Page 111 of Creep

But I intended to find out. I intended to find her. And when I did, I was never letting her go.

PARTII

30

MAEL

I stoodon the crest of a small hill overlooking the property and watched as the fire destroyed everything in its path.

It wasn’t fucking enough.

Screams echoed in the vast space, the fire providing me with enough light to see what was happening as people scrambled to get out of there. Meanwhile, men Leo had hired to watch over here were trying to salvage as much as they could.

I was almost regretful the fire would likely destroy all evidence of the money-laundering scheme the fucker had going on through his security firm.

This factory held most of their equipment, but it also tunneled in most of the money he’d gotten through the skin trade.

Any evidence left behind wouldn’t have been enough to put him away for life because it would be hard to prove where that money had come from in the first place.

So I let it burn.

And I bid my time for when I could bring the fucker down for good.

For now…

He had something I wanted.

Lia’s location.

It had been over a week since she ran away from me.

Over a week of fucking hell and over a week of feeling like…

I clutched my hand over my chest, feeling a sharp pinch of pain there.

A fucking week of feeling like I was burning from the inside out. And I still didn’t fucking know where Briggs had hidden her.

She wasn’t in his home—I’d fucking looked—or in any of the known safe houses he kept for his clients. Which meant there were more houses I didn’t know of… yet.

That was fine.

I was going to make him give her to me, one way or another, by burning everything he held dear, starting with his business.

A sound came from behind me. I didn’t react, already knowing who had followed me up here.

He stood beside me and took in the destruction.

“Don’t you think you’re taking this too far?” Theo asked.

“Don’t tell me you’re feeling sorry for the fucker,” I said.

“I don’t. You can burn Leo Briggs alive, and I wouldn’t blink, but I worry about what this is doing to you.”

I cracked a small smile. “I’ve killed countless men. Some for personal reasons, most simply because I was paid to. I haven’t lost an ounce of sleep yet. You think this is affecting me?”

“Sheis affecting you,” he said quietly.

My hands balled into fists. I didn’t need to ask who he was talking about.

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