Page 52 of Hunted Innocence

I want to torture him.

Visions of Ravet flash in front of my eyes, replacing Landon’s face with his. The rage builds even bigger inside of me, and if Iwanted to kill Landon before, my mind replacing the image of his face with Ravet’s makes me want to do more than just end his life—I want to torture him.

“You don’t get shit,” Landon growls, taking me out of my mind and thoughts of torment. “I don’t give a fuck what you say or do,” he says. “Those people will kill my entire family. They don’t give a fuck.”

“Your family?” I ask, unsure that he’s really just said that shit to me.

I can’t keep it in. I almost laugh in his face. Fucking family. That is goddamn rich coming from this absolute monster. He’s worried about hisfamily, people whom I know he hasn’t contacted in years.

He’s lying.

He’s worried about something else, something that he is trying to keep from us.

He’s lying.

Moving toward Landon, I take a moment to crouch in front of him. I know that everyone else in the room is watching me. I also know that they’re ready to jump between us if needed. They want him alive, and they know that I want him dead. Although I don’t think that Brody would stop me from killing him, and without a doubt, he’d add an extra couple of punches to my face again, too, at the same time.

“You’re a fucking liar,” I grind out. “The only family you have is a mother and sister who disowned you years ago. Everyone else is dead. If you think you’re going to fuck me, you’re sadly mistaken.”

His lips curve up into a grin. “I’ve been fucking you from the moment you laid eyes on my property.”

I press my lips together and roll them a few times. “You haven’t,” I state. “You have not a fucking person in this worldwho gives a fuck about you or who would know that you were gone. Nadine is not yours.”

Landon’s lips curve up into a grin, almost as if he thinks he’s really got me or something. He doesn’t have a goddamn thing. Never did, never will. This motherfucker needs a taste of his own goddamn medicine.

“She was mine first. She will always be mine. I’ve imprinted myself on every ounce of her, inside and out. Doesn’t matter what you do to me,” he says, changing the entire goddamn subject as he continues.

“Because I will always be the man who took every part of Nadine’s virgin body. I will be the man who owned her and made a fucking mint off her cunt. I trained her, guided her, and made her who she is. I will always be there, in the back of her mind, a scent, a memory. Always there.”

I don’t respond to his words. They don’t need my fucking response. His words are bullshit laced with truth, and that pisses me off. Instead of killing him quickly, I stand to my feet and take a step backward.

“Do we need him to catalog the faces on that drive?” I ask, not looking away from him.

Vaughn clears his throat. “We don’t,” he says. “We can use the facial recognition. We just have to plan a good death for this fuck. We’ve already killed one government official. We don’t need anyone breathing down our necks.”

My lips twitch into a smirk at the same time Landon’s turns down into a frown. I almost laugh in his face again. This has become the most comical of meetings. With the absolute rage that I feel bubbling inside of me, I wasn’t sure I could smile, but Landon has proven to be fucking hilarious. Theron speaks before I can say anything, though.

“What are his charges?” he asks.

“Sticky fingers and anger management issues,” I say, my lips twitching. God, I hate this asshole.

Brody is the next person to speak, which surprises me. I’d almost forgotten he was here, minus the death glare he focused on my back, that is. “I know what we can do with him,” he offers.

Turning to look at him, I arch a brow, curious to know what he has planned for Landon. I know that it will be good, because Brody hates him just as much as I do. He moves forward, stopping just in front of Landon.

“We do to him what he did to my parents. Then we do to him what he did to my sister, leaving him pants down and dead in the men’s bathroom of the Willow Club.”

The room is bathed in silence, but not out of disgust, at least not from me or any of my Securus partners. In fact, the plan is diabolical, poetic justice, and I am indeed impressed, to say the least.

NADINE

I’m notsure when I fall asleep or when the women leave, but a noise causes my body to stiffen, my heart to race, and my eyes to pop open. I don’t make a move, though. Attempting to keep my breathing shallow, I listen for anything else, any other sign of movement or noises.

I hear something again.

A door, maybe the refrigerator?

Then footsteps. They’re soft, almost as if whoever it is knows I’m here and is trying to be quiet. Then the bedroom door opens. Turning my head slightly, I shift my gaze to the door, and that’s when I see him.

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