Page 70 of Dark Side of the Cloth (The Righteous 1)
“Yes, you are. I had one mission, and I blew it. My cover is blown. You can call the police when you’re out of here and tell them everything, and I’ll have to go on the run. I would call that a serious complication.”
“So why not just kill me then?”
“I would think the answer to that was obvious.” Her body warmed with his words and shivered under his intense stare that said more than any words could.
Dean continued walking, and she thought for a few moments. Remaining quiet, she let the information sink in.
“So the man back there is who?”
Dean didn’t say anything, and she stared at his face trying to gauge why he didn’t want to tell her.
“Dean, if you want me to trust you with any of this craziness, you need to tell me who that man is and why you feel he needs to die.” She waved her hand toward the general direction of the man in question. “I mean, death is one thing, but what I saw…”
She stopped talking, unable to finish her sentence as Dean halted just inside the small clearing with the tableau of horror strung up before her. The man was no longer screaming, but she didn’t know what was worse. The limp limbs and blood-soaked body making him look like he was already dead or the screaming. She was fine with the sight of the dead. That wasn’t the problem. It was how this man was dying and who was doing it.
“Can you stand if you hold onto a tree?”
“Maybe.”
“Keep your weight on your good leg.”
Dean placed her on her feet before he stepped back. She looked him over as if seeing him for the very first time, and in a way, she was, wasn’t she? He wasn’t who she thought he was at all. He had the clothes of a killer, the tattoos of a killer, and the eyes of a killer. He was the predator in sheep’s clothing she now knew she’d seen moments of—felt in her heart that the priest persona didn’t quite fit, but she allowed herself to believe it.
“Answer me, please. Who is this man?” Yasmine nodded toward…the situation hanging there. The only sign he was still alive was the soft rise and fall of his chest.
Dean gave her a look that she couldn’t decipher and then sighed.
“This is the man that murdered your sister,” Dean said too calmly.
Yasmine’s head whipped in the direction of the man and then back to Dean.
“You’re lying. How did you even know about what happened?”
“Yasmine, think about what I just told you. I do this for a living. I hunt the hunters that no one else can catch.” Dean stood and stared at her, the weight of his words plainly written in his eyes.
“You’re saying…”
“Yes, I found the man that tried to take you and who abducted Raquel. That man is still alive, but he wishes he wasn’t. This is his brother, and he is the man that tortured, raped, and murdered your sister as he has done to over a dozen other women. Before you arrived, I’d managed to learn where those that had not been discovered had been discarded.”
Dean crossed his arms over his large chest.
“I’ll be able to bring closure to the families left behind and those that were still mourning their missing loved ones. To me, this is a Godly act.”
The bit of strength she was using to hold herself up drained from her body. Dean grabbed her before she could hit the ground and eased her to a sitting position.
This couldn’t be happening.
