My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 329

Chapter 329

I looked back at her, and I gestured around the room, at the perfect rows of weapons and the monitors, “I like my violence contained. I like it surgical. I like to be the one who decides exactly when and where the hammer falls.”

I stood right in front of her now, so close that she had to tilt her head a little to look up at me.

“That’s why I organize these hunts. I don’t kill for the sake of killing. I choose the targets that the world is better off without. The filth. The trash that thinks they’re safe because they can hide better.” I leaned in, “It’s a controlled release. It’s better than a rage room, and it’s cleaner than a cage match. It’s a healthy outlet for the monster our father built inside me. It’s how I stay sane.”

I saw her swallow hard, her gaze moving from my face back to the black bow.

“Everything in life is about balance,” I murmured, my hand reaching out to brush a stray hair back from her neck, “I choose to balance the scales by taking out the people who tip them too far. It’s logical. It’s precise. And tonight… it is the exact medicine you need to silence the static in your mind.”

I stepped deeper into her space.

“You don’t need to turn that blade inward anymore, Gianna. You don’t need to punish your own skin to find peace. You just need to point all that beautiful rage at the people who actually fucking deserve to feel it.”

Gianna went very still, her shoulders hunching forward as if she were trying to disappear into herself. Her dark lashes fluttered down, hiding her eyes from me as she stared at the floor.

“How can you be so sure?” she whispered, “How do you know that I don’t deserve it?”

I reached out, and hooked my fingers under her chin. I tilted her head back, forcing her to look up and meet my

gaze.

“I think I’ve seen enough of you, the real you, to know exactly who you are. You are many things. You are complicated, you are loud, and you are hurting but you are not bad. You definitely do not deserve it.”

The wail of a siren drifted through the walls, echoing from deep in the mansion. It was the signal that the perimeter was set, that the game had officially begun.

The sound made my blood hum with sharp energy. I looked down at Gianna, a slow smile spreading across my face. The darkness in the room seemed to pull toward us, tightening the air.

“It’s time,” I murmured.

Gianna mirrored my expression, a small smile touching her lips. She reached out, her fingers gripped the matte- black riser of the high-tech bow. She pulled it from the display.

And as we stepped out of the room, she paused. She looked at my empty hands, then back up at my face, her brow pulling together in a small frown.

“You’re not going to choose a weapon for yourself?” she asked.

“I don’t need one,” I said, “You’re my weapon tonight, Gianna. I’m just the one pointing you at the target.”

A soft, breathless laugh escaped her lips. She looked up at me, and for the first time, the shadows in her eyes were replaced by a spark of pure, dangerous excitement. She gripped the black bow tighter, her knuckles white, ready to follow me into whatever hell I had waiting for her.

“Come on,” I whispered.

1/2

• 15 P224

I didn’t lead her back toward the noise of the party. I pressed my hand against a hidden panel in the stone wall of the hallway that led us straight to the woods.

I grabbed her hand, her fingers laced perfectly between mine and we were outside, but far away from the front of the mansion. The only sound was the distant, fading wail of the siren and the rustle of dead leaves in the wind.

“Keep up, stepsister,” I told her

Then, I started to run.

I didn’t let go of her hand. I pulled her with me, dragging her into the dark woods. We tore through the underbrush, the branches of the trees reaching out like thin fingers to scratch at our clothes.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify