Page 50 of Darkness Tempt Me
Hunter laughs. “Don’t you know a playroom when you see one?”
Daniel’s eyes pop wide, and of course, that’s when he tries to run. I backhand him across the face, and he crumples to the ground. Dear lord, he’s killing my buzz. The man is too old to play with.
“Why are you doing this?” Daniel asks. “I had nothing to do with your pops. Your father was my best friend. I’d never hurt him.”
I burst into laughter. “You think this is about my old man? I killed him myself.”
Daniel pales. “Then why?”
“You really have to ask me that? This is about my mother,”—I tug the gun from Hunter’s grasp and slam the metal handle against his face—“and all the awful things you did to her.”
Daniel looks momentarily dazed before he chuckles. “I always wondered who was picking us off one at a time.” He laughs again, spitting blood my way. “Never would’ve guessed it was Baby Blackwood with some mommy issues.” As soon as he finishes his sentence, which was, quite honestly, a good line, he starts coughing uncontrollably. The man is clearly falling apart.
I roll my eyes as he continues to cough.Fuck. Daniel Sinclair is going to kill himself with old age before I can have any real fun with him. I fish out my phone and frown when I don’t have any new texts from Pey. The last text in the thread was sent from me,telling him not to come to the penthouse. The text before that was from him with some random address.
I glance at Hunter, who’s currently leaning against the wall, looking bored. “Do you know what happened to Pey after you two cloned this vampire’s phone?”
Hunter chuckles at my joke. “Yeah, he wanted me to tell you he had to go help his brother pack or something like that.”
My blood runs cold. “What the fuck, Hunter? I didn’t want Peyton going to that abusive prick’s house without me.”
Hunter’s eyes widen with shock. “Abusive prick?”
Fuck.I check my phone again. This isn’t good. Peyton always texts back within a couple of minutes. He would have known I wanted him to check in. I forward the address to Hunter. “Do a quick search for anyone named Connor at this location. I’m going to figure out what to do with Sinclair over here.”
Daniel is wheezing now. Out of all my victims, none of them has ever been this…pathetic.
Hunter’s phone pings, indicating his search is done. “I got his socials. Here’s a photo of this Connor douche.” He flips the phone around so I can see. A fear like nothing I’ve ever experienced before ripples through me.
I always thought I’d spend hours taking Daniel Sinclair apart piece by filthy piece, but then again, plans have a way of changing on you when life happens. Right now, my life revolves around my pretty little assistant. Without a second thought, I raise Daniel Sinclair’s pistol and shoot him in the head.
Hunter’s mouth drops open. “Clean him up and meet me at this address. I’m going to go get my husband.”
Chapter thirty-two
Peyton
The door to Connor’s house is cracked open. I can see it from here. I park my car next to Tyler’s before checking my phone. No other messages or missed calls. As soon as the house came into view, something felt off.
Shutting off my car, I place my phone on silent, something telling me not to let my ringtone or notifications be the death of me. I tuck my phone into my boot so it’s well hidden, then make my way out of my car.
When I enter the house, I don’t call out for my brother. I don’t make a noise, just trying to move silently through the house. My brother said he wouldn’t come here without me, and according to my brother, Connor should be at work, but something is off.
The stench hits me first. It’s foul. It smells like bleach and…something else. I can’t quite place it, but it makes me choke back bile anyway. I can hear a crash in another room, the sound of glass breaking against the floor. I listen for a moment, willing my brother to make his presence known.
I can feel it deep down. Something is really wrong.
After a long moment, I creep toward the noise. A part of me, somewhere in the back of my head, screams at me to turn around, to not see what made that noise, but a sick feeling deep in my gut pushes me forward. With shaky fingers, I push the door open slowly.
It’s a bedroom—the primary bedroom, if I had to guess. I can see that a wineglass is what I heard shattering; it’s all over the middle of the wood floor, no rug in sight. Tiny shards of glass are everywhere, but what’s even stranger is that the cup is in the dead center of the room. There’s no shelf or table or anything it could have fallen from. It’s almost as if someone tossed it there as a distraction or…I swallow hard, a trap.
I spin around, only to see photos of my brother and his boyfriend smiling at the camera. They look so normal and happy together, arms wrapped around one another. Then my heart fucking stops. It’s like a car crash that I can’t look away from, and I’m frozen, just staring at the photos in horror.
“Billy?” His name tumbles from my lips in disbelief.
A faint knocking sound comes from the closet; it’s so quiet, yet I almost scream when I hear it. Fear is telling me to run. To run far away and not open that closet door. But curiosity has me tiptoeing toward it anyway.
I swing the door open and gasp. Like some sick shrine from a horror movie, there are hundreds of photos of me taped to the walls. Photos of me at the café, walking to work, at the gym… even photos of me driving. It’s ironic that Mavik’s confession of stalking me made me feel cherished, but this? This makes me feel violated.
