Page 2 of Hunted Temptation (Alpha Nights: Unlikely Heroes #4)

Chapter One

VAUGHN

Renting the house across the street from the chief of police’s home wasn’t easy. I had to wait three months for availability. I had planned on an in-and-out situation. Maybe be in town for a day or two, kill the fuck and be gone.

But I’ve been watching her for three months.

Her .

Elodie Scoggins.

It’s wrong. I know it is, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her. She’s eighteen years old as of yesterday. Maybe that’s why I chose to rent the house and come here instead of moving in and out the way I typically do on one of these missions.

I would be a liar if I said that I didn’t want to get a closer look at her, at least. And I’m lying to myself if I don’t admit I want to get not only a closer look, but I want to actually be inside her.

But she’s thirteen years my junior, far too fucking young for me, so I’m going to keep my distance. I’m going to watch her, though, to ensure that once her dad is dead, she’s safe. As much as I want to admit it’s because I’m being a nice person, my hard cock tells a different story.

Once I was able to get past her beauty, I started studying her closely. Realizing there’s something hiding behind her eyes. Something I don’t like. Something I need to know more about.

I’m not sure what I see there in her gaze, but if it’s what I initially thought… I shake my head. I don’t think like that. And I’m not so sure I can just turn away from her. This is Scoggins’s daughter. He’s a sick fuck, but could he be that sick?

Instead of unpacking my bags, after settling into the house and ensuring that all the host’s cameras are disabled, I open my suitcase and set it on a chair. I never get too comfortable, whether I’m at a hotel or an Airbnb. I am always ready to bounce at the drop of a hat.

I walk over to the window in the bedroom. I’m on the second floor, looking down at the front of the house. This is an unassuming neighborhood, nice but not too nice. Every house is on a quarter to half an acre of land. Some have pools, others don’t.

The lawns are all manicured, and the flowers are all blooming. If I didn’t know better, I would guess that it’s fake. It’s all very upper-middle-class without being too much of anything. It’s suburbia, and the perfect place for an unassuming chief of police to live.

A sick-as-fuck chief of police who is attempting to hide in plain sight.

But I’ve found him.

And he’s not getting away from me. He will never hurt another person again. Not a single fucking soul. The position he’s in seems important, but compared to some of the other men I’ve taken out, he ain’t shit. Which means he may have some deeper connections to some of the people who are shit.

I may not want to end him from across the street. I may need to have a discussion with him. I think I’m going to attempt to gather some information. And I tell myself it’s all because of who he is and what connections he may have, denying that it’s actually because I want to fuck his daughter.

The front door opens, and I watch as the chief walks out. He makes his way to his car, turning his head to look over his shoulder at the door. He calls out something, but I can’t make it out from where I am.

I can’t put cameras up either, at least not yet.

Not until I know what the full situation is.

He’s got the outside of his house covered in them.

But I can hack into their system and join the feed until I put in a little more work.

I start to turn toward the small desk in the bedroom, where my computer is set up, when movement out of the corner of my eye causes me to pause.

It’s her.

Elodie climbs over the side corner of the fence from the backyard. Interesting. That must be a weakness in the camera surveillance system. At least I know where the weak point is for future reference.

I watch as she walks down the street, wrapping her arms around her middle. Her head is dipped, and her gait is quick. I want to follow her, but don’t, resisting only barely. I need to get set up on that surveillance system so I can start following.

Except I won’t be focused on just Elodie. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to keep my attention on the chief. Much to my personal dismay. I would much rather focus all my attention on Elodie and figure her out— inside and out.

Sitting down at the desk, I turn on the device and load up the program. I know what I need to do to get into his system. He may be the chief of police, but he won’t have anything that I can’t get into.

It takes me a little longer than I would prefer, but after about two hours, I’m in the system. I can’t hack into what’s been recorded unless I get into a different program, but I don’t need that yet. I am going to see everything I need to see through this. Everything from this moment forward.

As I go through the feed, I frown when I see that there is a girl’s bedroom under surveillance.

Pink bedding, stuffed animals on a shelf just below the ceiling.

Porcelain dolls are on display. It’s eerie.

This doesn’t look like the bedroom of an eighteen-year-old.

It doesn’t look like the room of any teenage girl, no matter her age. I don’t like it.

Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I lean back. I’ve printed the floor plan of the house. I start to make notes on where all the cameras are placed. When I’m finished, I take a look at the plan and frown.

The master bedroom has no camera. Neither does the home office, along with any of the bathrooms, but all of the other bedrooms do, and so do all of the common rooms. Leaning back in my chair, I pull up every camera, and almost half a dozen squares appear on my screen.

I put them in order of the rooms in the house, and then I take them in. Memorizing them.

I’m not sure how long my eyes flick from one camera to the next, memorizing not only what room each of them is in but also where everything is in said rooms. My spine straightens when I watch Elodie walk into the pink girlie bedroom.

She turns toward the camera, her eyes filled with unshed tears and her shoulders slumped. I watch as she dramatically falls onto the bed, bringing her knees to her chest as she curls into the fetal position.

What the fuck ?

