Trust? I trust no one at the moment. I know for a fact he's not talking about Hugo. There is no way he would betray me. He has to be talking about Hunter, he’s the only new person to have entered my life since David was last here. I knew I shouldn’t be trusting him.

  I run into the house and hug my dad and Ava. “Are you both okay?”

  “Yes. Are you?” Ava pulls me in tighter, her heart beating hard against my chest.

  “I’m fine. Toni?” I look around for her, and soon as Ava lets me go, Toni hugs me, crying, scared, and I don’t blame her, either.

  “How did they get in?” I look at my security team and no one says anything. “I want you to find out how the fuck they got into the house. I want you to find out who the security was on that side of the house!” I shout at all of them, and they bow their heads in front of me. “Get out of my fucking face!” I scream at them, throwing the vase of flowers towards them, but they move out the way. “If I don’t get an answer by the end of the night, I will kill one of you.”

  “Raven.” I hear my dad behind me. “Let’s take a deep breath—”

  “They ruined my wedding day,” I cut off my dad. “If they think I’m going to sit back…”

  “Raven, let’s get all the answers first,” Dad tries again, and I close my eyes, taking in a deep breath.

  If they think I’m going to sit back and let them continue to have their way, they’re wrong. I’m going to kill everyone who has ever worked with or helped the Silvers until someone gives me David Silver.

  Nineteen

  Hunter

  I watch Raven running into the house. From what I know already, today was going to be a messed-up day for Raven, and now it’s just turned into one fucked up day. But why, what did the Silvers do to her?

  I’ve been looking into her past, trying to find out what happened today, but I can’t find anything about her mother’s death. Nothing about the Silver family being involved with that. Colin and I are still looking into it, maybe we’re not looking in the right place or asking the right questions.

  I turn to watch Colin and Hugo running after David.

  I feel a hand on my back and turn to Ivy giving me a hug.

  “Everything will be okay,” she tells me as I give her a kiss on the cheek.

  “I know it will. The Frazers aren’t so easy to bring down,” I joke with her.

  Both Raven and I had a hunch someone would attack our wedding. She was sure it would be the Silvers and I kept telling her she was overthinking. No matter what I said, she knew they would attack today. I have no idea how she knew they would, but she knew.

  Henry walks towards Ivy and me. I watch Henry, trying to decipher his body language. Is he hiding something from me? Why would he do something like this though? He doesn’t get anything out of fucking up today.

  “Tell me you didn’t know about this,” I whisper-yell, but not loud enough for anyone else to hear me. “Tell me you had nothing to do with this.” I knew I couldn’t trust them.

  “Hunter, calm down.”

  “No, I wanted—”

  “You wanted nothing, Hunter. She is a part of the plan and means nothing to you. Nothing,” Henry replies. I have to stop myself going crazy at him, because right now I want to punch him. I have to stop my body from hitting anyone. He is fucking lying to me, and I’m about to lose it. “Go check on your wife, it’s time you find out about her issue with David Silver.”

  “Why don’t you just tell me since you seem to know everything about them,” I snap at him.

  “You need to watch your tone.” Theo steps in front of me. “My father could have left you to burn, but instead, he gave you a life.”

  “Fuck you, Theo.” I turn to Henry. “You know I will never forget what you did for me, but you’re hiding something from me,” I tell him and see Colin and Hugo walking back into the garden. I go to make my way over to them but stop when Henry grabs my arm.

  “I’m not hiding anything from you. The Silvers want to be rid of the Cummings as much as we do. As for Raven, I never told you because it’s not my story to tell,” Henry tells me, which makes me wonder what did the Silvers do to Raven and her family?

  Henry is playing a game with me, but my question is why? I’ve never done anything for him to think I will betray him.

  I push the thought to the side, looking over to Hugo and Colin.

