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“Very well.” The Vigilante’s words were measured and deliberate, casting a spell of ominous foreboding that hung heavy in the air. “It seems our negotiations have failed.”
As Anthony shifted his hip slightly, a palpable tension filled the air, like a coiled snake waiting to strike. Anthony’s eyes darted around the space.
“Let me go,” Anthony said, his chest heaving quicker than it was before.
The Vigilante tsked. “I might have considered letting you go.” His voice was low, each word edged with a simmering rage. “To gather the intel I normally require that proves you killed those two women. But do you want to hear what your fatal mistake was?”
The assailant’s eyes snapped to me, to the van’s closed hatch, then back to the Vigilante.
“You came afterher,” the Vigilante said.
Silence eclipsed the thunderous clouds.
“Look away, Ms. Payne.”
CHAPTER16
Luna
My eyes widened as blood spurted across the Vigilante’s shirt and poured down Anthony’s skin, his throat split open with a gash. Anthony’s eyes widened through several wet gasps before rolling into the back of his head.
His lifeless body slumped to the van floor.
Instinctively, I inched backward, like the blood was a toxin that could infect me, pressing my body against the van’s rear hatch. Nausea swirled in my gut while my eyes were fixed, unable to blink.
I tore my gaze away from Anthony’s lifeless body to the Vigilante, who was crouched a couple of feet away, his knife’s blade glistening with a sheen of blood. There was something primal about his presence, something that defied easy explanation—a moment of conflicting emotions, I guess.
The Vigilante had just saved my life. And for that, I was immensely grateful. Especially since my death had been scarily close…and he’d also made Anthony answer my questions, and had been my ally in the fight against my would-be killer.
But the Vigilante hadn’t merely knocked Anthony out of the way to save me or called the police to turn him in after we got our questions answered. He’dkilledhim. Slit his throat.
Just like he’d slit Dominic’s throat.
The image ofDominic’sneck sliced open like a gory steak,hisblood pooling beneathhimwhile the Vigilante stood there waiting for him to die, crashed into my mind. Reminding me who the Vigilante really was.
Not a protector, but a killer. A ruthless one who’d slaughteredmanypeople in this city.
The only thing that I knew for certain was that the Vigilante was lethal. I’d just witnessed a second murder he’d committed, and now he was facing me, holding a knife.
“Stay back!” I shrieked.
“It’s good to officially meet you, Ms. Payne,” the Vigilante said in his growling whisper of a voice.
“You saw the press conference,” I surmised.
“The one where you declared war against me? Yes, I did.”
Maybe he wanted to be the one to do the honor of silencing me for good.
I grasped around behind me, trying to find a button that could open the van’s hatch from the inside.
“But I knew your name before that,” he said.
My fingers trembled. “How?” How did a killer know my name?
“You’ve helped many guilty go unpunished. Predators who roam the streets and prey on the innocent. Including Mr. Hopkins.”
I clenched my jaw. “Dominic was innocent.”
