He looks toward Mira, his jaw tight. I touch his hand. “We’re here now.”
“He…” Rhett grinds his teeth. “He needs to go, Elle.”
“What do you mean, go?”
Rhett looks at me with bleak, dark eyes. “He needs togo.”
I lie in bed with Mira, my arms wrapped around her, thinking about what Rhett said. He needs togo… meaning, Lucian needs to die. I can’t disagree with that, not after what he did to Mom and Dad. He dimmed the light in my mother’s eyes. He slaughtered my father. And now, he’s traumatized Mira again.
I must have drifted off because I wake with my face pressed against the wall. I lean away, groaning at the stiffness in my body. Mira is curled into a ball beside me, snoring softly. I sit up and ease myself out of bed.
I find Rhett standing in the living room, arms folded, staring at the TV screen. It’s a split-view of the cameras around the property. A deer skips by in infrared. He looks at me, his body tight. He’s changed into faded blue jeans and a black tee that clings to his arms.
“She okay?” he asks.
I go to him and touch his arm. “She’s fine.”
“He can’t get in here,” Rhett says. “But he probably knows we’re here. He hasn’t appeared on any of the feeds yet, though.”
“Good,” I whisper. “I just want it to end. When are the police going to catch him?”
“I’m not sure,” he grunts. “But let’s say they catch him. Then what? Then he goes to prison for a few more years, or breaks out again, and he’sstillgot this sick obsession with you. This… this madness. Why won’t he just stop?”
“He said I was his prize,” I murmur, staring at the floor. “That I should be grateful for the attention. I said no, that was it, just no. And he laughed as if he’d never heard it before, but then he changed. He grabbed me and tried to kiss me. I twisted away, then he said he would make me love him. One day. Whatever it took.”
I’m trembling all over.
Rhett gently wraps his arm around me and pulls me to him. “I’m sorry.” His voice is grim. “I’m not going to let the police get him. I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“Rhett—”
“No, Sunshine, you don’t understand.” He takes my shoulders in his hands and distances himself, looking down at me. He swallows. “That’s who I am.
Perhaps you’ll hate me for it. But I’m a killer. I quit the police because of Lucian Conti, because of that fucked-up short sentence.” His lips quiver, his eyes intense like he thinks I’m going to hate him. “And I took matters into my own hands. I’m sick and tired of people getting away with evil. You know what Lucian Conti has done. To other women. To… Jesus, Elle, he needs to go.”
I take a stumbling step back, colliding with the wall. He watches me with raw emotion on his face.
“How many people have you killed?” I ask. “Since you left the police?”
“Nine,” he growls. “And every single one of them deserved it. Every damn one did something unforgivable, something evil…something they would’ve got only a few years, hell, only a few months. Then they would’ve got out and did it again.”
He looks somehow different to me, cloaked in a dark aura. He’s breathing hard, fists clenched, but he’s also vulnerable.
I lick my lips. This feels dangerous, but there’s also a reckless tickle of something like excitement.
“Are you telling me,” I murmur, “that you can help me kill Lucian Conti?”
CHAPTER 19
RHETT
The question hits me hard, leaving no room to breathe.
She stares up at me bravely, her cheeks flushed, eyes glistening. But not sobbing, or defeated, or caving in. She raises her hand, lays it against my chest. “Look me in the eyes and tell me you’ve never killed someone who didn’t deserve it.”
“I haven’t,” I growl.
“And clearly, you have a way of getting away with it.”
