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More sweat trickled down his back.
Avalon Trahan should have died long ago. But she’d had guards after the fire. First from her family. They’d yanked her out of her school. Transferred her to a fancy private academy behind a big-ass gate. Bought a new house. Kept those hulking security personnel on her all the time.
Then later…
Others were watching. He’d first noticed the tails on her. Because maybe…maybe he’d thought that he could eliminate an old, loose end for a friend.
But she was never unprotected. He’d warned his friend about that. But someone had not paid attention.
He had to think. He had to plan. Had to get another message out, but the damn guard he needed wasn’t there that day. Everett fired an angry glare over his shoulder. He was stuck with those dumbasses.
“Settle down. You’re not going back to solitary, not just yet. You get five minutes in the yard.”
He stumbled. Stupid chains. “I don’t need five minutes.” He wanted the quiet of solitary confinement. It let him think. He needed to think.
Avalon was trying to get in my head.
And…she had.
“Relax,” the guard assured him. “It will be just you in the yard. Five minutes of sunshine. You know you’re supposed to get out each day.”
Yeah, yeah, he knew that but…
Another guard opened the door up ahead. The metal screeched. Sunlight glinted. So bright. Too bright. He’d never really liked the daytime. Night was better. Everything was better in the dark.
They took off his ankle manacles. The better for him to walk more than a freaking half-inch at a damn time.
And they…
Left him in the yard.
With his hands cuffed. With the sun shining down on him. Oh, Everett knew he wasn’t really alone. Guards watched from up above. But…
Quiet.
Still.
He closed his eyes and remembered the girls he’d loved over the years. He could hear their screams so perfectly. He’d become their nightmares. The last thing they’d seen before death. They’d been so afraid.
He hadn’t liked the water or the fire. He’d liked a knife. One gripped in his hand that had become part of him. He’d been the perfect weapon. And he’d been able to hear every single scream with such wonderful clarity.
She won’t feel a knife at the end. Avalon was going to be taken by the fire. He knew it was coming. She’d been marked for so long.
She didn’t remember him. He’d realized that when he first sat across from her just a few days ago. Oh, sure, she knew him as the Slasher. But she didn’t remember…
We met, once upon a time in New Orleans. A day she’d been celebrating. Laughing.
Young and innocent. Had she even realized what she’d witnessed in those few moments? Just in case, she’d been marked for death.
But she’d escaped the fire. Because of Beau. A prick who should have just boosted the ride and gone on his way. Hell, they had even thought about pinning the fire on Beau. He’d been in the right place. At the right time.
We saw you, too.
Except Beau hadn’t done what they anticipated. He’d changed everything. Screwed everything.
And now, the past had come back. Only, really, the past had never let her go.
He heard a rush of wind. His eyes opened because the sky had been so bright before. No sign of clouds and why was the wind so loud all of a sudden?
