Page 106 of Capturing Sin

My ex wiped the last traces of my sickness from his boots, ditching the rag in the bin with a scowl.

I should have aimed for his face.

The twisted bastard had captured children. And tortured their parents in front of them.

“Glad to see you’ve made a full recovery, princess, but you can’t get everything you want with a snap of your bony fingers,” he sneered. “Besides, how are you planning to take a beast out for testing without the others ripping you apart?”

My eyes narrowed. Leo shifted, pushing his blond hair back from his forehead.

“Then make yourself useful for once.” I cocked a hip, planting my fist against it in an outward show of confidence even as my thoughts churned. If I had to put him down, then so be it. “I have important work to do, remember?”

He glared back but grunted in begrudging agreement as he gestured for me to lead the way, pulling a ring of keys from his pocket.

I turned on my heel and stalked back out, my ex-fiancé stomping behind me.

Adrenaline flooded my system. I was about to betray another person.

Though, my ex had betrayed me in so many ways, I was losing count. A little violent payback was more than overdue.

“You armed?” I gave him a cursory once-over as I assessed my target.

He snorted. “Only a moron would be unarmed at a time like this.”

The brute had me rolling my eyes. “Right, well, I’m a moron, so let’s start with the armoury.” I waved him towards the unassuming wood door that led to the most secure room in the house.

Back in the base’s lab, we had tranquilliser darts, but my uncle rarely kept any here. This was a place of training and suffering, of the human variety.

Leo barked out a laugh. “Well, you did leave me, so clearly, you’re not the most intelligent being.”

I flashed him a sarcastic smile. “Yup, that’s me, the idiot who dumped a cheating sack of shit.” I pressed a hand to my chest in mock devastation. “How will I ever move on?”

He chuckled, as if we weren’t bitter enemies. “I don’t remember you having such a sharp tongue. You must have knocked a little personality loose when you crashed your car.”

My fake smile stiffened, but I refused the dangling bait.

I hadn’t “crashed.” He’d forced me off the road when I’d tried to escape my violent life as a hunter.

Leo slid the panel beside the reinforced door aside, revealing a keypad and keyhole. He punched in a code, then grabbed a shiny key ring from his pocket and unlocked the door.

It swung open on well-oiled hinges, and I followed him inside. Cold sweat broke out across my lower back as I took in the sight of so much weaponry. It was brutal evidence of the war that my uncle had been waging for longer than I’d been alive.

I hadn’t picked up an actual weapon since the incident with Sin’s brother. I wiped my clammy palms on my trousers and stepped up to the case of knives. Quickly arming myself, I grabbed a few blades and their holsters, securing two to each of my thighs before moving on to the pistols. They filled a drawer in the metal cabinet, each placed into its own foam cutout. I chose two of my favourite handguns, letting their cold weight fill my hands before I holstered them in a utility belt.

“And here I’d thought you’d gone too soft for weapons,” Leo huffed.

I ignored him, eyeing the assault rifles on the wall with a sense of dread and longing. If I was going to take down my uncle and an entire house of psychotic hunters, I’d need more than a few pistols and knives, but my uncle had cameras in here.

I needed to play it smart.

I flashed Leo a syrupy smile. “Almost dying tends to have an impact on people with feelings. As a sociopath, I’m not sure you’d get it.”

Leo chuckled. “Come on, Dozer. The remnants of beta squad will be back soon with more monsters for you to play with. If you want one of the current ones, it’ll be easier to grab it while the cage isn’t as full.”

My middle twisted into knots. Thankfully, I’d already lost the contents of my stomach.

With more hunters on the way, I’d have to take down over a dozen highly trained killers if I wanted to free those demons.

The odds weren’t in my favour.