Read Hidden (To Love A Killer #1) Online
Authors: Lexie Ray
Hidden (To Love A Killer #1) (14 page)
And that’s when a terrible feeling came over her, washing through her, a swell of black panic.
Her stomach lurched with unease. Something was wrong. She could feel it. And it wasn’t just the fact that Travis had broken in and had begun to do God only knew what to the girls. Hunter could feel that something was definitely wrong. It was like a sixth sense that caused her bones to tremble. Whatever was going on inside her apartment, she sensed an overwhelming paranoia that the result would be death. Or worse, that the killing had already begun. But if it had, wouldn’t she have heard something?
It was eerie that she hadn’t. It gave her the creeps that she hadn’t heard so much as a floorboard creak. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end. Dread, raw and dark, surged through her. She couldn’t wait any longer for a signal that she was beginning to fear would never come.
If she were wrong, Ash would be furious with her for not sticking to the plan. But she’d rather have him alive and furious than dead and happy. When she had a feeling this strong, Hunter was rarely wrong.
She lifted the keys, and slid one slowly into the deadbolt lock, wincing at the sustained scraping sound it made until the key was met with hard resistance deep in its hole.
Preparing to turn the key, Hunter grasped her gun firmly in her right hand, aligning her index finger carefully over the trigger.
Hunter’s heart was racing and the rush of blood flow through her head was making her dizzy. She took a long deep breath. She told herself to lock eyes on Travis the second the door had been thrown open and to aggressively take him out. She reminded herself of what the Latino boy had told her, what the gang had reinforced: don’t hesitate.
Her legs felt rubbery. Her hands felt weak, numb with fear. Hunter closed her eyes briefly, gritting her teeth, and told herself that on the count of three this was happening.
One.
She opened her eyes.
Two.
She inhaled a deep breath.
Three!
Hunter twisted the key hard in its lock, and thrust her shoulder against the door with all her might.
The door buckled in, opening, and Hunter spilled into the apartment with it. Stumbling forward, she managed to keep her gun raised, aiming straight ahead, as she barreled down the odd corridor that led to the inside of her studio apartment.
There in the studio her eyes first caught sight of the girls, huddled on the ground. Not a second later, Hunter saw that behind them Ash was standing with two arms raised in the air, his hands spread wide, empty.
And that’s when Hunter understood.
A gun was pointing at Ash’s temple.
Travis was standing behind Ash, holding him hostage.
This wasn’t over, as far as Hunter was concerned. She trained her aim on Travis’ head.
“Let him go, Travis,” she said.
“We both know that isn’t going to happen,” said Travis.
“I killed Dale. I have no problem killing you,” she warned.
“I doubt you’ll risk shooting your boyfriend,” he said.
“You have no idea how good my aim is.”
Travis said nothing. He didn’t move a muscle.
Ash looked worried, and when Hunter stared at him longer, she realized his eyes were red and his cheeks were wet as though he had been crying. Yet he seemed unharmed. The girls were cowering on the floor. They didn’t so much as lift their gaze at her. What the hell had happened in here?
“What do you want, Travis?” she asked, lowering her tone by an octave. “You obviously don’t want them dead, so what do you want?”
“Everything is going to go back to the way it was,” he said.
“How’s that?” she challenged. “Dale’s dead. The girls are grown, and I’ve got a gun pointed at your head.”
“You’ll see,” he said.
And that’s when it happened. That’s when the miracle occurred, the opportunity she never thought would present itself.
Travis shifted his weight, exposing the broad side of his chest out from behind Ash.
If Hunter had stopped to think about it, she never would have done it.
She swung the gun lowering it towards the right, and fired.
The tremendous sound caused Ash to flinch, jumping sideways.
The kick from firing sent Hunter’s gun smacking back, nearly striking her face. But her eyes never left Travis.
He fell sideways, stumbling to the ground. The hole in his chest turned bloody red in seconds.
It was a perfect shot.
Travis tried lifting his gun, but had no control over his hand. He could do nothing but clench his chest and fade into unconsciousness under the unstoppable flow of hemorrhaging blood loss.
Ash looked up at her, but where she expected to see relief, gratitude, and reassurance, she was met only with wide-eyed fear.
Suddenly, Hunter realized there was more going on here than met the eye.
She had no idea why, but at that moment she looked towards the bathroom door. It was closed.
She looked at the girls. Molly wasn’t there.
She remembered the gunshot she and Ash had heard.
Hunter thought she understood.
But when the bathroom door slowly creaked open, and she saw who was stepping out of it, her entire world was thrust upside down in the blink of an eye.
“Hello, Sweetheart,” said a man.
Hunter couldn’t believe her eyes.
It was her father, the monster who had started the horrors of the farmhouse all those years ago. The man she most wanted dead.
All of a sudden, Ash grabbed her by the arm, snatching the gun out of her possession.
“It’s all over,” said Hunter’s father.
Hunter stared, mouth gaping at Ash.
“I don’t believe it,” she whispered.
Ash returned her gaze. His steel blue eyes turned dark.
“I trusted you,” she said under her breath.
“Things aren’t always what they seem,” said Ash, holding her gaze as long as possible.
But Hunter turned away, glaring hard at the monster she used to call Dad.
“I needed to see what kind of killer you are,” he said, his voice seething with evil. “Now I know. You’re perfect.”
Whatever dark intentions her father had, Hunter made a promise to herself that she would never let him succeed.
This wasn’t the end.
It was just the beginning.
And no one knew what kind of killer she was better than Hunter herself.
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