  “They had a van ready.” Colin stops, as Hugo walks straight into the house. “Our security team was on watch on that side of the house. And Hugo knows.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Hugo is on his way to let Raven know. She will want blood and won’t stop until she gets it.” Colin shakes his head; this is going to be a bloodbath now.

  My blood and everyone in my family will be at the top of her list.

  Walking into the house, I look around for Hugo, but he’s nowhere to be seen. Her dad is pacing the room, and Ava is trying to calm him down. Toni is near her, but still has a good arm’s distance away. Raven downs a shot of vodka, then tells Ava to stop talking.

  “What is your history with the Silvers?”

  “None of your fucking business,” Raven snaps at me.

  “It’s my business now. Our wedding is covered in blood because of it!” I shout at her.

  Her eyes shoot up to mine. I’ve seen anger in those eyes before, but never pure fury.

  “Our wedding was covered in blood from the start.” Raven slams her glass on the table, then tells everyone to leave the room. “You want to know why I hate them? Why I won’t rest until I put a dagger in both their hearts. Take a seat, let's share the day I became a cold, heartless bitch.”

  Raven refills her glass with another shot and downs it in one go. I have no idea what she’s about to tell me, but whatever it is, it’s not going to be easy for her. Her whole body is so tense, and I’ve never seen her like this before. She slams her shot glass on the counter, looks up the ceiling, taking in a deep breath, then pulls in her bottom lip and closes her eyes. I wait for a moment. Raven brings her head back to level, licks her lips, and I see a single tear escape the corner of her right eye.

  “Raven—”

  “I don’t know how I can say it to make it sound less fucked up than it already is.” She lets out a long sigh before finally turning to face me. “Mum and I had a movie night while Ava was at a sleepover. Noah and Dad were both out for business”— she clears her throat—“and that’s when the Silvers attacked the house. I had to watch Mitch rape my mother as I tried to fight, but their men held me down.” Raven’s voice breaks as her eyes shift to the floor and she rubs her thumb across the scar on her right palm. I’ve noticed the scar but never asked how she got it, like she’s never asked about mine. “I tried to fight,” she whispers. “When he was finished with my mum, David raped me while making my mum watch every second of it. You would think that would’ve been enough to fuck up my life, but no.” Raven stops, lifting her eyes, and locks them on me. Eyes full of water, full of pain.

  I take a step closer to her, but she puts her hands up to stop me. Every muscle in my body wants me to move towards her but she needs me to stay back.

  A few hours ago, I was staring at the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Looking stunning and confident in her wedding dress. Now she’s a woman who I never thought I would see like this.

  Broken.

  “David made sure I was looking at my mother, so I could remember the last words she said to me. ‘I love you sweet girl.’” Raven wipes the tears away, taking in a deep breath. Her eyes are still on me, she doesn’t need to tell me what happened next because I already know. “Mitch shot my mum and I had to watch her lifeless body fall to the floor. There was nothing I could do.” Raven fills her glass with another shot, and takes it in one go, licking her lips. “I hate myself because of what happened to my mum. You would think watching her die is what turned me into this cold, heartless bitch, but you're wrong. Maybe that sealed the seal, but—” She takes a moment before continuing, “Noah took me to get revenge on the man who raped me, wanted me to watch him kill David Silver, but everything went wrong. Noah died that night. The Silvers have taken too much from me for me to let them walk away.” Her voice shakes with fury, and the glass shatters when she slams it into the table.

  She walks out of the room. I clench my jaw, as my body trembles with rage. I knew there was something with the Cumming and Silver family, but this is just fucked up. How can I stand in the same room as them, knowing what they did to her?

  I try to get the pictures out of my head of David attacking her.

  A part of me knew David had done something to her, but I pushed the thought away. Pinned all my hate for David in my head. Everything I thought was true—they hurt her and her family in more ways than I could have thought.

  How messed up is this? I’m here trying to destroy her family for taking mine, and she is trying to end the family which took hers away.

