THE SILENCE on the other end of my connection to Blaze blared in my ears. Nothing broke it, no sound reaching me other than the rumble of my own car. My heart thumped faster, my hands tightening on the steering wheel.
I had the urge to jerk the wheel around, pull the tightest U-turn in human history, and race to the storage facility to defend my men. To make sure there was something left of them to defend. What had happened to Blaze? Was he injured—was Garrison okay?
The frantic thoughts whipped through my mind, but my arms stayed braced in their previous position. Despite the turmoil inside me, one fact stood out clearly.
The guys wouldn’t want me to come rushing to their aid. If I could talk to them right now, even if they were bleeding out over the storage lockers, they’d tell me that seeing our plan through was the most important thing. That they could handle themselves, and I had to focus on doing my part.
If I ruined everything we’d orchestrated so carefully, we’d never get another chance like this. We might not live long enough to even consider another attempt once the Blood Hunter was through with us.
Blaze and Garrison knew what they were doing. They wouldn’t be taken down easily. Lord knew they must have been worried about me while I was off on my own, without even a partner to call on. And how must Julius and Talon feel as they waited for the rest of us to complete the mission they’d been too injured to take part in beyond the planning stages?
If they could be strong and hold steady, then I could too. I owed it to them.
I gritted my teeth and drove onward.
When I reached my destination, I stopped at the end of the drive and looked up at the Maliks’ country house. We couldn’t have picked any place more fitting for our grand finale, since the Blood Hunter had used it for the finale in his own scheme to have me murder my family. While Blaze and Garrison had been taking down as many guards as they could, they’d also have been surreptitiously leading the Blood Hunter toward one final clue that would convince him his daughter was here.
The white walls looked somehow drearier than before even in the beaming late-afternoon sunlight. The yard’s grass was far more trampled thanks to all the investigators who must have come and gone after my family’s bodies had been discovered.
It’d been a few weeks, and the rainfall since then had washed away any lingering traces of blood. Nothing remained to indicate that this had been a crime scene except a few stray strands of caution tape that’d caught on a fence post near the barn. The property was still and silent. The Blood Hunter and I would have it to ourselves once I’d dispatched however many guards he managed to retain after my men were through with them.
I got out, bringing a rifle Talon had picked out for me and the bait Garrison had left in the passenger seat. Striding up the steps to the creaky porch, I draped Brittany’s school jacket over the railing at the top, arranging it so the tell-tale crest would be clearly visible.
The lock on the front door had been busted. I pushed inside and set Brittany’s backpack at the base of the stairs. Just a couple more jabs to send the Blood Hunter into an even deeper rage.
On the second floor, I slung the rifle over my shoulder and climbed out one of the bedroom windows, leaving it open so I could quickly slip back inside. I hauled myself onto the slate-tiled roof and crawled along until I found a good vantage point over the front yard while staying concealed behind the chimney.
Before he’d been cut off, Blaze had already reported taking down enough of the Blood Hunter’s remaining guards that I should be able to pick the rest off with one clip as long as I was quick enough. The more of them there were, the faster I’d have to be.
No call came to let me know the Blood Hunter was on his way, but I kept my position anyway. Something had clearly happened to part Blaze from his phone, but that didn’t mean anything else was lost. I swallowed down my jittering nerves and ignored the queasiness roiling in my gut.
Finally, a faint thrum reached my ears. A motorcycle zoomed into view along the country road that led to the house, just two cars with it now. I couldn’t tell how many figures lurked behind the reflections gleaming off the windows.
They parked farther back from my car, the Blood Hunter still wary enough to realize someone might be staked out in or around it. As he swung off his bike, the car doors opened—and only two men got out. Whatever had happened with Blaze and Garrison, they’d managed to whittle down his protections to just those two guards.
Even with his helmet on, I could identify the moment the Blood Hunter spotted and recognized his daughter’s jacket. His shoulders stiffened, and he marched forward twice as swiftly as before, a pistol clutched in his hand. His guards jogged to catch up, their heads swiveling in an attempt to maintain the caution their boss had nearly thrown to the wind.
They didn’t see me. They never had a chance. The second they slowed, flanking the Blood Hunter, I pulled the trigger in quick succession. The bullets burst out the back of their skulls.
The Blood Hunter didn’t even flinch as his guards crumpled on either side of him. A second later, he was out of view of my current perch, but I couldn’t have easily taken him down like this anyway, not with his helmet and bulletproof vest. Shooting at his hurrying legs from above would have required sniper skills that would have challenged even me.
I was better at close quarters combat anyway. I’d taken down his remaining back-up. If he’d paused to call in more, they hadn’t reached him yet.
I had to end him before they had the chance to.
