Page 58 of Hollow Forest

With a reassuring squeeze, the monster who’d haunted me, who’d cared for me, stepped toward the vile offering. My stalker punched him in the stomach. He didn’t retract the blow, but pressed his fist hard into the soft flesh of Ferretti’s belly and twisted.

“Again,” I choked.

I would never be able to deliver this sweet taste of justice. My plan had been to drag him into the hollowed sanctuary of the forest, dig a hole, and shoot him in several non-lethal places before I buried him alive.

My stalker’s venom was far more righteous.

Fists pummeled flesh. The sickening sound of battered meat filled the night. The very wind seemed to hold its breath as my stalker struck, over and over.

Ferretti let out a couple of pathetic groans. It wasn’t even the gag that kept him mute. He was fading into the beyond. I hoped that divine justice would handle the next chapters of his existence.

Shifting my attention to the man in the skeletal mask, I took a tentative step forward. This game had started with an unholy fear that I would be captured and unable to exact my revenge.

Instead, this glorious monster offered it to me on a silver platter. Well, no. On a T-shaped pole.

An intense desire to rush into the monster’s arms overwhelmed me. I burned with the need to show him just how much this meant. I wasn’t alone. This perfect beast had crossed my path by some stroke of fate, and he accepted the darkest part of me.

My soul wasn’t dead after all. It found an equally dark and deranged counterpart.

“Monster,” I called to him. “Kiss me.”

The masked man rounded on me. The violence that swirled around him like living shadows was the biggest fucking turn on. I practically leapt into his arms as we closed the distance simultaneously.

His mouth found mine a second later. My heart skipped a damn beat. Cradling my head in one of his large, lethal hands, he wrapped his other arm around my waist as he dropped to his knees, bringing me with him. The kiss turned ravenous.

I stretched my body under his, embracing the soft earth of the path. There was blood on his hands. There was dirt on my body. Neither mattered. All I cared about was this monster—and his hard cock pressing into my thigh.

Flexing my hips, I rubbed my pussy against the thick length.

The monster groaned into my mouth. “Here?”

“Here,” I demanded with a nod. My teeth knocked against his jaw as I attempted to press a kiss there.

With a growl, he reached between us and tugged on my jeans. I continued to kiss and suck along his throat. Blood rushed through his arteries, his pulse running wild against my lips.

It matched mine.

“Does this turn you on, little doe?” He slid two fingers against my panties.

Heat pooled in my core from how fucking violent he was. Gentle, always gentle with me, but when it came to this monster, he was capable of terrible things.

“This—” he rasped. “This is why I call you monster, you deceptive little thing. You reek of innocence, but you’re no timid doe, Sam. You’re a monster, same as me.”

Whimpering, I rocked against his touch, already feeling the heady spike of pleasure.

“Only a monster would be turned on at the idea of fucking next to a dead body.”

I barked a laugh. “He’s not dead yet.”

A deranged, animalistic noise clawed from his throat. My stalker leaned over, picking up my gun, which had fallen when he ripped my jeans off. “Why don’t you fix that, beautiful?”

Time slowed. I saw myself as if from above. I took the loaded revolver, flicked off the safety, and aimed at the lump of meat.

My stalker tugged my panties to the side and shoved three fingers deep into my core. Moaning around the flood of sensation, I pulled the trigger.

“Missed.” The word was hot against my ear.

He continued to tease me, pumping his fingers in and out of my core as I lined up another shot. My spine tingled. My hips bucked as I chased the electrical current. Somewhere, I had the presence of mind to breathe as I squeezed the trigger.