Page 58 of The Prey
Then Giavonna was on her knees. Screaming.
Screeching like a fucking banshee.
Loud enough to wake the dead.
Someone was going to hear her any minute. They were on the damned second floor now thanks to her trip down the secret hallway. It was usually crawling with people. Someone would hear her, or would have heard the judge—someone would check on the judge soon.
Trapping him inside.
With them both.
He reached out, grabbed Giavonna by the hair. And pulled her to her feet. “You and I are going for a ride. See if Hanan likes finding your body alongside the highway. It should have been his. I paid good money for him todiethat night. All for nothing.”
She froze.
“It wasyou. They could have died.Ryan could havedied! He is just a little boy!” S he screamed even louder, a sound of pure rage. Her hand went for his eyes again. He backhanded her, just in self-defense. She jumped up again—came at him again.
He wrapped his hand in her hair and yanked her closer.
Jason dragged her toward the door. They’d entered the judge’s chambers through the back panel door, well, they could get out the same way.
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He’d triedto kill Hudson and Ryan. Sheknewhe had. This wasn’t just about what he’d done to her since he’d come back. He hatedHudsonmore. She was just the tool he wanted to use against Hudson.
It was all making sense now. Hudson’s accident that wasn’t an accident, the fire at Hudson’s house, the defendant attacking Gia to get back at Hudson. That was all it was, an unreasonable hatred and resentment.
It was because he hatedHudson.
She was just collateral. Or a bonus.
A way for him to jab the knife into the man she loved just a little deeper. He dragged her toward the panel door. Past the window.
She jammed her hip into his stomach, and twisted as hard as she could. She ignored the pain in her shoulder, in her ribs she knew he had cracked even more. And lunged with all of her weight.
Jason crashed into the window, shattering the antique windowpane in an instant.
He howled. In fury, inpain.
A scream like she had never heard before. Blood was everywhere.Hewas bleeding. The glass from the window was everywhere.
Bloodwas on her arm. Not justhis,either.
Her arm had gone through the window.
She was definitely bleeding.
But he…
Was writhing on the ground at her feet. Like he wasdyingor something.
Someone cursed behind her. Said words that would definitely have made Gunn blush and would have shocked the rest of her brothers to their rather large toes. Gia turned.
“Here. Let’s see what we can do,” Judge Collins said. She had a hoodie in her hands. “Wrap it around your arm, Giavonna. Apply pressure.”
“I…I know what to do. But thank you. What…what should we do withhim?”
Gia and Judge Collins just stood there and looked at him. He was almost crying on the floor in front of them, blood coming from multiple cuts on his arm and shoulder. His neck.
