Page 158 of Ravaged Soul
Gunnar Slaughter.
So much for our perimeter.
The Hunter is cut beneath dark jeans and a black, military-style weapons vest over a muscle tee. He’s the same height and build as Axel but somehow lighter on his feet—a deft, deadly ballerina who picks through the shattered glass to get a better look at us all.
“Your security is lacking,” he announces casually. “If you’re going to guard the street, put men on the roof too. It’s a glaringly obvious exposure point.”
Once-purple hair is now a shock of spiked chocolate-brown, removing the identifiable feature he used to dupe me. But his boyish features, full lips and matching eyes are a dead giveaway. He’s a breathing replica of our Axel.
Everyone has moved as one, taking attack positions and quickly drawing weapons. Warner rises above me to spin and face our newest arrival.
“Was it necessary to break into the building?” Blaine drops his lit cigarette to warily approach us.
“Yes.” Gunnar cocks his head, his orange-hued gaze unsettlingly cold and appraising. “I don’t answer to your patrolling guard dogs, Phantom.”
A shiver snakes its way down my spine, nodule by nodule. Fuck, even his baritone is light and lilting, a carbon copy of the twin standing not so far away. Axel is ashen, stiller than a corpse while assessing his long-lost brother.
Gunnar casts an analytical look over us all, one by one. He lingers on me, the corner of his mouth twitching ever so slightly. I take the hand up that Warner offers, wincing when my bruises twinge from the hard landing.
When his icy stare touches the brother who lied to conceal his existence, Gunnar’s posture changes. He doesn’t seem to have much visible emotional range, but his legs spread, shoulders squaring in clear preparation.
“Brother.” He nods tersely.
With a telltale gulp, Axel takes a single step forward. “Brother.”
“It’s been a long time.”
“Not long enough. What do you want?”
Glancing between them reveals a whole roster of differences. Axel can’t hide a single thought or feeling that crosses his mind. It seems his brother has the opposite problem. His identical features are disturbingly blank, failing to betray a single clue.
With a chilling smile, Gunnar slides a long, terrifyingly sharp hunting knife from his vest. Not even the guns being trained on him by Hyland, Spyder and Raye seem to provoke any hesitation. He acts like the rest of the room is invisible.
“I was summoned.” His shoulder twitches in dismissal.
“In London,” Axel clarifies.
“Ah. I had business to tend to.”
“And that’s what we’d like to discuss.” Warner remains in front of me, taking over the conversation. “A business proposition.”
Still, Gunnar ignores him. He may as well not even exist.
“Why didn’t you listen to her?”
Inching out of his corner, Axel calmly spreads his hands. “Who?”
“Meredith.”
I watch a shudder snap over Axel, almost shaking his knees. “What about her?”
“She told you to run.” Gunnar’s words are clipped. “Yet here you stand.”
“How do you know about that?”
The twisted look of pure contempt and disgust on Gunnar’s face fills me with a very bad feeling. What we’re witnessing isn’t the kind of hatred you can talk through. He looks physically repulsed by his twin.
“I’ve been privy to every conversation you’ve ever had with the woman who birthed us, brother mine. Every phone call. Every email. Every visitation request. Every time you neglected to mention the person you both cast aside while happily catching up.”
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158 (reading here)
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192
- Page 193
- Page 194
- Page 195
- Page 196
- Page 197
- Page 198
- Page 199
- Page 200
- Page 201