“Please…” I forced out my words. “I need water—my throat hurts so bad.”
“Everything is earned, sweet Lizzy. Nothing in this world is free.” He chuckled, and it was a dark, sinister chuckle. “But you already know that—don’t you?”
Reynard
One month ago
“I don’t know about this.” My brother, Mauro, looked at the cage in front of us. “I want revenge—I want her to pay—but I don’t want to end up in jail.”
“She’s the only one that’s going to be sitting in a cell,” I growled under my breath. “She has to pay for what she’s done—and if we don’t do it, who will?”
“Maybe we should just take the information we have to the police. I know they weren’t very helpful the last time we spoke to them, but we have real evidence now.” My brother looked over at me, and I saw concern etched on his face.
“I’m not letting this bitch ruin our family name.” My jaw tightened. “She needs to be taught a lesson—and she deserves something a lot worse than prison.”
“I just don’t know.” He shook his head back and forth. “This isn’t just us talking about doing something when we get drunk—this is real. This is fucked up…”
“No worse than the fucked up shit she’s done—or have you forgotten the vow we made when we watched our brother get lowered into his grave?” I ground my words out against my teeth and my anger was starting to rise.
“I haven’t forgotten.” He exhaled sharply. “But we were overcome with emotion—tangled up in grief. We were just—talking.”
“I wasn’t.” I shook my head back and forth. “I meant every word I said.”
“Can I think about it? I’m just not sure—this doesn’t feel right.” He turned away from the cage.
“You’d be a monster if it did.” I narrowed my eyes. “And neither of us are monsters—yet.”
Or maybe I am because the only thing I can think of is seeing sweet little Lizzy locked in that cage.
My brother left, and I walked upstairs to fix myself a drink. Sweet little Lizzy—Elizabeth Abernathy to everyone who knew her. But nobody knew who she really was. They didn’t know what she did to pay her rent, keep her electricity on, and put food on her table. She was a plague—a virus on those that fell for her sweet charm, salivated over her gorgeous curves, and believed she was their ultimate fantasy. She wasn’t my fantasy though—she was my obsession. I was going to lock her in that cage, whether Mauro helped me or not.
But he’ll come around. I know the need for vengeance burns inside of him as brightly as it burns inside me.
I walked over to the wall that was covered in photographs and research—all of it about Elizabeth Abernathy—sweet little Lizzy. I had been watching her for over a year and I knew everything about her. I knew that she was a small child and got bullied by other students at school. I knew that her parents were well off, but unprepared to deal with a rebellious daughter. I knew that she left home when she was seventeen, dropped out of high school, got her own apartment, and after struggling to find work, she
found a way to make money with her gorgeous body. It was just too bad that sweet little Lizzy turned into such a horrible human being.
But that was going to change.
I was going to make sure she never hurt anyone again.
And all of the pain she inflicted?
I was going to inflict it on her.
She’ll regret the day she fucked with my family.
One week ago
“Are you in, or not?” I stared at my brother and tossed a ski mask on the table in front of us.
“Yeah.” He picked it up and sighed. “I’m in.”
“I knew you’d come around.” I smiled and nodded.
“This isn’t for you—it’s for him.” Mauro looked over at our other brother’s photograph on the wall. “I don’t know if he would want us to do this, but I can’t sleep at night knowing that she’s out there hurting other people the way she hurt him—possibly pushing them down the same path with only one way out…”
“We’re going to stop her.” I pointed at the map on the table. “I’ve been following her for a couple of weeks now. She normally has her food delivered but she goes to the grocery store every few days—that’s our best bet.”