Page 49 of Promise of Hellfire

“He’s not,” Dominic stated, throwing back the rest of his champagne. “There’s no reason you couldn’t. You might have to fill in some on the crime portion for Rayne, but why can’t you focus on what you love? The office is handled. After tomorrow, the Ayers saga will be wrapped up. You’ve busted your ass long enough.”

He spent the rest of the night engaged in conversation and exchanging pleasantries as we sipped on champagne and waited for the crowd to die down. When we finally made it back home, I eagerly kicked off my shoes. My feet ached, but at least nothing bad had happened. There was still time though. Ethan And Dominic were mysteriously absent, giving us space to argue if it came down to that.

Hunter stalked towards me and I stepped backward, unsure of what he was planning. My back hit the wall behind me as he gently wrapped his hand around my throat and captured my lips. The kiss branded me from the inside out, his tongue warring with mine as he gripped my hip. When he finally came up for air, he leaned his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. “Thank you for tonight. For believing in me, even if I was scared. Even when it made me uncomfortable.”

His words melted my heart further. That night he wrapped his body around mine, proving all of the ways he loved me.

Chapter thirty-one

Dominic

FridaynightandIknew exactly where I would find the police chief. Samuel Palmer was a man who kept a tight schedule. I pulled the SUV into the parking spot beside his patrol car at the diner and cut the ignition. I’d convinced Rayne to stay at the penthouse with Ethan. She didn’t need to see what I was willing to do to protect her. She already had written in her journal that she knew I was her monster, and I didn’t need to confirm her suspicions.

Hunter looked at me and sighed. “What’s the plan? I know you told him he owed you one last favor.”

I stepped from the vehicle and brushed the wrinkles from my clothes. “Don’t worry, you’ll see.” I walked into the diner, the bells on the door tinkling, as I found Palmer sitting in a booth at the back of the room. I slid in beside him and Hunter sat across from him, trapping him in.

“I wondered when you would show up again,” he said as he sipped his coffee.

A waitress with short blond hair approached the table with a huge smile painted on her face. “What can I get you guys?” she asked, a light southern accent gracing her words.

Hunter dipped his head down as I spoke. “I think we’ll have a cup of coffee. Oh, and how about a piece of pie? Palmer, what’s your favorite?”

He swallowed, and I watched his Adam’s apple bob before he responded. “Cherry. They have the best ch-cherry pie,” he stuttered.

“Well,” I checked her name tag quickly, “Renee, I would love a piece of cherry pie.” I winked at her as she left and turned back to Palmer. “Tell me about your family. How’s your wife doing?” I asked, tapping my finger on the table.

“You’re a fucking psychopath,” he muttered. “I’m not telling you anything.”

I scowled at him. “Don’t be unkind. I’m giving you a chance to talk and eat pie before I tell you why I’m here. You’re acting extremely ungrateful.”

He cast his eyes downward as Renee brought us back three pieces of cherry pie. I wiped my fork off on the back of a napkin before taking a bite. Palmer wasn’t lying. The cherry pie was phenomenal here. It was a shame I wouldn’t be back.

“My wife is fine,” he finally said, pushing the pie around his plate.

I clicked my tongue in displeasure. “I wouldn’t waste the pie tonight. Not with where you’re going. This might be the last time you have any, especially some this good. Eat up.”

Hunter looked at me with disapproval before he dipped his fork into the filling. He closed his eyes as he tasted it. “Good, right?” I stated before turning my attention back to Palmer. “What about your kids? How are they?”

“Good,” he grumbled at me. He wasn’t much of a conversationalist, which suited me fine, and I decided to drop it as he put a bite of the pastry in his mouth.

When he finally finished, I took one last sip of the coffee sitting in front of me. I dug a pen and a small notebook from my pocket and placed them on the table in front of them. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I need you to write a convincing goodbye letter to your wife, confessing all of your love for her. And then I want you to record all of your sins.”

His eyes widened at my words. “This is a joke right?” I wasn’t sure why everyone thought I was joking, but I needed to rectify that immediately. I cocked the gun in my jacket pocket and his mouth fell open. “You wouldn’t,” he hissed. “We had an agreement. If I helped, you wouldn’t say anything.”

I arched an eyebrow at him. “That’s right. I wouldn’t say anything, but you didn’t ask me what my terms were. You knew better than to make a deal with the devil. It’s either you do things my way, or I will smear your name at every media outlet I have contact with. I’ll completely ruin your name and your family’s. Either way, you aren’t walking away alive, so what’s it going to be?”

“So fucking glad Rayne isn’t seeing this shit,” Hunter said under his breath as the chief picked up the pen with shaking hands.

He started writing in the notebook and I peered at what was on the page, laying my chin on his shoulder. “Oh, surely you can do better than that. How long have the two of you been married?”

His hands shook harder as he wrote and he gripped the pen so tightly, I was afraid it would break. Good thing I had a second one in my pocket, just in case.

I watched as he signed the letter after pouring out his soul on the page. His confession wasn’t quite honest enough for me, but little did he know I would be enclosing copies of some of the evidence we had, further cementing his damnation.

“What now?” he finally asked quietly. His face was covered with a thin sheen of sweat and he knew his time was up.

Hunter rolled his eyes. “Now we step outside and see what he has planned,” he told him as he threw money on the table.

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