Page 46 of Dark Things
“Good. Next time you see a woman on this property, treat her with some fucking respect. It’s really fucking annoying when guys think they can do or saying anything to make us uncomfortable. Stop being a douchebag. Do better.”
I trudgeup the stairs after I get Midnight settled in for the night. Switching on the bathroom light, I jump in the shower and wash quickly. Once I’m out I check my phone, and I still have no call or text from Haunt. I’m starting to get worried.
Wiping the fog from the mirror, I look at the girl staring back at me. She’s familiar but not. My hair is a dark chestnut where it used to be auburn. My eyes, green where they used to be an aqua, and my face. It’s almost too different for me to recognize the girl I was before.
A part of me is glad she doesn’t have to live this life. She died the night my uncle took everything from me. My autonomy, my family, and my life as I knew it. I was once the typical sixteen-year-old rich girl who only cared about hanging out with her three best friends and going to high school parties to get away from the shit our parents put us through.
Being a Vanderbilt wasn’t easy. My parents werestrict, especially with who I was friends with, but they never had anything to say about Colter, Staff, or Brooks. I think they figured I’d end up married to one of them, and it would be good enough because they came from respectable families who were in the same circles as them. What a fucking joke that was.
The moment shit got hard, they left me in the dirt and walked over my body. The night my uncle raped and beat me half to death because I walked in on him confessing to a murder was the beginning of the end of Belle Vanderbilt.
I let out a low breath and pick up the toothpaste to smear on the brush before taking care of my nighttime routine. It’s maddening what being back here has brought to the surface. Part of me wants to give in to these feelings, but the other part, the part that was created by Stan—Pitch—she wants to go in guns blazing and kill every one of them.
As I drift off to sleep my phone rings. I peek up at it with groggy eyes.
“You okay?” I ask, sitting up and throwing my feet over the bed. I’m half way to my closet by the time he answers.
“Fine, but we need to go hunting. Be to you in ten minutes; meet me at The Point,” he says, before hanging up.
I blow out a breath and shrug a pair of black cargo pants and a black long-sleeve henley. I make quickwork of placing all my knives in the right places and throw my hair up in a ponytail.
My boots go on last, and then I’m out the window, landing on the ground a moment later. I don’t know what the fuck happened tonight, but if Haunt says we need to go hunting, it could only mean one thing—we’re about to hurt some people.
19
Haunt
Once I’m in my car, I call Reb. It’s late but if I’m calling she knows to pick up. My hands are sweaty as I grip the steering wheel. She’s going to give me shit for not including her in tonight's activities.
“You okay?” she asks. I can hear the sleep in her voice and the sheets rustling.
“Fine, but we need to go hunting. Be to you in ten minutes, meet me at The Point,” I say before disconnecting the call.
We both know phones can be tapped at any moment so we have code words for what needs to be done. It’s not the most complex and if someone wanted to figure it out they could, but what matters most is if it could be used in a court case.
I press on the gas to get to her faster. All I can think about is Stella sitting in that chair and herchildren, especially the sick one. That must be devastating.
Reb is outside the gate on the west side of the property that we’re now calling The Point. It’s the only part that doesn’t have cameras or is guarded. It’s the weakest spot on the property, but we left it so we could slip in and out.
She climbs into the truck, going for the center console to reach the safe inside. She uses her fingerprint and it opens with a hiss. She grabs her gun and checks the clip and makes sure the safety is on before she puts it in the shoulder holster. I know she already has her blades on her, but I glance over to double check anyway.
“Want to tell me why we’re hunting in the middle of the night when we don’t have a job besides getting rid of Mario? Did you do something?”
I purse my lips, biting down in the corner before clearing my throat. “I may have been following a few people.”
She doesn’t say anything at first but then she quirks up her eyebrow. “You mean you were following the guys to get intel and instead of a quiet recon mission you stepped into shit and now need my help to clean it up.”
A thrill runs through me. This is one of the reasons why I love her so much. She knows my soul, and there will never be another person who can compare.
“Basically, except it’s worse than you’re imagining,”I sigh and then begin to tell her everything that happened.
“You’re telling me Colter, Staff, and Brooks work for Mario as enforcers? That’s what those fucks were talking about before.” she laughs. A full belly laugh, tears in her eyes. “Oh God, this is even more fucking perfect than I thought. I’m going to torture those fucks until they think they’re going insane and now we have the perfect fucking alibi to take the heat off of us.”
“Wait, what did you mean before?” I ask.
“I was bored, so I started to go through some of the footage from their house. Colter got a call earlier, and it seems like it was the one to go pick up Michael. They didn’t say names, so I didn’t make any connection right away. Honestly, I was surprised they were on the dark side, but this, it’s gold.”
I smirk, “We get to also press them for information on Mario. We could get this job done early, and then Stan won’t be up our asses as much. He’ll be dealing with taking over New York, and we can finally get the chance to look for Magnus when he’s distracted.”