Keeping my gaze on her, I don’t look away. Every primal instinct in my body calls me to go to her. I don’t. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to. There is a knock on my own door that causes me to jump.

Closing my eyes, I let out a sigh with a chuckle, annoyed at my ridiculousness. I stand before moving toward the front door and look through the peephole, then I watch the grocery delivery driver walk away.

I’ve ordered enough food to sustain me for a week. I don’t know how long I’m going to be here, so I figure if I stay stocked up on a weekly basis, it’s the best way to take care of my groceries.

Once I’ve put everything away, I go back to my computer. Elodie is gone, no longer curled up on her bed, and as my eyes scan the other cameras, I realize that she isn’t in any other part of the house, either. Then I watch as she walks out of the bathroom into her room.

She’s wearing a robe. I know I should look away, but I don’t. Like a fucking pervert, I watch as she opens a drawer and takes something out. Then she slips her robe off, which leaves her completely naked. My cock should not twitch, but it does.

Instantly.

ELODIE

I should not have snuck away today. It was dangerous.

I know it was. My father has been in a mood the past few days, and not a good one.

But I needed to get to my high school counselor.

He said I couldn’t go to college, but I’m not going to let that stop me.

She needed my signature on some paperwork that she was sending off to a college.

Hopefully to my new college.

Right now, I’m desperate.

My father refuses to do anything to help me in any way when it comes to school, and I can’t qualify for any help until I’m twenty-four. I don’t know why I thought he would. I was living in some kind of dreamworld where I thought I had freedom and a sense of normalcy.

I thought that because I went to public school here in town, I would just do what everyone else was doing and pack my things to go away to school. I should have known that it wasn’t an option.

I allowed myself to imagine something normal.

But there is nothing normal about my life. There never has been.

Now that I’m eighteen, I can sign some documents myself, but I don’t think it will be enough. My grades are okay, but there is no way I’ll be able to get an academic scholarship. I’m not an athlete or particularly gifted in the arts, either.

There are no scholarships for me, and student loans aren’t feasible either. I’m pretty sure I won’t be getting out of town by way of college like I anticipated—not for lack of trying. After signing the papers and my high school counselor being less than hopeful for me, I sneak back into the house.

I wasn’t expecting everything to be this hopeless. A few months ago, I thought I was going to be walking away. That I was getting out of this house, out of this world. But I’m not. I’m doomed to stay here forever.

I move into the bathroom to take a long, hot shower. I don’t know what my future is going to look like, but what I do know is that I can’t stay here for a second longer than I have to. I have to find a way out of here. For my own sanity, for my own safety, I need to go far, far away from here.

After my shower, I walk into my bedroom and put on some comfy clothes—a pair of lounge shorts and a matching tank—but instead of just that, I grab my oversized zip-up hoodie, zipping it all the way to the neck before I flip the hood over my head.

The good news is he won’t be home today. I have a few hours to just relax without worrying about him. Walking out of my bedroom, I move toward the kitchen in search of food. I’m usually too nervous to eat much, especially if my father is anywhere near me.

But he’s not coming home tonight, so I can maybe enjoy a meal in peace.

The house is empty, but I never feel alone here.

I don’t know that I’ve ever truly been alone a day in my life, but at the same time, I’ve never felt anything except lonely.

If that makes any sense, which I’m not sure it does, but it’s exactly how I feel, all the time.

The house phone on the wall rings, and I inwardly roll my eyes because I know exactly who is on the other end of the line. Walking over, I reach for the handle, picking it up and placing it against my ear.

I’m not allowed to have a cell phone, and I’m not allowed to go anywhere without my father’s consent, so he knows where and how to reach me—always.

“Hello?”

“Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for you. Rest up.”

Closing my eyes slowly, I let out a long exhale. I don’t tell him that I don’t want to do it, even though every fiber of my being is screaming no. I don’t want to rest up. I don’t want a busy day. I want to vanish from here and never, not ever, come back.

“Okay,” I say.

He snorts, as if my response amuses him. I’m sure to a degree it does. He feels as if he’s broken me, and he loves that. Any time I say something that he doesn’t anticipate, he sees that as defiance and insubordination. Which in turn makes breaking me even more of a challenge. Which he loves.

“I’ll be home in the morning with instructions.”

The call ends, the line is dead, and I hang up the receiver.

I look at the plate of food that I had started preparing, but suddenly don’t feel hungry anymore.

Instead of finishing my meal, which was a meat, cheese, and vegetable plate with a side of several different types of chocolate bars, I put everything away.

Lying down on the sofa, I reach for the remote control and turn on the television as I bring my knees to my chest. I try not to think about what my father has planned for tomorrow, but unfortunately, it’s all I can think about, which I’m sure was his intention.

I turn on a movie and stare straight ahead, not even taking in a moment of what’s playing in front of me. Tears fill my eyes, and instead of biting them back, I let them fall. The realization of what is to become of me finally slams into me.

I’m stuck here. There isn’t going to be a college. There isn’t going to be freedom. I’m eighteen, and it hasn’t ended.

It’s never going to.

This is my life.

This is my future.