Page 24 of The Hunter

“She’s not staying,” I muttered under my breath. “She’s just a means to an end. Nothing more.”

But Cato only tilted his head, unconvinced.

I stood abruptly, the scrape of the chair loud in the quiet cabin. The motion startled her — just a twitch of fingers, a wrinkle of her brow. I froze. Watched. Waited.

After a few seconds, she settled back into unconsciousness.

I turned and walked out of the room, finally able to breathe once I was no longer in her presence.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Her only purpose was for revenge. A necessary casualty in the war I’d declared on the man responsible for Sarah’s death.

One second, I hated her and everything she stood for. Couldn’t wait to see the look on Victor’s face once he realized his precious Ariana was gone.

The next, I felt things I didn’t think I was capable of.

All for a woman I’d barely spent more than five minutes with.

I needed to put some distance between us. Needed to remember she was a necessary part of my plan. That she was just a tool. Nothing more. And when she was no longer useful, I’d toss her out like the garbage she was.

Cato remained close on my heels as I made my way to the underground bunker my father built as a safe room. While I loathed everything the man stood for, at least his paranoia ended up useful to me. The reinforced walls, lack of windows,and triple layered insulation were the perfect place for a remote office away from the standard protection in the various offices of my cyber security firm.

Booting up the system, I logged into the server. The interface lit up, encrypted protocols sliding into place, one after another. A notification for an incoming call popped up, and I accepted it.

“Line secure?” I asked.

“Always,” Blake replied.

“How’d it go?”

“The warehouse is clean,” he assured me. “But not too clean, like you wanted. No blood. No prints.”

I normally didn’t involve my employees in this sort of thing, but Blake wasn’t a regular employee. He was my right-hand man. Always happy to blur the lines of legality when necessary.

For that, he was invaluable to me.

When he learned I was going after Victor Kane, he didn’t hesitate in offering to be transferred to the Miami office in case I’d need him.

Turned out, I did, especially when I refused to accept Gideon’s offer to help.

“And the body?”

“Alligator feed.”

Grim, but effective.

I scrubbed a hand over my face, my fingers scraping along stubble. “Good.”

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” He asked after a few seconds.

Of course he would ask. He was the only person, aside from Gideon, who knew the plan. Who knew I’d intended to take Ariana for my own reasons. And now she was here, albeit under entirely different circumstances than I’d originally planned.

“I was out on the boat when I saw a cruiser pull up to the Kanes’ dock. A man dressed in black got off and entered a codeinto the back gate. Less than a minute later, he walked out with an unconscious Ariana over his shoulder.”

“So you followed.”

“What choice did I have? I couldn’t let him take her. Then my entire plan would be ruined.”

My words lacked conviction. I’d spent the past several hours convincing myself that was the only reason I intervened. In reality, when I saw her being dragged to that boat — her body limp, her head lolling like a puppet with its strings cut — something inside me snapped. Something raw, violent, and so damn confusing.