Page 140 of Stalker

However, as the three of us stood in a shadowed field of trees, the sense of turning into the martyr Cassandra had accused me of becoming remained just below the surface.

Only I was far too enraged to surrender to my father’s ridiculous games.

“The surveillance cameras on the property show nothing,” Zach stated. “No activity whatsoever.”

Xander stepped in front of both of us, surveying the area as he’d been doing since we parked our vehicles on the cracked concrete pad, which was the only indication the area had once housed two profitable businesses. We’d purchased the few acres, initially considering building a second production facility on the grounds.

That had been years ago, right at the beginning of the creation of the Obsidian Society. While we’d branched out in where we’d held our hunts, since the original dilapidated buildings had been torn down, we’d used the land less frequently.

But the acres were widely known as the beginning.

For the Scorekeeper to have found the information would have taken an inside source.

Something felt off to me. I pulled my phone into my hand, reading the text he’d sent for the fifth time.

Not only did a sense of dread sweep through me, but also a belated sense of knowing.

The fucker had toyed with us as he’d done with all his victims.

“That’s because he’d not fucking here,” I said calmly.

“What do you mean he’s not here. Isn’t that what his text suggested?”

“That’s not it.” I turned around in a full circle as a different sound emitted from my phone.

It was a basic alarm I’d installed on the vault behind the bookcase. As soon as it was activated, so was the camera hidden in the crown molding across the room. I shifted to the application, taking a deep breath as soon as I did.

The small frame couldn’t amplify the look of defiance in my butterfly’s eyes or the determined look on her face. Anger was right below the surface, but even with the understated fury, I couldn’t help but admire her spunk.

Yet the fact she’d escaped the safe room meant she’d placed herself directly in harm’s way.

Another sound.

Another camera activated.

Only this time from outside my fucking house.

It took all of three seconds to view and comprehend what I was seeing. “The bastard took her. He took the woman I’d die to protect.” The words were so fucking easy to say yet were detrimental to my way of life.

Just like the quiet rage that gripped every ounce of my being.

“The end is near, the hunt soon to begin. Only one winner can take the prize. Only one can assume the kingdom. Come to where it all began, the men of the Obsidian Society, the birthplace of true evil.” I spoke the text out loud.

The words written by our immortalized father sounded like a mantra meant for kings.

For the legacy of kings.

“Where?” Zach demanded. “Where the fuck are you talking about?”

A strange sense of knowing was followed by a single image of my Lady Butterfly. She was in danger.

As I heard a ping indicating a text, I didn’t need to look at the screen to know where the bastard was waiting.

The vision was in bright colors. While slightly out of focus and coming through the eyes and memories of a small child, I could see our old house. The beautiful sprawling two-story house where I’d spent three tragic years. Three years of abuse. Three years of fear.

Three years of hearing my mother’s cries late into the night.

There was a basement where we were never allowed to go, a white picket fence with flowers indicating we were the perfect family.

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