Hunting
Chapter 17
The hours after the call blurred together. I sat on the couch, knees pulled to my chest, staring at nothing while the city outside pulsed on like it didn’t care that my life had just detonated.
The tape was everywhere. The comments. The shares. The sick, gleeful headlines spinning my body into some kind of public commodity. I thought I had known humiliation before. Thought I had tasted fear. But this was different. This was annihilation.
When Cole finally moved, the sound startled me. He was standing near the window, his phone in his hand, his shoulders tense as steel.
“They think they have you cornered,” he said, his voice quiet but sharp enough to cut. “But they miscalculated.”
I turned my head, my voice a cracked whisper. “What does that mean?”
He looked at me then, his eyes darker than I’d ever seen them. “It means they just told me how scared they are. You do not destroy someone like this unless you are desperate to control them.”
“Control me,” I repeated, the words tasting like ash. “For what? I don’t have anything. I’m nothing now.”
His jaw tightened. “You are the one thing they cannot predict. That makes you dangerous to them.
I laughed, a hollow, humorless sound that scraped my throat raw. “I am done digging. I do not even have a job anymore. Cynthia made sure of that.”
Cole’s gaze sharpened. “That does not matter. Your job is not what makes you a threat. It is you. And until they break you, they will not stop.”
I looked away, my stomach twisting. “Then maybe they’ve already won.”
For a moment, silence stretched between us, thick and heavy, until Cole crossed the room. He stopped in front of me.
“Do not let them take everything,” he said, his voice low and steady. “Not yet. Not while Kyle is still out there.”
The mention of Kyle’s name cracked something inside me. My throat closed, my chest tightened, and the words tumbled out before I could stop them.
“What if he is already dead?”
Cole’s eyes locked on mine, unflinching. “He is not.”
“You do not know that,” I whispered, my voice shaking.
“I do,” he said, the certainty in his tone almost frightening. “They are keeping him alive because he is leverage. They want something. And until they get it, they will not touch him.”
“What do they want?” I asked, my voice raw.
Cole hesitated, and in that brief pause I saw the war in his eyes. “Me,” he said finally. “They want me. Kyle is the warning shot. You are the next one.”
I stared at him, stunned, the words sinking in like cold water. “Why you?”
“Because I know too much,” he said simply. “Because I stopped following orders the way they wanted me to. Because they can feel me slipping through their fingers and that scares them.”
I swallowed hard, my voice barely a whisper. “Then why are you still here? Why are you helping me when it is putting a target the size of this city on your back?”
His eyes softened, just barely, though the rest of him stayed carved from stone. “Because I told you the truth. I want out. There are too many bodies in this city with my fingerprints somewhere near them. Too many people who disappeared because they trusted the wrong man. I am done being that man.”
The confession hit me like a fist to the chest. “So you are just going to burn it all down?”
“If I have to,” he said, his voice steady, almost eerily calm. “But first, I am getting him back.”
The weight of those words settled between us, heavy and sharp. I wanted to believe him. God, I needed to believe him.
But doubt still gnawed at the edges of my mind.
“How?” I asked, my voice tight.
Cole’s phone buzzed in his hand. He glanced at it, his expression darkening, and without another word he moved to the far side of the room, answering in a voice too low for me to hear.
When he finally hung up, he turned back to me, his face unreadable.
“They are moving him,” Cole said.
My breath caught. “Kyle?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know yet,” he admitted, his jaw tight. “But I will. They cannot hide him from me. Not for long.”
I shook my head, the panic bubbling up again. “What if they hurt him before you can get to him? What if this is just...”
“They will not,” Cole said sharply, cutting off the spiral before it could take root. His voice softened just slightly as he added, “Not as long as I am still breathing.”
Something in the way he said it, so calm, so certain that it sent a shiver down my spine.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
He slid his phone into his pocket and grabbed his coat from the back of the chair. “What I should have done the moment they touched you. I am going to start hunting.”
The words were simple, but they vibrated with something dark and dangerous, something that made my skin prickle.
“I am coming with you,” I said, surprising even myself.
His gaze snapped to mine, sharp and unyielding. “No, you are not.”
“This is my mess too,” I argued, my voice rising despite the fear twisting in my stomach.
“You think this is about you?” His tone was sharp enough to cut. “This is about power. Control. They are sending a message to me, Tess, not you. And if you come with me, you will not make it out alive.”
The words landed like a slap, silencing me.
For a long moment, neither of us moved. Then he exhaled, slow and heavy, some of the sharpness bleeding from his expression.
“Stay here,” he said, quieter now. “Lock the doors. Do not open them for anyone but me. Do you understand?”
I wanted to argue. Wanted to tell him I was stronger than he thought, that I could handle whatever nightmare he was walking into.
But the look in his eyes stopped me.
I nodded, the smallest, most fragile movement.
“Good,” he said. Then, softer, “I will bring him back.”
And just like that, he was gone. The door closed behind him with a quiet click.
I sat there for what felt like hours, the seconds bleeding into minutes, the minutes into an eternity. My thoughts twisted in on themselves until I could hardly breathe.
The world outside kept moving. Cars passed. Sirens wailed in the distance. Somewhere down the block, someone laughed.
But in here, time had stopped.
I pulled my knees to my chest and rested my chin against them, my eyes fixed on the door.
All I could do was wait.