Prologue
“Please. My parents…they have money. My mom is really important. She’ll pay you whatever you want.”
They always think it’s about money.He stared down at his prey but said nothing.
The young woman began to cry. “P-please, let me go. I promise I won’t tell anyone what you did.” She pulled hard against the restraints holding her to the table.“Let me go, you sick son of a bitch!”
There was the anger he’d been expecting. The fight and will to live that always came before the inevitable.
His dick swelled to half-mast as he watched her futile attempt to break free from the metal clasps tearing into her already-raw flesh. He resisted the urge to touch himself, knowing the satisfaction he was searching for was mere minutes away.
With a slow, deliberate smile, he turned and walked over to the tray where he kept his tools. Light from the single work lamp shone brightly off the metal as he picked up the first in a line of scalpels. The meticulous sterilization process he used after each liberation kept them in such pristine condition he could see his reflection.
He turned back to where his most recently chosen was laying. Wide, terrified eyes stared up into his as tears poured from their corners.
“You’re him, aren’t you?” her voice quivered. “The one who’s been killing all those women?”
“I am,” he spoke for the first time.
Her face crumbled. “Why? Why are you doing this to me?”
He walked toward her slowly, the scalpel gripped tightly between his fingers. With his free hand, he brushed some blonde strands from her sweaty forehead before looking back into her pretty blue eyes.
“I’m not doing thistoyou. I’m doing thisforyou.”
She shook her head as more tears ran down her temple. “I don’t understand.”
A smile spread across his face. “I know. But you will.”
He raised the scalpel and brought it to her throat. Eyes wide with horror, the young woman screamed. She jerked her wrists and ankles against the chains, her head shaking back and forth in a feeble attempt to avoid being cut.
“Shh…” he told her softly. “There’s no need to be frightened. You’ll see. You’re going to be free, soon.”
She stopped her frantic movements, her voice filling with hope as she asked, “Y-you’re going to let m-me go?”
“I’m going to do something even better.” He smiled even wider. “I’m going to liberate you.”
Light brown brows turned inward in confusion. “W-what do you m-mean?”
He brushed his fingertips along her forehead again. “I’m going to free you from the pain and suffering you’ve been forced to endure. I’m jealous, you know.”
Confusion and fear swirled together. “Why?”
He gave her a sad smile. “I wish I could go with you. But, I can’t. Not yet. There are still too many out there.” He ran a fingertip down her bare arm. “Too many women like you desperate for the kind of freedom only I can give them.”
This poor woman had been forced to live a life full of ridicule and harsh judgement. Punished for something she had no control over.
The creases in her forehead smoothed, and the light behind her eyes began to fade. It was a moment he hadn’t been lucky enough to share with the others. They’d been too busy screaming and crying to appreciate the gift he’d given them.
But this one was different. She actually understood what was about to happen.
The suffering this cruel world had thrust upon her was about to end. She was going to experience a freedom unlike any she’d ever known…and it was all thanks to him.
Chapter One
“So, you’re saying there are no leads in the deaths of those five women?”
Alex Bennett clenched his jaw shut.Fucking reporters.
