Page 160 of Prey

I didn’t think. I just took off in that direction.

I pulled out my gun but came to a stop when I saw them.

This image would haunt me for the rest of my life.

Fuck me, but I wanted to burn down the rest of the world to erase all of her pain.

Ryleigh was half-naked and tied to a fucking tree while the bastard took his belt to her. Tears streamed down from her eyes, and her face contorted in pain.

I could already see the welts forming on her back.

My teeth gritted as I tried to calm the storm raging in my heart.

My hand shook as I held my gun up and took aim, my hand on the trigger.

I would only get one shot.

He pulled his arm back, about to take the belt to her again, and Ryleigh braced herself for the pain.

I pulled the trigger.

He screamed as the bullet shot through the hand holding the belt. They both turned to me.

Ryleigh let out a cry of relief, but I didn’t allow myself to look at her.

My eyes were focused on my prey, and I was going in for the fucking kill.

The fucking coward ran.

I gave chase, eating up the distance between us easily, considering the pain he must be in.

I tackled him near the edge of the cliff and rolled him around to face me.

He looked up with wide eyes.

“Do you fucking remember me?” I asked.

I might not have recognized Ryleigh as the little girl from the cliff, considering how much she had grown, but I remembered this fucker.

He hadn’t changed one bit.

I didn’t give him a chance to answer me. I pulled my arm back and pounded my fist into his face.

Blood spurted out from all his fucking orifices, but still, it did nothing to calm my anger.

He wrapped his arms around his head, as if that would fucking protect him.

I stood up and dragged him up with me. He cried as I walked us closer to the edge.

He struggled.

“Please,” he begged, and I wondered if my girl had begged him when he threw her over seven years ago. Did she beg before he decided to take his belt to her?

“You escaped my grasp once,” I said in a low voice.

I heard someone coming up behind me, and I turned to find Dominic and Micah standing there, watching me. A quick look behind them revealed Kai untying Ryleigh from the tree before wrapping his sweater around her.

I turned back to the bastard. “It won’t happen a second time.”

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