REINA HAS RETURNED to the forest.
What the fuck is she doing here?
My shoulders are about to fucking snap with tension as I trail through the tall trees, pushing away the low branches.
Does she have a death wish? Those who attacked her that day could be lurking here, waiting for her return.
It was fucking ugly, and that says something considering I hated her at the time.
Hated her? Past tense?
I still fucking do.
My plan is in place. It’s chipped and ragged around the edges, but it’s still the same.
Then what the hell are you doing here?
I briefly close my eyes, eradicating that voice.
I only came because she doesn’t get to die by someone else’s hand. Her life is mine, fucking mine, and she has no right to end it without permission.
That’s it.
That’s all.
My steps turn wider and harder as I cut through the distance. Dry leaves crunch under my shoes, and the smell of the forest is nearly asphyxiating.
The sun has begun its descent, casting a somber hue on the trees.
Darkness never scared me before. It was a place to take refuge in. Darkness is where the monsters become invisible, and I’ve long since converted to the other side.
I’ve long since given up on what people consider normal. My life is anything but.
My life has been submerged in darkness since Ari’s death, and I’ve inflicted it on the world—or rather, on her.
Reina.
She’s the subject of my darkness now, and nothing will save her from the things my wired brain is planning.
Nothing will save her from me.
She might be a monster, but there are degrees in those. Her level would never reach mine. Reina was bound to lose before we even got started.
I would pity her if she hadn’t already killed that part of me.
If she hadn’t pushed her off the edge and let her head shatter to pieces.
The image of Ari’s smashed face and her limbs lolling in awkward positions still haunts my nightmares.
Her ghost still visits me in the darkness, asking me to let her soul rest in peace.
This isn’t revenge; this is fucking justice.
Which Reina has never been served in her life.
There’s no doubt in my mind she headed to that cottage, so I don’t bother with searching the forest and stride straight there.
As the trees and the earthly ground blur in my vision, I can’t help recalling that night.
The night Reina could’ve been gone once and for all.
REINA LEAVES EARLY.
She never leaves her precious squad and cheerleading buddies first. Being a perfectionist who always makes sure everyone does their tasks, she’s usually the last to go home.
The break in pattern and her suspicious behavior can only mean one thing.
She’s running away and leaving Blackwood.
Fuck no.
I trail her to the forest, which happens to be at the edge of town. She’s definitely leaving.
Well, she has a surprise waiting.
I park my car at the front and continue on foot.
Black is the only color in the forest. It’s a moonless night without stars in sight.
The deep silence stakes its claim, refusing to budge. I retrieve my phone and turn on the flashlight.
Ideally, I don’t want her to know I’m onto her until I’m at her face. I want to see her expression falter a little, her eyes widening the slightest bit, before she seals herself in.
That’s about the only time I get to see a reaction in her robotic face. Reina hides her emotions so fucking well, and it made me a motherfucking idiot during high school.
I made it a habit to stand outside her house, just to see her laugh with her father.
I even took a picture as proof that she does smile and laugh—just not with me.
Shaking my head, I forge ahead. Thankfully, that idiot and his irrational fixation on Reina died with Ari.
Now there’s this thing, one made for one purpose only: to make her pay for killing my sister and me.
A long shriek comes from my right.
My feet freeze to a halt, and then they’re running toward the sound of their own volition.
Reina.
That’s Reina’s voice.
What the fuck did she get herself into this time?
I focus in case she shrieks again, but there’s no sound.
Fuck.
She better not be dead.
My athletic body kicks into gear as I cut the distance in record time. I might have stopped playing football three years ago, but I never quit running or working out.
It’s the only thing that clears my mind and chases away the damn black thoughts swirling in my head 24-7.
The smell of smoke assaults my nostrils as fire erupts in the middle of the forest.
Near the flames, two bodies come into view from between the trees. I hide behind a trunk and kill my flashlight.
The man is wearing a suit, appearing buff and big, but his face is shadowed and turned away as he drags someone on the ground by the hem of her T-shirt.
Reina.
He’s dragging an unconscious Reina. From the slight view I can get, I make out her battered face and how her lifeless legs slide on the filthy ground.
My muscles turn tight as my fists clench by my sides. How fucking dare he touch her?
I’m about to move when another man emerges from behind the cottage, wiping his hands on his black hoodie. “I got the other one, Boss.” He motions at Reina. “What are we going to do about that one?”
“Use her as bait. There’ll be only one Pakhan.”
Russian accents. Are they the mafia?
What do they have to do with Reina?
This could be about Gareth Ellis’ relationship with the mafia, but they shouldn’t come after his daughter.
Doesn’t matter. I have a fraction of a second before they take Reina away to God knows fucking where.
Reina’s life is mine.
Fucking mine.
No one gets to take her away from me.
I retrieve my phone and search for sounds then hit play on the loudest volume. The sound of sirens erupts in the otherwise calm forest. It’s far away at the beginning but keeps getting closer as the seconds tick on.
Both men freeze.
“Blyad!” one of them yells. “What are they doing here?”
“What are we going to do, Boss?” the other man asks.
“We’ll come back for her. We have what we need.” He kicks Reina away and a whimper spills from her lips.
My fist tightens with the need to snap his fucking neck.
Both of them run around the burned cottage, and Reina remains there, unmoving. I hear the sound of car tires crunching in the distance, indicating that they’ve left.
