“Hey, hey, babe we got you,” he soothed, turning me around in his arms so I could cling on like he was a life raft in a storm. “We got you, Riles. You’re safe.”
He sank to the ground with me still glued to him, sobbing into his shirt as all the fear and desperation of the night flooded through me, battling with the realization that I wassafe. They’d come for me, just like I knew they would.
“Oh shit,” I gasped, pulling away from Jasper and wiping my eyes on the back of a grimy hand. “Who did I hit?”
“Me,” Dylan replied, coming out of the shed with his shirt off. He held it wadded up in a ball against his bleeding head where my shovel had connected, and I gasped.
“Oh my god, Dylan. I’m so sorry.” I looked up at him, horrified that I’d tried to kill my friend, but not physically able to let go of Jasper yet. “I thought you were...” I swallowed hard, unable to say the wordsI thought you were coming back to rape me or kill me or both.
He shook his head dismissively, his eyes soft as he looked me over. “No apologies necessary, Riles. You did exactly what you should have. It’s my own dumb fault for charging in there unannounced.”
I looked around, then frowned when I didn’t see anyone else. “Where’s Beck? And Evan? Are they...” I didn’t even know what. The last time I’d seen Beck was as I crashed his beautiful Bugatti into an embankment. What if he had never made it out? What if his neck had been broken on impact?
“Dealing with Johnson back down at his house,” Jasper informed me. “They’ve still got him alive, though.”
The relief would have knocked me down, if I wasn’t already on my ass. I arched a brow, even though tears were still running down my face. I couldn’t seem to stop them. “So I could finish Johnson off myself?” I asked, and shocked myself at the cold cruelty to my voice.
“We kept him alive iIn case we couldn’t find you,” Dylan corrected. “But if you want to kill him yourself, you’re more than welcome to. Not even Beck will argue with you on that point.”
I nodded slowly then took Dylan’s hand when he offered it to me. As badly as I wanted to stand on my own two feet when I faced my attempted murderer, I just didn’t have anything left. The second I stood up my knees turned to jelly, and I would have collapsed in a heap if weren’t for Dylan scooping me up.
“It’s a decent walk down the hill,” he told me, “I’ll put you back down before we get there.”
I gave him a weak smile, appreciative that he knew where my head was at. But that was what made us all such a formidable team, wasn’t it? We were all so tuned in to each other. The old, corrupt bastards at Delta and Huntley didn’t have a fucking clue what they were in for with us five.
They’d learn, though. Just as soon as I dispensed a bit of justice for my own sake.
23
It was no wonder it’d taken the guys so long to find me. Johnson’s property backed onto an expansive stretch of forest, and the shed he’d taken me to must have been an easy mile and a half from his house.
“I see why you kept him alive,” I murmured to Dylan as he subtly supported me with a hand on my waist.
He grunted a noise as we entered the house to find a badly beaten Johnson, Beck and Evan standing over him. “It could have taken days to search that area if his information was bad and we hadn’t found his path.”
I nodded, then took a few steps closer to the famedOsiria Killer. Hardly the terror inspiring figure that had toyed with me earlier in the evening, he was now a pathetic, bloodied lump just staring up at me with dead eyes.
“Come to finish the job?” he asked me, his voice thick with pain but totally devoid of apology.
Beck’s gaze was locked on me from behind Johnson’s body, the intensity so fierce I could almost feel the heat, and it made me shiver. I couldn’t look at him yet. Not unless I wanted to crumple into a sobbing mess ten times worse than I’d done to Jasper.
Respecting my need for strength, Beck silently held out his pistol for me. His blood smeared hand brushed mine as I took the weapon from him, and I flinched slightly at the heat of his skin. He was a fucking furnace, like his body temperature was reflecting his fury.
The gun was heavy in my hand. Solid and unwieldy, unlike the small handgun Beck had gifted to me in those early days. This was a tool for killing, plain and simple.
I clicked the safety off, just like I’d been taught, and aimed the barrel at Johnson’s head. How easy it’d be to just ... shoot him. He wouldn’t be my first kill but by god he’d be the most justified.
“What are you waiting for?” Johnson spat at me. “Just do it. I deserve it. I would have happily tortured you for days, making it as agonizingly painful as possible before I took what was mine ... your sweet cunt.” He smiled. “Then I would have stabbed you to death. Just like Cordelia. Just like Katelyn. Just like the four other girls in other states that have incompetent police departments and never connected the dots.” He started laughing then, but it was a bubbling, blood filled laugh that resulted in his coughing and hacking.
I pursed my lips, staring at him down the barrel of Beck’s gun. He wanted this. Hewantedthe easy death at my hands.
Well, fuck that.
I flicked the safety back on and handed the gun over to Beck. “No, I think we will let the legal system handle you, Johnson.” I crouched down and pretended like the pain of my injuries didn’t make me want to pass the fuck out. “Won’t that be fun? Getting your picture splashed all over the news? Being dragged up in front of a jury so the whole world can see what a pathetic, inadequate, cowardly sack of shit you are?” His beaten face paled, and I knew I’d hit the mark. He had thought he’d do all this terrorizing and murdering and then just take the easy route out. Never need to answer for his crimes.
