she’d said to Shelby and Jaclyn that first night in the hotel hadn’t been hot air. She’d meant every word. That night, she would’ve been prepared to sign a blood oath to declare that was her intention, to use the knowledge of the doctor to track him down and make him pay.
She’d been little more than an animal then. Unchained and let out into a world that made her feel feral, ruled by her emotions, but also afraid. Bone chillingly afraid.
These months out here in the real world, if that’s what this really was, she was becoming domesticated all over again. She was shown that in this world, the one up top, people didn’t go killing those who’d done them wrong down below, underneath it all.
Her need for revenge hadn’t gone anywhere, but her resolve had faltered. She wasn’t afraid of losing all of this. The money, the freedom, the life, because it was all on the surface. It didn’t matter. She didn’t escape because she wanted to eat Italian food, fall in love, and have a happily ever after. Those needs weren’t strong enough, visceral enough to break through the years of torture and terror.
It was revenge.
That’s why she escaped.
That drunken kiss with Maddox had shocked her back into her feral state. It had highlighted her purpose. Because once she got inside her apartment, once Maddox had respectfully stepped away from her and bid her goodnight, she’d been sickened. She wanted to tear apart her skin because she didn’t want its filth touching his. In that moment, she was certain, no matter what April or the shrinks said, she’d never have a first kiss again.
Maddox had been the first boy to kiss her. And he would be the last.
She spent that night in a state of confusion, torn between the feeling of his lips on hers, and the life of the best friend she still mourned. Orion could still feel Jaclyn’s presence, could still hear her sometimes too. Jaclyn had not faded away as Orion had secretly hoped. She haunted Orion, moved her toward revenge, toward bloodshed.
Orion wiped her glistening eyes, grabbed her computer, and went to work.
She had a lot to think about, to research. To consider. There was the location, for example. The easiest place for her would be his home. She’d been watching it for a while now. For as long as she had her license, her Range Rover fit in on the street, so no one even looked twice at her. She knew when his wife and children weren’t there, and when he was. Had memorized everyone’s schedules. There was a window of time when his wife was meeting with her personal trainer and the child was at some kind of sports practice. There were no street cameras that she could see, and interstate access within five miles. She would remove her plate, just in case, and find another. A plate from a random car would do. She’d switch them out and toss it when she was finished. As long as she was driving the speed limit and obeying traffic laws, no cop would waste time running the plate.
It should’ve bothered her. His wife. His child. The family she’d be ripping apart. It should’ve bothered her, but it didn’t. She had put herself in his wife’s shoes. Did she know she was living a filthy lifelong lie? She imagined the woman doing the deed herself if she knew. Or maybe she was one of those Stepford Wives, who knew but ignored it. In that case, the punishment of a broken family seemed more than fair.
Though she didn’t care about the repercussions his death would have on the family, she decided that night that she wouldn’t do it in the house. She couldn’t subject the child to such carnage. And carnage is what that motherfucker was going to face. Besides, it was too risky. Too many things could go wrong. Cameras likely in every corner of the house. The kid could get sick, sprain her ankle. The wife could decide to stop screwing the personal trainer. An unexpected visitor could stop by for a coffee. Too many people had the possibility to get caught up in it. Turn into witnesses, victims. No, she needed to do this quickly and on the street. Somewhere dark and desolate like the place she was taken from, or the place where she spent so many years of her life.
She fell asleep with the computer in her lap and evil thoughts