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Aqua eyes widened in fear, and I growled, “Don’t move, Savannah, stay right here.”
I hated leaving her by herself, but I didn’t have a choice, and I forced myself to move, attention rapt, fully on guard as I eased forward. At the end of the short hall, I pressed my back to the wall and searched left and right over the living area.
It could be nothing, but I knew full well a person never knew what they were going to come up against, and I sure as hell was not taking a chance with this.
Wasn’t taking a chance with her.
Savannah whose spirit I could feel toiling behind me. Her anxiety was thick as I slipped through the shadows to the front door. I peered out the window to the side of it, into the glinting rays that danced like wraiths in a playground of darkness.
It was then I caught it. The flash of movement off to the far right on the other side of Savannah’s car. It didn’t take a whole lot to surmise that it was a person. Dressed all in black like the asshole had been watching too many reruns of Law and Order.
Fury billowed up from the fiery depths. Where I’d stored all that hatred for the last year and a half. Because whoever this prick was knew. Knew that I was hunting them. Knew I wasn’t going to stop until I found whoever was responsible for Brianna, and my gut warned me this bastard had been sent to try to dissuade me from doing it.
They were going to learn tonight that I wouldn’t be deterred.
The only thing I really fucking wished was that I had my gun and was wearing shoes, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me, either. I had to move quickly before he took off, which didn’t give me time to sneak around the side of the house like I would have liked to have done—left me lacking the element of surprise—but it was just the way this was going to have to go down.
I unlatched the lock, flung the door open, and flew out.
Except maybe the fucker was surprised when the whites of his eyes went wide beneath the pale moonlight, though the rest of his face was concealed in the shadows of the hoodie he wore.
One second later, the piece of shit turned and ran.
I didn’t hesitate to chase him, unwilling to let the asshole get away, and my bare feet pounded across the porch before I hurtled off the single step and onto the ground.
He darted back down the alley along the outside of the fence that enclosed my backyard. The ground here was rocky and weedy, and sharp spikes dug into the bottom of my feet, but I didn’t slow. I raced after the wicked silhouette, my throat clogged with the need to get to him.
To rip the hoodie from his head to find what monster was hidden underneath.
I knew he was related.
Knew he was responsible.
Knew his face would tell me exactly who had taken Brianna from this world.
Hatred and my shame sent me driving faster, harsh breaths panting from my lungs as I sprinted over the craggy terrain. Fucker pushed himself faster, our grunted breaths panted into the air from the exertion of the chase.
I gained on him, my long legs eating up the space and drawing him closer to his demise.
Because I’d end him.
I enclosed, each pound of my feet bringing me closer to him until I finally reached out and got a handful of the back of his hoodie. It ripped, making me lose my grip, but the force of it tripped him up. His arms pinwheeled in an attempt to catch his balance before he toppled forward, and his chest skidded across the pitted ground.
And there he was, the answer to the poison that roiled inside me.
The guy was fairly thick and muscled, but still a fraction of my size.
I reached down with both hands and grabbed the tattered fabric and tossed him over onto his back. Only his arm whipped out as I did.
It was a blur of movement that I didn’t anticipate before a blinding pain pierced me in the side. So sharp that my sight glazed over, and I dropped to my knees as a roar ripped from the darkest place inside me.
The creep jumped back to his feet and darted into the darkness of the alley, and a second later, his shadow disappeared around the end of the fence.
Rage billowed from my mouth, and I tried to stand to chase after him. To hunt him down. But the agonizing pain blistering up my side dropped me straight back to my knees.
My hand went to my side, and I pulled it away to find my palm smeared with blood.
Shock penetrated, wrath splintering me through.
