Page 98 of Ride With Me

Danger.

It was dangerous, but if I turned around now, there was every chance that Mitchy would follow me back to my hotel room if he was in there waiting for me.

I didn’t want to lead him right back to Warren.

Fuck, this was why I didn’t let myself get attached to people, wasn’t it? The thought of my past catching up and making him pay was…

I didn’t like it.

“Mitchy?” There was no point in trying to get the upper hand, not with the door open and footprints in the dust telling me someone was here. I’d be better off coming in head on and hoping that I could handle the situation from there.

It helped that I knew the kind of hot-headed asshole Mitchy was. It also helped that the building was completely empty, so there weren’t really many places he could hide. His dusty footprints led to the left, and as I stepped through the door, I lifted my phone and flicked on the light.

The flash of metal caught my attention, and I had a second where I was worried that I was going to have to run after all… but it wasn’t a gun.

It was a knife.

A ridiculously big knife, and Mitchy looked so cocky holding it.

“Did you think I wasn’t going to catch up with you, Liam.”

Liam.It sounded weird, hearing the name. I’d given Warren my real name, which honestly should have told me from the get-go that something about him was different.

Mitchy knew me as Liam. And before him, Eric had known me as Alec. I’d had a dozen names, and none of them ever stuck.

“I told you where to meet me, Mitchy. Do you have my car?” It wasn’t like I actuallywantedit back, but it seemed as good a reason as any to tell him where to meet me.

We were in the middle of nowhere.

No one was going to know what happened.

Killingoneman in the middle of a small town and making it look like he’d been mugged was one thing.

Killing his brother in the same town? That would have brought the police down on my head. It was better for Mitchy to just disappear… and Warren had done an amazing job carting me halfway across the country so he’d do it in a place where no one would ever find him.

Sometimes it wasexhausting, wanting to kill people. Especially since I had to make sure I was at least twelve steps ahead of the law, of angry family members, of anyone who might get suspicious.

Anyone who might get too close.

“Do you seriously think I’m going to give you that car back? Do you think I came here for anything other than to make you pay for what you did to Aaron?”

I bit my lower lip and shrugged. “It was a thought. Judging by that knife, though, I have a feeling you have different ideas.”

He lifted the blade between us in a jerking motion. Apparently, just bringing it up was enough to make him react. “This? I thought it was fair—I want you to feel everything Aaron did.”

My eyes narrowed at that, and the laugh that spilled from my throat was enough to make the smug expression on his face drop.

“Is that what you think I used? Some big knife? God, Mitchy. Your brother was a fucking idiot, but you might be worse. You’ll neverknowwhat he felt when I was killing him, but you knowwhat?” I grinned and crossed my arms over my chest, sliding my fingers into my jacket as I did so. “I can tell you something.”

“Shut the fuck up, Liam. I’m going to?—”

“He was calling for you before I slit him open.”

“I’m going to fuckingkillyou.”

He charged forward and I felt warmth blossom in my chest—pleasure and satisfaction, and the knowledge that the dark urge inside of me would get to feelfullsooner than I’d thought.

“Benji?” The voice from the doorway caught me off guard, and Mitchy’s knife clipped me on the shoulder, tearing my jacket as I tried to dodge out of the way. Warren standing in the doorway and staring at me with concern on his face was a distraction I didn’t want.