  “Hunter.” I turn around to see Hugo and Colin standing by the door. “I’m only asking this once: Did you know the Silver family were going to attack today?” Hugo’s voice is hard, and I look over at Colin watching me.

  “No.”

  “If I find out you were behind this, I will kill you,” Hugo warns me, then walks out the room.

  I shake my head unsure about what I should be doing. Bang down Henry’s door and tell him to tell the Silvers to fuck off, kill them myself, or leave everything because my goal is to hurt Arthur Cumming.

  What the fuck should I be doing?

  “What do you want to do?”

  “Right now, Colin, I don’t have a fucking clue.” I shrug him off, already knowing what he’s going to ask me. I don’t know what I’m doing about anything at the moment.

  “I’m here when you’re ready.” Colin pats my back, and I give him a nod.

  “The photographer is here. Time for the future mayor to show the world his bride.” I look over at Raven, fresh makeup applied, and I nod to let Colin know to leave.

  “I’m taking these pictures, Hunter.” She walks closer to me, moves her hands up to straighten my bow tie before moving her hands over my shoulders.

  I lift her chin, so she’s looking at me. I move my finger to her neck, feeling the pulse against my skin, softly moving it to the back of her neck. Staring into her eyes, I give her a smile. I lean forward and press my lips against hers.

  Raven pulls away from me and whispers, “You mess up my makeup. You might need some to cover the damage I will inflict upon your face.” I start laughing which makes Raven shake her head at me.

  The last thing I want to do right now is fuck up this day more than it is already for her, and I don’t really want her to fuck up my face either.

  I smash the sledgehammer through the window with every bit of anger I have inside of me.

  Colin finally found me the car I wanted, and he wasn’t lying when he said it’s in a messed-up condition. A Ford Mustang. I wanted to get the worst one he could find, so I could rip it apart, courtesy of my tonight’s plans. I need to get this anger out, so I can figure out what I should be doing.

  Henry’s hiding something about his connection to David, Silver, and Raven’s past.

  The words she spoke, the images of what happened to her haven’t left me all day. I might be a lot of things: monster, killer, ruthless, and cruel, but I am not a rapist. Those men deserve their own special fucked up place in hell.

  Henry knew what David and Mitch Silver did to Raven and her mum, and yet, he agreed to work with them. When the fuck did we get into working with dirty fuckers like them who think they control everything. I know Henry is fucking lying to me, but about what the Silvers and the Cummings? There can be so many things. For the first time in my life, I can’t trust the man who raised me, the man I’ve trusted my whole life.

  Smashing a hammer into a car might not be as good as punching someone, but I need to take my anger out on something, so this will have to do. Every time the hammer hits the car, I pretend it’s someone’s face.

  After the photoshoot, Raven wanted to be left alone. I left her with her family and have been in the basement all night.

  Not how I thought I would spend my wedding night. My plans involved fucking Raven all night into the next day, too.

  “You know there's better ways to take out your anger.” I turn around and face Raven, dressed in a skin-tight white dress. I narrow my browns when I see her in white trainers.

  Raven walks past me and looks at the car, bending a little to look inside. “This might be a car worth watching you fix.” She looks over her shoulders at me, but I can’t take my eyes off her ass right now.

  “You like Mustangs?”

  “I like the sound they make, other than that, I don't know much about it.” She turns around and leans on the car. “What colour will it be?”

  “What colour do you want?” I question, and the smile on her lips answers my question. “Blood-red?”

  “You know me so well, husband.” Raven looks at me for a moment as I just stare at her. All I can see is the words she spoke earlier in the day, words which will never leave me. “I didn’t tell you about my past so you would feel sorry for me. I told you because I had no choice.” Raven’s body tenses, which makes me realise she’s not a woman who likes to talk about her feelings.

  “Didn’t think you did,” I reply.

  I know she didn’t want to tell me, God, if she could’ve taken it to her grave, she would have. Now I must live with the fact someone took something from my wife that wasn’t theirs to take.

