Page 20 of Sweet Revenge

“We’ll be ready,” Mikel said, waving.

I told them goodbye and pulled myself up off the porch, headed inside. I needed to get something together for that beautiful woman in the tub before she got out and wanted to know where her surprise was.

In the kitchen, I rummaged through the drawers and found a tablecloth. I couldn’t remember where it had come from and had no idea how it had gotten out here, but then, I’d grabbed some odds and ends and brought them with me over the last few months when I’d come out here to visit.

The white lace tablecloth would make a presentable dining space. I situated it over the table and went back to the cabinets where I found a couple of white candlesticks and some old pewter candleholders that I thought were antiques or something. I wasn’t sure. I’d never really cared too much about shit like that.

Now, I needed to figure out what to cook for her. Drake had been kind enough to pack us enough food to get by so that we hadn’t needed to go to the store at all for thirteen days. But the scarce amount of meat we’d had, which was mostly bacon and sausage, was long gone. I found some green beans and instant mashed potatoes. I knew enough about cooking to have the confidence in my ability to make both of those dishes, but I needed some meat and had none.

Drawing in a deep breath, I considered how much time I had. If I got lucky and found a deer right away, I could get it into the skinning shed and take off a couple of nice cuts for dinner and cook them up in a couple of hours. I wouldn’t have time to butcher the whole deer, but I could put it in the freezer and finish dressing it in the morning before we left.

It sounded like a good plan, and since I knew of an area of the woods where I was almost always sure to find a deer, even this time of year when they were more scarce than usual, I headed to the storage closet near the back of the cabin for my bow.

My brand new Carbon RX-7 hung there, the light from the hallway spilling over it in such a way to make me believe the bow was actually pulsating, calling out to me. A smile slid onto my face as I pulled it down from the wall and checked it over. The grip felt perfect in my hand. I knew I’d have no trouble at all landing a deer with this beauty.

I made sure my quiver was full and then hung it over my shoulder, deciding there was no reason to let Elisa know I was going out when she was probably already drifting off in a sea of bubbles. I found it interesting that her brother had bought such little meat but had gotten the jumbo-sized bottle of bubble bath. He must know his sister very well.

Out in the woods, a chill reddened my cheeks, the crisp air of late fall stinging my lungs with each breath. I hadn’t bothered to put on a coat because I didn’t think this would take long. The cold made me feel alive as I carefully stepped over the fallen leaves so that the crunch wouldn’t warn my prey that I was out here.

One of the reasons my father had built his hunting cabin in this location was because of all the deer that lived in the area. Hardly anyone came out here to bother them, so even though we’d pick one off now and again, they didn’t travel too far away. It shouldn’t take me long at all to find them and take one down.

I followed the old game trail quietly, fighting the memories that shadowed the corners of my mind. What good would it do for me to imagine my old man walking ahead of me? Why would I bother myself with the notion that this was the one place he’d take us boys where he actually treated us with a bit of respect? After all, he couldn’t yell at us and act like a deranged lunatic without scaring the deer, so he was relatively nice to us when we were out here.

Shaking my head, I knocked those thoughts away and decided to concentrate on the deer. The scent of game had my nostrils flaring as the breeze let me know they were upwind from me.

I knew the area enough to know that there was a meadow up ahead of me, and I had a feeling that’s where the deer would be, especially this time of day. Taking a deep breath, I moved silently between the pines, stepping around them and kneeling beneath the low branches. In front of me, the meadow revealed itself.

Six deer stood there, munching on the tall velvety grass. Three of them stood next to one another as a family. Another buck stood off a bit from them, and behind him two does. While going for one of the bucks would’ve been my usual go-to, I didn’t need much meat and didn’t really want to transport a bunch back to my brothers. So I decided to go for the smaller doe that was still tall enough to be legal, not that I gave a shit. None of them had noticed me, and none of them did, until after I let the arrow fly.

I hit her right in the neck, as planned. She startled for a moment, blood flowing freely down her fur, as she dropped to the ground. The rest of the deer caught onto the danger then and took off, but it was too late for her.

Placing my bow back over my shoulder, I moved forward to collect my kill. She didn’t weigh much, but it was still a little hard to drag her back thanks to my bum shoulder.

I managed, though, moving her into the skinning shed. Located a few hundred yards away from my new cabin, it was all that was left from the old cabin. The fire hadn’t spread to the shed. The scent of wood smoke filled my lungs as I passed the site of my father’s cabin that used to stand nearby.

The scent was imaginary. No way after all these months could I still smell the ash. Still, my nostrils burned from whatever witchcraft had me thinking I was smelling charred remains.

As I went about skinning the deer, cutting off the best two pieces of meat for Elise and me, and thinking about how to butcher the rest to take back to Vin, who loved to make venison, my mind wandered. I couldn’t stop myself from imagining my father, sitting behind his desk, that smug look on his face, right before I took him out. He deserved it for what he’d done to Jenny.

Shaking my head, I cleared it of those thoughts. This was my place now, not his, and I wasn’t going to let him detract from what I’d accomplished. Despite being shot three times, I was able to catch a deer and put food on the table for my woman, and that was an accomplishment I wasn’t going to let my father taint.

With two good cuts of meat ready to be cooked and the rest of the deer stored away in the freezer for me to come back and butcher in the morning, I began to clean myself up a bit, letting my mind stray to what I needed to accomplish when I got home. My brothers and I would be completely unstoppable once I was back and fully healed. With the three of them behind me, Alexander La Rosa and his angry mob didn’t stand a chance.

We were the Petrovs, after all, and nothing was going to stop us from taking down our enemies and putting ourselves on top.

My own father couldn’t stop me, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let Elisa’s father keep me from it either.

He’d suffer the same fate.

CHAPTER13

ELISA

The lilac-scented bath water was a little chilly when I opened my eyes and realized I’d fallen asleep. I hadn’t been out for too long or else the water would’ve been frigid. My skin was wrinkly and puckered, but then, before I’d fallen asleep, I’d let out a little water and run some hot water a few times. This might’ve just been the longest bath anyone had ever taken in the history of baths.

I didn’t care, though. I deserved it. After everything I’d gone through with my father, with the water that was certainly calming, why not take a few hours and just relax? This bathtub was nothing like the one in my apartment. Even though Daemon had built a cabin in the woods, he hadn’t exactly skimped on the decor. The large clawfoot tub was almost big enough for me to swim in, and the shower was almost as nice as the one he had in his bathroom at the mansion, with a rainfall showerhead amongst other amenities, like a bench and massager.

Really, if it meant the two of us could lay low out here together for a few years, maybe it would be worth it not to be on the beach. But I had a feeling there had to be someone who knew about this place, other than his brothers who wouldn’t tell a soul. Someone had to have built it, right? It wasn’t like Daemon had hammered every nail into every board by himself—or whatever the hell it was a person did to build a house these days.