Page 11 of Justified (Ruthless Vigilante #1)

He scoffed. “I’m going to pretend like you didn’t just say that. I printed up his info for you. Now, I’m going to bed. I’ve got work in the morning. They wanted to start me on the new payroll.” He leaned over, kissing me, then walked towards our bed.

I know I said we weren’t lovers, but we did have one rule. That was our bed. We didn’t fuck one-timers in our bed. I stayed up a little longer, then took my ass to bed.

″Are you ready to see Cobra in all his glory?” I called from the bathroom.

″Yes, I’m so excited to see what you look like,” Jordan shouted.

We had a busy day, he went to work, I went car shopping for us.

I got him a sweet little blue 2006 Ford Taurus.

He squealed like a girl when he saw it and jumped for joy.

There were a few dents and scratches on it, but nothing too severe.

The innards were solid and that was what was important.

As for me, I got lucky as fuck when I was searching online and came across a beautiful 1989 Pontiac Trans Am.

I always thought that car was a thing of gorgeousness.

Of course, the bad news was all of the money we had saved up was gone.

I didn’t tell Jordan that, and may have told a little white lie when he asked me about the price of our new automobiles.

I was hoping to convince Mr. Henley to donate to my cause before I killed him.

Or at least I could steal some shit of his to pawn off somewhere, if all else failed.

I stood in front of the mirror, giving myself one last check before I presented the vigilante version of myself.

I had my contacts in because eye glasses just wouldn’t look right over my leather mask.

“You look fucking badass,” I said to my reflection, then turned and stepped out of the bathroom to a very audible gasp.

″So? You like?” I asked, waiting to hear his full opinion. I mean, the open mouth gasp was something, but was it a good gasp or not?

I was dressed in tight black leather pants with a slick-ass gray design going up the side of my legs.

My jacket was made with leather and nylon to give me maneuverability.

It also featured a hood for when I really wanted to hide my face.

But what was under the jacket was the grandest part of my costume.

I was also sporting some beautiful black leather gauntlets that laced up.

On my back, I had the sword I’d purchased for next to nothing neatly tucked in its scabbard.

On my right thigh, I was wearing a gun holster with my Beretta loaded with armor piercing bullets.

Another costly weapon, but I’d rather be prepared.

On my other thigh was a holster that contained three extra clips.

I was wearing a pair of black leather, calf height, steel-toed boots.

Now, topping off my ensemble was a very comfortable black leather mask I wore over my eyes, as I’d mentioned.

″Well?” I asked again.

″Holy shit!” Jordan said.

″Do you like it?”

″Fuck yeah! I mean, damn, you look so kickass and sexy at the same time.

I swear, I want to be saved by you, then fucked by you right after,” he said, grinning.

He rose off the sofa, approaching me for a closer inspection.

He ran his hands over the material, his smile widening as he did so.

“I love how rock solid you feel under all of this.” He looked up at me. “This is really happening, isn’t it?”

I arched my eyebrows and nodded. “Looks like. I’m not wearing this to the club, not even on Leather Night.”

″You look amazing. Does the mask bother your contacts?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No. I bought several pair to try them out. Three fit perfectly. The others I’m going to return for more of the ones I like.”

″Is there a shirt under the jacket?” Jordan asked, looking closer.

″Yes. And wait till you see it.” I unzipped the jacket, exposing the shirt underneath that really put my body on display just the way I wanted.

Jordan laughed, which wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.

″What in the fuck is so funny?” I asked, looking down at my shirt.

″Why does it look like you were mauled by a lion?” He burst out in another fit of laughter.

″No it doesn’t.”

″What’s with all the rips and tears?” he asked, running his fingers over the open designs of my shirt.

″Oh, no you don’t. You don’t get to criticize my fashion sense. I mean, seriously, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, and you shouldn’t be laughing after that Rainbow Bright Queer costume you came up with.”

″Hey, I wanted to make a statement with that costume.”