  “I will help you get David Silver and kill his whole family,” I add, and she doesn’t say anything back but softly nods her head at me.

  “I thought now would be a good time to show you my wedding gift,” she tells me.

  I didn’t think about getting her anything.

  She moves her eyes over my body, smirking at me. “I promise you’re going to enjoy it.”

  “Does it involve being inside you?” I ask, giving her a wink.

  “Who knows, depends on how hot you make me.” A sparkle flashes in her eyes, and I pinch my brows together, wondering what she's talking about.

  I follow her out of the garage, into the room she calls her house of pain. Raven walks towards Hugo, while I stand next to Colin as he leans in closer to me.

  “You sure you want to destroy her? I’m really starting to like her.”

  “Shut up,” I snap back at him.

  I’m already starting to feel things for Raven I’ve never felt for anyone ever before. I’m trying to push them to the side, to just think of Raven as a piece in my game, someone I fuck everyday, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep my feelings locked away. All I want to do is make her happy. She wants me to kill, I will kill; whatever she wants, I will do. Raven has buried herself deep under my flesh and I never want her to leave. The darkness which lives inside me pines for the darkness in her. I want every inch of Raven, inside and out.

  “There’re things I don’t like being called; a whore is one of them.” Raven stops and looks up.

  I see Peter in a cage being lowered down. He was already on my list to beat in the club, but it appears like my crazy wife has other plans.

  “He made fools of us and I won’t let that slide. Will you, Hunter?”

  “No.”

  There is no way Henry can pin this on me. I’ve been here all night with Colin. I’m already locked out of their family talks and I don’t need to give them any more reason not to trust me. I have too much riding on them.

  “Why does he have a chain around his neck?” I ask as Colin begins laughing.

  “Raven made him act like a dog. Funniest shit I’ve seen in a while,” Colin tells me and walks towards the cage with Hugo, just as Raven makes her way to me.

  “I got you something else too.” Raven hands me a box, then looks over at Peter crawling out of the cage. “I’ve not touched him; thought I would let you have some fun.” She brings all her hair up and holds it in place with the ice pick.

  I open the box and look at the gold brass knuckle dusters, with an ice pick on the top of it.

  Raven turns around, and I try the dusters on. I smile to myself, they fit so perfect; both our worlds connected together.

  “I’m going to make this easy, tell me where to find David Silver or die—”

  “I’m dead either way!” Peter shouts.

  “No, I’m not that fucking crazy. You can tell me where they are and walk away. Don’t tell me and die, or if you can stab Hunter, I will let you walk.” She looks at me, and I raise my brow, knowing very well that fucker isn’t stabbing me. “What do you say?”

  “You’re a bitch.”

  Raven laughs before throwing a knife his way, only missing by a centimetre.

  She walks over to me, leaning in closer. “I’m not wearing anything under this dress. I want to be dripping wet at the end of this.”

  I grab the back of her neck and pull her into a hungry, hard kiss. Fuck, this woman is perfection, and just the words that come out of her mouth have me wanting to be with her every single fucking day.

  “Anything you want, my queen,” I tell her.

  Peter stares at me as I walk closer, his fear pouring off him in waves.

  Peter moves back and forth waiting for me to make a move before running towards me with the knife. I duck, punching his ribs with my dusters before smashing his skull with my elbow.

  Grabbing a handful of his hair, I bring his head forward and break his nose with my head. Still with a handful of hair, I punch him with my hand without the duster, feeling this blood covering my hand.

  He grunts every time my fist lands on his face.

  Peter’s hands grip my waist trying to push me away, but I have that much anger inside me from today, nothing is going to stop me.

  I push him to the floor, kicking him in the stomach.

  Sitting on top of him, I continue to punch his face, my hands covered in blood, my shirt getting splattered.

  I don’t hear him grunting any more, knowing he’s barely holding on. I look over at Raven, her eyes bright with happiness.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23