Prologue
“Is he dead?”
I wanted him to be, but you could still see his chest moving up and down in painful, torturous breaths. He was still with us, unfortunately, but. I. Wanted. Him. Dead.
And I wasn’t the only one.
Maddox, Chance, and Dash stood with me, surrounding the asshole on the ground, and I knew they wanted him dead, too. However, as the oldest and the most sadistic, it had fallen on me to take care of this piece of garbage. Maddox, Chance, and Dash had only come along for the ride. They were here because they needed to see and feel the satisfaction of this motherfucker getting what he deserved.
“Unfortunately, no,” I replied, barely winded from the fury I had rained down on Ashton Childress.
“Are you going to kill him?” Maddox asked, not satisfied with my answer.
I glanced over at my brother and smirked at how blood thirsty he was. “Not sure,” I answered honestly. “I want to.”
“Do it,” Dash glowered from where he was standing. “We’d be doing the world a favor.”
Correction: I glanced at all three guys and smirked at how blood thirsty they were; we all were.
I dropped on my haunches, and while I was pretty sure Ashton could barely hear me, I went for flare, anyway. “You hear that, Childress? I got two in favor of killing you.” Without looking up, I asked, “And what about you, Chance? What do you say we do with him?”
I knew Chance’s answer before I even asked the question. “Fucking kill him.”
“See? Now that’s three in favor of killing you, and you already know how I feel about you,” I taunted sadistically.
His only response was a faint grunt that had to hurt with the effort.
I stared at the bloody mess on the ground and knew I was probably going to kill him. Was I worried that I’d get caught? Not at all. We might be a blood thirsty bunch, but we weren’t stupid. Our parents had made sure of that. See, our parents weren’t like the other parents of Sands Cove. Our parents had made sure we’d have everything we’d ever need for anything we’d ever do.
And that included killing someone.
Addressing the limp body on the ground, I said, “Now, I know you didn’t know who she was. I know you thought she was just some random girl at a party. But I also know she’s not the only girl who you’ve ignored when she’s told you no.” My bloody fist came down on his face again because I just couldn’t fucking help myself. “I also want you to understand that the only reason we’re not destroying your entire family, or getting the parentals involved, is because we taught D.J. well.” I chuckled darkly. “D.J. would be Delaney,” I clarified for him. “Delaney Junior, actually. The girl you tried to rape.”
Another faint grunt, but there was nothing this guy could do to save himself.
Delaney had come across this asshole at a party she had attended last night, and he hadn’t appreciated her rejection. And even though Delaney had no blood brothers, she had me, Maddox, Chance, Neo, Gideon, Dash, Crew, and Zane. It didn’t matter that she was sixteen and Neo, Zane, and Gideon were younger than she was; they’d kill for her, too.
Staring at him, I knew I was probably going to beat him to death. I needed a way to exorcise the rage I still felt at what he’d tried with D.J. and all the girls before her. Luckily, with so many honorary brothers in her life, she knew how to defend herself and that’s what had saved her last night.
The rustling of leaves caught my attention, and I stood up, my head whipping around, along with the others. My ears open and my eyes focused, I scanned the trees surrounding the small clearing we’d brought Ashton to. It was past eleven, and we had flashlights, though I had worked Ashton over by the glare of the moonlight shining through the trees.
No one should have been out here this late. Not on a Sunday night.
And then I saw it.
About a hundred feet away, the reflection of two minuscule orbs brought to life a shadowy figure hidden behind a cluster of trees.
I looked back at the guys. “Don’t kill him,” I instructed because, if Ashton was going to die, it was going to be by my hand. “But take care of him.” I took off running, knowing they’d do what I instructed.
The rustling of leaves and brush told me my prey had taken off running, too, but I wasn’t worried.
Nothing would stop me from catching whoever it was.
And there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to ensure their silence.
Chapter 1
Ramsey~
I raced through the cluster of trees and let my ears lead the way. The poor sucker unfortunate enough to get caught in my crosshairs wasn’t doing anything to minimize the sounds of their escape, and that told me they were running for a reason. And that reason was seeing something they shouldn’t have.
Now, was I worried? No. I had no doubt I’d catch them, whoever they were, and I had no doubt I’d be able to erase whatever they thought they saw from their memory.
That was one of the things about being raised inside a powerful family; there wasn’t much I feared. I had a father who was a psychopath, and he had dirt on the entire city of Sands Cove and most every person who has ever crossed his path in the past twenty years. I also had a mother who supported his psychopathy one hundred percent.
So, did I fear the consequences of killing Ashton Childress? No. First, there’s no way I’d get caught, as cocky as that sounded. You’d think with DNA, cameras, and motive I’d have some worries, but I didn’t. Because, even if I did fuck up somehow, my father would move Heaven and Hell to clear my name. While my father was a ruthless individual, one thing that man didn’t tolerate? My mother being unhappy over anything. And her eldest son in prison for life would definitely make her unhappy, even if she did still have Maddox.
The sounds were getting louder and that just meant I was getting closer. And just as I cut through a couple of Cottonwoods, I saw a figure in all black running as fast as they could. Even from the distance and through the exertion, I could see that the person was a lot smaller than I was. Maddox and I both took after our father in build and that put me at six-foot-two and Mad at six-foot-one.
Kicking up my speed a notch, I quickly caught up to my second victim of the night. And just as they were about to hit a clearing, I reached out, grabbed the hood of their sweatshirt, and pulled them back. I could hear the swoosh of breath as their body collided with mine, but the impact was minimal on my part. I’d barely felt a thing.
And like a true cornered animal, they had started a full-on attack to escape. But being much taller and bigger, I had them slammed up against the nearest tree in seconds. The impact left them breathless, and it left me easy access to pin them against the tree.
By their throat.
I pulled the hood down as their head snapped up, and, suddenly, they weren’t the only one who was breathless.
Almost an entire foot shorter than me, bright blue eyes stared up at me in horror and shock. As dark as it was, I could still make out dark brown hair that was pulled back in a ponytail. And there were no bangs to distract from those startling fucking blue eyes of hers.
Her brows were arched like they came with attitude, and she had a petite nose, soft cheekbones, and a pair of pink lips that should be outlawed. Especially now, with the way they were opened, pants of mint-scented breaths coming out in a rapid tattoo.