″You did, and it was that you should never be asked about fashion. You’re a disgrace to gay men everywhere. I don’t even know why I’m asking you now.”

″Oh stop,” he said, chuckling as he held my jacket open, taking a better look at my shirt. “I see why you wanted this. It does look hot on you. Shows off your muscular chesticus and abstracts.”

″Damn right. I bet none of those guys in your comics ever looked as good as I do in this suit. Don’t lie.” I made sure to pop my pecs since one of his hands was touching the one with the pierced nipple.

″Oh!” he yelped when his hand moved with my flesh and he felt the muscles under my skin. “Okay, yeah… you’re fucking hot. You win.”

I smirked and zipped up my suit, then walked over to the printer to get the paper with my target’s info on it.

″Eric… err… I mean, Cobra?”

I chuckled and turned to look at Jordan. “Yeah?”

″You do realize this is your origin story.”

″I do now.”

″Be safe,” Jordan said as I walked over to my car.

″I will.”

″When you get back, we need to talk about how we don’t have any money in our account,” he commented.

Argggg, damn… I was hoping I could do something about that before he found out. “Sure,” I drawled, then opened the car door, climbing inside.

He walked over to the garage door, opening it up so that I could drive out of our loft. “Also, we need to talk about you lying to me.”

″Are you trying to send me out the door with unnecessary stress?” I questioned.

″Yes, because you deserve it. Besides, I know it won’t get in the way of you completing your mission. You’re much too focused to let that happen. See you when you get back… and you better come back.”

I nodded and drove past him out of the loft.

My new car had a nice base paint job. It was gray and only had a few scratches.

I was planning on doing my own custom work.

By the time I was done fixing this baby up, it was going to be badass.

I wanted it to be showy, but not too showy.

I had a full tank of gas and an agenda… that made me dangerous.

Even if I hadn’t decided to do this vigilante thing, I was going to kill this scumbag.

My intuition told me the dude was bad news.

Stealing another corporation’s software was bad enough.

I even think he was going to try to sell it to a rival company.

But what he was planning to do to me put the icing on the cake.

I hit the expressway, traveling towards Hickory Hillside.

That was where all the big mansions were in Silver City.

According to the information I had, it was a gated community, which meant I was going to have to park somewhere inconspicuous and hike the rest of the way there.

It took me about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there, and I parked in an alley about three blocks away from the community.

Before I climbed out of my car, I looked around, making sure I was alone.

It was two in the morning, so I was hoping enough people would be asleep in their beds at that time and not planning on emptying the garbage.

I climbed out of the car and kept to the shadows as I crept closer to the address.

Lucky for me, I could jump pretty high, covering some pretty decent distances because of my super strength.

I couldn’t fly, though, which kind of sucked.

I also couldn’t leap tall building in a single bound.

I didn’t know of any person out there who could.

I decided to do some minor leaps, just to get over a few yards.

I moved from one backyard to the next until I landed silently on the manicured lawn of my target’s home.

I was hidden nicely in the shadows. See, this was why I had thought Shadow Hunter was a great name.

I didn’t move at first, instead I surveyed the area, looking for any kind of cameras or guards.

There were two guards I could see from my vantage point behind the bushes.

I recognized the one with the cast on his wrist. I waited for him to walk around to the side of the house, which took all of five minutes.

One of the things you had to have plenty of, was patience.

I crawled on the grass, keeping my profile invisible behind the shrubs until I was able to climb out and come from behind the one guard who had remained.

I wrapped my one arm around his neck, cutting off his vocal cords so he couldn’t cry out for help.

Then I locked it in, cutting off his oxygen next.

Within seconds, he was nicely passed out and I dragged his body, dumping him behind the bushes.

If his partner were to come around, I didn’t want him to find the guard just lying there.

That would alert them to my presence too soon.

I did my stealth walk towards the house and listened carefully for the guard’s footsteps.