His voice bellowed from inside the house. “Where are you, Malik? What have you done with her? I’m going to tear you apart with my bare fucking hands the way I should have to begin with.”
I dropped the rifle on the roof, knowing it’d be more of a hindrance than a help indoors, and dropped back down to the window. I lowered myself to the ledge with the faintest rasp of my feet and eased silently inside.
As I slunk to the bedroom doorway, I took my pistol in one hand and a knife in the other. The bangs and crashes from below told me that the Blood Hunter was still on the first floor, and he was furious enough to take out his frustrations on the furniture.
“You’re not going to get away with this!” he hollered, his breath hissing through his teeth.
If I could sneak up on him and get a good enough opening before he noticed me, I might be able to shoot him in the leg before I went in for the kill. That’d weaken him, slow him down, even if all his vital areas were covered.
Then I’d just have to get that damn helmet off him and sink my knife into his throat… The thought of him gazing up at me as the life drained from his arrogant face gave me a shivery thrill.
He’d made me what I was, and now I’d be his downfall just as much as I’d been to the man who’d genetically fathered me.
Before I could reach the stairs, the Blood Hunter stomped toward them. I ducked back into the bedroom, knowing he’d come to me soon enough. Hiding behind the open door, gun at the ready, I tracked his footsteps through the upper rooms.
“Are you still skulking around on the roof like some kind of vermin? What the fuck have you done with her? Get out here and face me!”
He burst into the room I was hiding in. The second he stepped into sight, I fired at his thighs.
The bullets slammed into him… and rebounded, falling to the floor. The impact made the Blood Hunter stumble, but not even enough to bring him to his knees. As he whirled toward me, I realized with a chill that he must have been wearing Kevlar pants too. Fuck.
There wasn’t anything to do but throw the pistol aside and reach to snatch up another of my knives as I lunged to meet him. Bullets might bounce off the material he was wearing, but a sharp blade could stab right through it.
The Blood Hunter threw himself at me with more speed and force than I’d been prepared for. He smashed me into the wall so hard my fingers jerked away from the second knife’s hilt and the first trembled in my hand. I lashed out, heaving at him, focusing on his gun hand.
I managed to send his pistol spinning away across the floor, but he battered my wrist at the same time, forcing me to drop the knife. Then he butted me right in the face with his shatterproof helmet. The blow radiated pain through my entire skull and left my thoughts scrambled.
“Where is he?” the Blood Hunter roared. “What did he do with her?”
He rammed me against the wall again hard enough that I felt one of my weaker ribs crack. More pain splintered through my side. I’d expected him to be strong, but not like this, like a fucking train bearing down on me.
But then, I’d never fought an opponent who was anywhere near this angry before. Had that been my fatal miscalculation?
I wrenched myself downward and managed to dodge his next pummeling blow, but as I grabbed for my fallen knife, the Blood Hunter kicked me in the gut. I rolled to the side and pushed myself toward the weapon, and he pounced on me, slamming me into the floor like a tiger pinning its prey. The whack of his fist against my temple had me seeing stars, and not the good kind.
The Blood Hunter’s voice, no longer smooth and confident but desperately harsh, reached me as if from far off down a tunnel. That wasn’t good either.
“Did you think I’d go easy on you because you were my tool?” he snarled. “That’s all you are. A piece of equipment that’s outlived its usefulness. I don’t need you, and I don’t need your fucking skills. I can take any number of kids and train them in the same way as I trained you. Only this time, they’ll be better. I won’t let them experience the slightest shred of affection. I won’t let them escape. And if they fuck me over, I’ll kill them too and start again. They’re all expendable, just like you are.”
I couldn’t see anything but the vague impression of his eyes through the glass of his helmet, but the hatred in his tone spoke of how much he meant those words. He meant to kill me now, that was for sure. Aches were spreading all through my body where his limbs pressed into me. He wrenched one of my arms to the side so he had a hand free to reach for my throat, and I couldn’t resist him.
A different kind of resistance was building inside me, though. His threat woke up something feral within me. The thought of another child—any child—ever enduring the upbringing I’d gone through sickened me.
No. I couldn’t let it happen. Never again.
“You’re a monster,” I spat at him in a rough voice.
He paused with his hand resting against but not yet clenching around my throat. “You think so, do you?” he sneered. “You helped your father steal my daughter away from me, set him up to carry out his bloody rituals. You’re just as bad as he is. So don’t lay your judgment on me.”
My gaze darted around me and focused on the knife—my knife, lying just a foot away from my shoulder. If I could just shake him up enough that he’d loosen his grip and I could get my arm free…
I gazed up at him, letting my lips curl into a smirk. Even if my last gambit didn’t work, even if he beat me here, I’d still beaten him in ways he’d never forget. I’d turned the Hunter into the prey.