I jog to Reina and crouch in front of her, keeping the siren audio working.
She’s on her stomach, face down. The fire from the cottage in the distance lights the deep blue bruises on her face and arms. Her blond strands fall on her face, camouflaging her swollen eye and cut lip.
Those motherfuckers.
I stroke the hair off her eye and she whimpers in pain.
Pulling my hand back, I search in her pocket and retrieve her phone. Sure, I could’ve used mine, but I don’t want her to know I saved her.
I’m not her savior. I’m her worst nightmare.
I put the phone to my ear, and a woman picks up immediately.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“A girl has been attacked in the forest at the edge of Blackwood. She’s unconscious but still breathing. Trace her GPS.”
“Who are you, sir?”
I stand up, looking down at her. “A hunter.”
I cut off the call and remain by her side until actual sirens come to the site.
That’s when I retreat to the shadows and disappear.
But she’ll find me in her hospital room as soon as she wakes up, and she’ll fucking tell me why she was escaping.
I STOP in front of the cottage. The signs of the fire that ate it a few weeks ago are still visible through the blackened walls and the police tape.
Human remains.
The other one.
The police and those men’s words still echo in my head. Reina is in too deep if she’s involved with the bratva.
And they were from the bratva. Alex thinks so, too; I confirmed it when I heard his conversation with his adviser the other day.
He just doesn’t want to take any steps as long as Reina remains untouched and under his care.
The question is, what the fuck is she doing here knowing exactly the threat to her life? Alex made sure to warn her. I heard him countless times.
Stay in crowded places, Reina.
If you remember anything, let me know first, Reina.
I’m going to get you security, Reina.
Of course, she refused the latter, brushing him off with a smile—a fake one at that.
She’s become so fucking stubborn, it’s maddening.
I release a breath as I walk up. She’s been avoiding me these last couple of days, but fuck that.
Me being a part of her life is a non-negotiable fact.
Even when I was in England for the past three years, I was always an undividable part of her life.
I lurked under her skin and breathed down her neck.
She’s been doing the same, but fuck it.
I stop at the threshold of the cottage. It’s dark and humid inside, still smelling of the soot and the smoke from that day.
Human remains, they said, and they think Reina did it—at least that detective does.
I talked to him after the last time he visited us. I could see the malice in his eyes as he spoke about my ‘fiancée’ as a criminal and said I should have her confess her crimes.
It took all my self-restraint not to bash his head against the hood of his car and tell him, in no uncertain terms, that if he threatens her again, I will gut his intestines out.
Reina didn’t do it.
It’s funny how I believe it with every fiber of my being even though I didn’t witness what happened.
The bratva is behind all of this, but I can’t say anything because I have no evidence, no names, not even clear descriptions of the men I saw that night.
If I gave an unintelligible statement, it’d only make the mafia target me—and Reina.
For some reason, I think they’ve kept away because they figured she lost her memories and said nothing about them to the police.
If she does remember, it’ll be a direct threat to her life.
Still, she needs to get herself off of Detective Daniels’ radar.
He doesn’t know her as much as I do, so he has no idea she absolutely doesn’t have what it takes to end a life. She only does it from afar, like with Ari.
Ending a life takes something more than courage and determination. It takes a black heart and a desolate soul.
To my fucking dismay, the new Reina doesn’t have that.
I halt at the entrance as I turn on the flashlight. Reina lies in a fetal position on the ground, eyes closed and face camouflaged by her hair.
My breathing stops as I wait for the rise and fall of her shoulder—for evidence that she’s alive.
When it does move, my feet run of their own volition, like that day when all I thought about was her safety.
Once again, that’s all I think about.
I try to tell my pulse to stay the fuck down, but it’s not listening to me. I direct the light at her face as I crouch in front of her.
“Reina?” My movements are slow as I push a strand of blond hair off her face.
Her brows are furrowed together, mouth twisting in agony. Her eyes are shut so tight, it appears painful.
Something snaps in my chest, a feeling I never wanted to experience after those years in high school.
When I thought she was the only one for me.
“Open your fucking eyes, Reina.”
She mumbles something under her breath. I lean over to hear her, but it’s not making sense. She’s speaking in a foreign language.
Is that Russian?
“R-Rai…Rai…”
Who the fuck is Rai?
Reina and her endless secrets just keep mounting over the years.
I place an arm under her pale, bare thighs and the other around her back to carry her in my arms.
She fits so perfectly, like she was made for my hands. She was made for me.
I watch the furrowing of her brows as her head drops against my chest. She looks so fragile right now, so soft, like the girl I saw for the first time after she disappeared when we were twelve. It was the first time I decided I liked that girl, the first time I thought about kissing a girl.
She was Gareth’s only daughter, so I’d met her before, but I had never felt the need to come closer to her like when she returned. There was something changed about her. Something more exotic, raw, and…broken.
I realize that now. I was attracted to the broken side of her before I even knew what the fuck that was.
When Alexander said we were to be engaged, I thought I’d hit the jackpot.
If it hadn’t been for her cold, aloof reaction.
I lean my head over and suck her bottom lip into my mouth like I did at twelve when she was sleeping in our guest house.
A shudder goes through her as I brush my lips against hers one last time. “You’ll never escape me, my ugly monster.”
