Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 35974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
“No, honey. I’m a selfish bastard, though.”
“No! Really?” Her mock surprise made me raise an eyebrow.
“Is that sass?”
“Nope. It’s sarcasm.”
I tilted my head, moving closer to her. I gripped her waist and lifted her to sit on the counter. She gasped, her hands going automatically to my shoulders. Even though it was wise to put some distance between us, I knew I couldn’t give her too much. I also had this overwhelming drive to push her. Just a little. I shoved her knees apart and stepped between them, moving my hands to rest beside her hips with my palms flat on the counter.
“Here’s what’s gonna happen, Hannah. You’re gonna tell me exactly what you’ve been doing since that night. And you’re gonna tell me exactly what you hoped to accomplish.”
She sucked in a breath. “I… what?”
“When did you start targetin’ abusers?”
I didn’t think she was going to answer me, but she finally gave a heavy sigh, like the weight of the world was on her shoulders, and leaned forward to rest her forehead on my chest. “I didn’t set out to do this. It started when I was in college. My roommate had trouble with her boyfriend one semester. When it came time for Christmas break, I helped her make plans to get away from him. She didn’t have family anywhere who could help her. He’d isolated her financially and was working on whittling away at her friends.”
“Classic abuser.”
“Yeah.” She looked up at me, her eyes glassy and full of so much pain it nearly took my breath. “I wasn’t ready for the backlash. I helped her get away, but I didn’t get help covering her tracks. When he found her, she called me, screaming.” Two tears overflowed Hannah’s eyes and trickled down her cheeks. “I tried to get to her, but I was an hour away. I listened to him rape and beat her to death, Knuckles.”
It took everything inside me to not react. I knew she needed to get this out. And, honestly, this wasn’t anything I didn’t expect.
She shifted her gaze, her expression hardening. “When I got there, she was already dead. Had been for at least ten minutes.”
“He still alive?”
Hannah shook her head. “No. I killed him that night.”
“You get help cleanin’ up the mess?”
Again, she shook her head. “His parents had a log cabin way out in the middle of nowhere. It’s why it took me so long to get there. It was little more than a hunting cabin, though he made it seem more grandiose. I think he was in shock he’d actually killed her when I found them.” She took several deep breaths then met my gaze steadily. “I walked right up to him and stabbed him in the neck over and over until he stopped moving.”
“How did you get rid of the body?” It was a long time ago, but I might need to do some clean up just in case.
“Burned the place. Took several days and I was terrified I was going to get caught, but I burned everything to ash. Including Calvin.”
“Had to have taken a fuckin’ hot fire. No one saw?”
“When I say this place was way out in the middle of nowhere, I mean literally that. Part of the drive there, I had to take an ATV. It was built at the edge of a clearing, but it had started to grow up. It was my good luck several days of rain followed. I remember the temperature dropping and it stayed just above freezing. I tried to burn it at night so the smoke wasn’t visible. The fire probably was, but no one investigated.”
“So you kept at it until everything was ash?”
“Yes. Then I buried as much of the ash as I could.”
“Not very efficient, but pretty thorough.”
She took another deep breath. She’d put on a good act before, so I paid close attention to her. She was a pretty good actress, but she couldn’t lie for shit. Which, I admit, was a conundrum in itself. “I learned better after the first time.” She finally met my gaze, her lips set in a firm line. “Took me a decade, but I finally became a pretty proficient serial killer.”
I barked out a laugh. I knew she was serious. “I mean, I guess that’s one way of looking at it.”
“It’s what it is, Knuckles. I target men who abuse women. I get them to let their guard down. I play the part of a meek, submissive woman, and when they prove they’ll use force to get what they want, or their fists to take out their frustration on a convenient target, I consider them a lost cause and take care of the matter.”
“How many, Hannah?”
Again, she looked away. She might be OK with what she’d done, but in the end she’d still taken lives. And despite the front she tried to put up, she couldn’t fool me. Herself maybe. But not me. “Five. I take my time. I don’t want to get it wrong.”