“That’s how I do it.” Jon had learned from this man before. Done everything his way. For so many years. Too many.
He’d even gone to jail, keeping his secret.
He wasn’t going to be anyone’s little bitch anymore. Prison had taught him one thing—true power went to the strongest. He was the strongest.
After he’d killed his cell mate, the others in Angola had stayed away from him. Rapists, robbers, murderers—they’d all feared him.
Strength is power. I have the power now.
Jon shook his head and offered his partner a small smile. “I do things differently now. I do what I want.” It felt good leaving the damn notes—letting them know he was the one in charge. He’d wanted to leave messages years before taking credit for what they were doing, but his partner—oh, hell, no, he’d been against that. Said messages would be traced.
Nothing had been traced yet.
Nothing would.
They can’t stop me.
“We f**king tried doing what you wanted before.” Rage snapped in the words. “I let you pick your own prey, and you got caught slicing up the teenager. If you’d listened to me, you never would have—”
Jon lifted the bloody knife. Put it against the other man’s chest. “I’m rising.”
“What the f**k does that mean?”
“I don’t need you to tell me what to do anymore.” Power flushed him. Killing the judge had given him a rush. A rush nearly as good as the one he got when he sliced into his usual prey. “I know how to kill. I’m even better at it than you.”
His partner’s rage-filled stare dropped to the knife Jon held so tightly. “You think you’re going to kill me?”
Jon hesitated. That wasn’t part of his plan. His partner was the only one who truly knew him. His only connection.
His family.
He lowered the knife. “Of course not.” Jon tried a rough laugh.
The other man didn’t laugh back. “You shouldn’t have brought the judge to this place. It’s too close to the abduction site. The cops are going to come out here.”
Let ’em come.
“They’re going to keep searching until they have you.” A hard shake of his partner’s head. “The marshal won’t just walk away from this case. He’s not giving up.”
“Because he’s screwing her!”
“You screwed up in front of her. You mentioned Jenny.”
Jenny. She’d been so beautiful, covered in blood. A work of f**king art. He’d tried to make Karen look just like her in death. He tried to make all the women look like Jenny. Broken, bleeding dolls, frozen forever in time.
“You mentioned Jenny, and now they’re gonna want to open her case again.”
Jenny had been too good of a secret to keep any longer. “Do you still remember where she’s buried?” his partner whispered. “I do. I can find her, anytime I want.”
Jon had learned so much since Jenny. They both had. Jenny’s death had been messy and beautiful and so f**king good. But Jenny had fought. She’d scratched his partner. “You left a part of yourself with Jenny.” That was part of his new power, too. “I could tell the marshal, I could tell the DA. If they find Jenny, they find you.”
His partner stared back at him. “We were brothers, you and I.” Brothers born from blood. “I’ve been helping you all along,” he continued. “I’m the one who took Helen Lynch—I made the phone calls to Steve. I convinced him to contact the judge. I’m the one who told him just what the f**k would happen if he didn’t make sure you got out of prison.”
Convinced him by putting Helen’s life on the line.
“Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy cutting on her…” Jon said. The guy had kept Helen, played with her.
“I let you finish her,” his partner shot back.
He had let him. She’d been a gift. A beautiful, bloody doll for his collection.
“When Hamilton ignored the letter, I came up with a different plan, didn’t I?” His partner snarled.
“My plan.” The guy was trying to take credit? “I’m the one who got to the infirmary—”
“And I’m the one who had the car waiting, just like I said I would. I had the car waiting for you. New clothes. Cash. I’m the one who made sure no one would know about the communication we had—do you even know how hard that was? I did it, for you.”
His voice vibrated with fury, and Jon hesitated. He didn’t like to make him angry. But something was f**king bothering him. “You put that necklace where Stacy would find it. If you wanted me out, why the hell would you—”
“The bitch wasn’t respecting you.” It was said with barely contained fury. “She needed to know who she was pissing off—and she needed to know what was going to happen to her.”
It did happen. I cut her so deep.
She respected him now.
“Hell,” his partner blasted, “I’ve been doing everything for you. I even took you to Lauren Chandler’s place, and I let you kill the whore there.”
He’d done all of that for him. Kept him hidden. Brought him food. But… “Five years—”
The other man exploded. “You shouldn’t have f**kin’ taken the babysitter! That was stupid! They caught you red-handed. What the hell was I supposed to do? I got you out!”
Not soon enough. Too many days and nights had passed. Now he couldn’t stand to be confined. He’d taken to sleeping out in the open because he couldn’t bear to be in the cabins near the swamp. Not anymore. The walls closed in. He couldn’t breathe.
“I even let you target the ones you wanted for payback, when they weren’t the prey I would have chosen.”
He only liked to hurt women—the ones like sweet Jenny.
I even let you…
His partner’s words rang in his head. The anger erupted. “You don’t let me do anything.” Not anymore. I’m the leader now,” Jon said, straightening to his full height. A height that put him a good two inches shorter than his partner. “We do what I say because if the marshal gets close again, I will tell him all about Jenny. And you.”
His partner’s face flushed dark red. “They already know about me. Lauren told the cops you were talking to me. They know.”
Walker backed up a step, the move instinctive.
No, don’t back down. You’re in charge.