Kings of Anarchy (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,2

even from here. Every one of my senses was alight. I was prey to a predator, but that wasn't right. That wasn't who I was. I wouldn’t be hunted down in the dark like a frightened doe running from a wolf. Not again.

I darted behind a huge tree and slammed my back to it, pressing a hand to my mouth and falling entirely still. I needed to circle back, had to get to the Night Keepers. How far away were they now? Maybe they were coming, maybe they weren't far. Maybe all I needed to do was waste enough time until they got here. But my gut told me I didn't have long enough for that. The car had travelled too far from the cabin. I was on my own. And I had to be ready to face this monster who’d taken my father from me, carved a hole between his eyes. Eyes which had looked at me with love and pride and adoration. Eyes that would never see me again.

I stooped down and found a branch on the ground, hefting it into my grip before standing upright again and swallowing down my fear. I was a fighter, I was the girl my father had raised me to be and I wouldn’t cower away like a rabbit in a hole. I was going to show this motherfucker exactly who he was dealing with.

"Come out here, sweet thing!" Mortez's voice made me wince. He was so close. I didn't dare move, didn't dare take a single breath no matter how much my lungs burned. "I promise you this, it'll hurt less if you give up now. If not...well, I'll make you suffer real bad, darlin'. I'll break a few bones before I find out what all those boys are chasing one pussy for. Then I'll cut off all your pretty fingers and toes before I even think about ending your sufferin'. So what'll it be?"

I heard him approaching the tree I was hidden behind and my fingers tightened around the damp wood in my hands. My muscles were bunched tight, coiled like a spring. Every ounce of strength I possessed was ready to be unleashed in this one blow.

The flashlight on his phone wheeled across the ground to my right so I angled myself that way, trying not to tremble as his footsteps closed in on that very spot.

One hard, furious blow could knock him to the ground. A second to the head could finish him. I just had to make the first one count. Once he was down, I wouldn't stop hitting until it was done. Until his blood stained the ground and he stopped twitching. I’d make him hurt, make him scream, make him pay.

My fear gave way to a pure and primal desire to avenge my family. This man had killed my father, killed Saint. He would pay for that. He would suffer and cry and no one would come to his aid. I felt the monster in me take over, a creature which had no morals, only a hunger for blood and death and revenge. I'd never felt its full embrace before, just a dark energy that had sometimes possessed me. I had a soul which matched those of the Night Keepers, that called to theirs in the way theirs called to mine. We were the same in this one, fundamental way, I just hadn't realised it until now. Not until everything had been taken from me and I’d seen my father bleeding on the floor beneath me. Lifeless. Dead. Gone.

"Come out, pretty pretty." Mortez stepped past the tree and I swung the branch, silent as the wings of death as it wheeled ferociously toward his head. It smashed into his face and he yelled out as he stumbled back, his foot catching on a tree root so he fell to the ground.

I went for his head again, but he brought up the gun and I was forced to change direction, smacking his hand instead with a yell of anger. The gun went off and the sound of the shot ricocheted through my ears. But I wasn't dead. The bullet was somewhere in the sky.

The gun tumbled over the ground and I brought the branch down again with a shriek of determination. Mortez flung up his arm and the branch broke against it, shattering in my hands.

He lunged at me with a feral growl, throwing his full weight forward. I tried to twist away, but his arms