Page 9 of Sweet Revenge

Tears stung the backs of my eyes as I wrapped my arms around Drake in a violent hug. I had no more words to say to him to thank him for all he’d done, so this hug would have to be enough.

That and, “I love you.”

“I love you, too, sis.” He kissed the top of my head. “Be careful.”

“You, too.” With that, I let him go and headed around to the driver’s side of the van. With a deep breath, I put the key in the ignition and cranked it up. “Where to?” I looked at Daemon in the rearview mirror and saw his eyes were already closed.

All he said was, “South.”

CHAPTER6

DAEMON

The pain in my chest and shoulders didn’t subside, but I ignored it because I didn’t want to take any of those fucking painkillers Drake had sent along with us. I knew Elisa would insist on it if she thought I was in any sort of pain at all, and at the moment, I wasn’t really in a position to protest too much, although I’d certainly try. It was better if I could just tough it out. The last thing I needed was for my mind to be any foggier than it already was. Letting my guard down had resulted in three bullets in my chest, so the last thing I needed was to lose focus.

“We’re almost there,” I told her, sitting up as straight as I could in the seat Drake had fully reclined for me when I’d first gotten into the van a couple of hours ago. “You’re going to turn down the next dirt road on the left. Then you’ll go for about three miles before you’ll see a break in the trees on the right. That’s where you’ll turn.”

“A break in the trees?” Elisa sounded confused. I got the feeling she didn’t do a lot of driving outside of the city. “Is there an actual road?”

“Yes, there’s a road,” I assured her, but then, upon more careful consideration, I added, “Sort of.”

“Sort of?” It didn’t exactly sound like a question, only like she was trying to sort out how there could be a soft-of road. She’d see in a few minutes.

“Just slow down when you get to it because it’s made of dirt and is pretty bumpy. And winding.” My chest ached already just thinking about how many holes and dips there were in that old road. It made sense to keep it beat up when I’d first rebuilt the cabin. The fewer people there were coming out here, the better. I didn’t need anyone nosing around in my business. But now, I wished I would’ve at least put down some gravel. It would’ve helped cushion the jostling a little bit.

Elisa made the left onto a dirt road that basically consisted of one lane winding through the woods. “This already isn’t really a road,” she commented. “I can’t imagine what the other sort-of road is gonna be like.”

“You’re about to find out,” I muttered. She sighed and shook her head. A smile formed on my face watching her from behind like this where I got a hint of her expression but she didn’t realize I was fully watching her. God if she wasn’t beautiful.

She made the turn and I immediately regretted my decision not only in failing to fix the road but in even coming here. Even if it was going to save us in the long run, at the moment, it felt like bloody hell. I grabbed hold of the armrest I had on one side and braced myself, but every time she hit a bump, I wanted to scream.

Biting my tongue, I tried to focus on something else. At first, my memories of coming out here as a child almost made me smile. Granted, all of my memories of this place were tainted with images of my father, a man I’d despised my entire life, even though I simultaneously wanted to be just like him. But the further down the dirt road we went, the more recent the memories became. Images of him writhing on the floor with two broken legs came to mind. Visions of his face frozen in a grimace, his body already beginning to decay as his life fluid flowed freely onto the wood floor, had me dragging a hand down my face.

I shook my head to clear it as we finally reached the clearing. Nothing remained of the burned-down cabin, though with each breath, I inhaled the faint scent of smoke and had to wonder if it was my imagination or if the pungent scent continued to linger all these months after I had the charred remains taken away.

Elisa ran over one more giant hole in the ground before she pulled to a stop near the new cabin. It was nothing fancy, but it looked nice. It would certainly work for what we needed, a place to lie low. In the background, I could hear the lake lapping at the shore, and as she turned the engine off, I let out a sigh of relief, the pain starting to subside already.

Turning to face me, Elisa asked, “What is this place?”

I drew in a deep breath, not sure how to answer that question. This place was a lot of things to a lot of people, and what it was to me at the moment was evolving. “Hunting cabin.” That was simple enough and also true.

Her eyebrows raised. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you like to hunt.”

I chuckled. “There’s a big difference between stalking a deer with a bow and shooting a man with a gun. But yeah, I like to come out here and hunt when I can. Haven’t gotten much of a chance to do that lately. Too many people hunting me.”

That got a nod of agreement. I left unsaid the other reasons why I hadn’t managed to come back much since the place had been rebuilt. Elisa didn’t need to hear about the images in my mind.

“Do you think we’ll be safe here?” she asked, shifting in her seat.

“Definitely. The only people who know I rebuilt this place are my brothers, and I’m certain we weren’t followed.” Even though I’d been reclining much of the trip, I could see the rearview mirrors, and there were stretches of highway where no one was behind us for fifteen or twenty miles, and when someone was, it wasn’t ever the same vehicle for more than a few minutes.

Sighing, she nodded and unhooked her seatbelt. “Let’s get you inside then.”

As difficult as it was to wait for her to come around and open the sliding door, I exercised some patience and did just that. She got the door open and then unbuckled me. Her long blonde hair grazed my cheek, and I breathed her in.

Grimacing against the pain, I looped my arm around her shoulders and slid out of the seat, reaching for the ground with one foot as I practically slipped out of the van. My foot gained purchase, and I stood, wishing she could just carry me inside the way loving fathers might carry a sleeping child. I’d never experienced that myself.

It took a few minutes for us to lumber to the front door. When we finally arrived on the porch, stepping through piles of leaves that the wind had laid here to rest, Elisa paused. “Where’s the key?”

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