“Your daughter has been perfectly safe this whole time,” I informed him, holding my taunting smile in place. “She’s probably making cookies right now with the woman who’s looking after her with more care than you would have ever given her.”
He sputtered a laugh. “As if I’m going to believe you and show you mercy if you spew some absurd lies.” But his fingers twitched around mine minutely.
I let out a chuckle of my own. “You’ve already bought into my lies. You really believed that my father was still alive? Fuck, no. I killed him myself weeks ago. But my crew and I wrapped you up in our little charade, we led you on this wild goose chase, we stripped you of every man you brought to protect you while you let us… Now you know what it’s like to be played like a puppet the way you did to so many other people. The way you did to me.”
The Blood Hunter stiffened as the shock hit him. It was only for a second, but that second was all I needed.
I yanked my wrists out of his hold. As one hand wrenched his helmet upward, the other closed around the handle of the knife. I shoved his head up and plunged the blade into his throat in one swift movement, so deep the tip scraped his spine.
Blood gushed down over me. The Blood Hunter gagged and spluttered. His weight sagged over me, and I heaved him to the side, tugging his helmet the rest of the way off at the same time. I stared down into his craggy face with a smile I totally felt now.
“Truth won,” I told him as his eyes started to glaze. “Love won. You made me into your tool, but I’ve become so much more than that, so much you could never take away from me. And now I’m your hunter. Enjoy your time in Hell.”
His hand jerked against the floor, but that was his last jolt of life. A wet gasp spilled from his lips alongside the blood pooling under him, and then his expression went totally slack.
I watched him for a few more minutes, confirming that he was really gone. His lungs had stilled. His heart had stopped. Even if his lackeys came charging to his rescue, there’d be no saving this man.
The reign of the Blood Hunter was at an end.
I stood up, swaying a little with a rush of dizziness. Triumph wrapped around my chest, but I couldn’t immerse myself in it yet, not when another concern was gnawing at the back of my mind. I needed one more thing before I could be sure we’d totally won.
Well, two more things. Two more people: Blaze and Garrison, standing in front of me, alive.
I walked out to my car, stepping past the fallen guards without a second glance. My head still throbbed from the beating my skull had taken, and my side ached with my broken rib, but those physical discomforts fell away in the wake of my new goal. I started the engine and turned the car toward the city—toward the storage facility where my men had last spoken to me.
I tried to adhere to the speed limit as I drove, but the numbers blurred, and the speedometer on the dash seemed to jump of its own accord. It still took too long to get there.
The gate of the facility was hanging open. I parked down the street and darted over on foot. The second I walked in, I spotted the two men I’d wanted to see crouched next to one of the storage units.
Garrison was leaning over Blaze, wrapping a bandage around his hand. “I’m going to spit on the gauze if you don’t stop bitching,” he was saying. “See how you like an infection.”
“Don’t threaten a man wounded in the thick of a battle,” Blaze retorted. “Next time it’s your turn to get shot.”
A grin sprang to my face even as tears burned in my eyes. I raced over, and both men’s heads jerked around at the sound of my feet.
“Dess!”
I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard a sound more joyful than my name on Blaze’s lips like that, all the pain that’d been in his voice before swept away by it. He started to leap toward me.
Garrison hauled the hacker back, clutching his hand. “I’m not finished, you idiot.” Then he caught my gaze, a smile brighter than anything he’d offered before lighting up his face. “You did it. He’s done?”
“Dead as a doorknob,” I said.
A guffaw tumbled out of him. “Nice work, sweetheart.”
“We’re going to need the whole story,” Blaze said, his leg bouncing as he waited for Garrison to finish tying the bandage. “And I’m about to hug you to Kingdom Come.”
“I’m looking forward to that,” I said, choked up. “What happened to you? When the call dropped…”
Blaze shook his head in apparent exasperation. “The bastards shot the phone right out of my fingers.” He held up the hand Garrison had just relinquished. “I’ll be typing a little slower for the next few weeks, but I’m okay.”
He wrapped me in his arms, and Garrison joined us, tucking me into a joint embrace. A deeper sense of relief than I’d ever known welled up inside me.
I was free. Free of the Blood Hunter’s influence and attacks, cut loose from his puppet strings. The Chaos Crew had survived together. A few tears spilled out, maybe the first I’d ever released in the presence of my men, but neither of them commented on it. Garrison just kissed my cheek.
“We’d better get out of here,” he said. “The cops don’t care much about this part of town, but eventually they’ll come to investigate the ruckus we made.”
“Yes,” I said. Back to Julius and Talon, who were keeping watch over my brother while they healed. Back to Steffie. Back to the rest of my life now that it was fully mine.
I started grinning at them all over again. “It’s time to go home.”
