HOSTAGE (To Love A Killer) Read Free Page A

against the plastic ties that restrained them.
                  Intense panic coursed through Hunter. Her heart raced, pounding hard in her chest. She couldn’t seem to steady her breath. Grizzly leaned further down towards her, slowly savoring every inch he gained. She watched his hands, their white-knuckle grip around the handle as Grizzly pointed the knife tip millimeters from her neck. She was certain this would be it. He could kill her so easily, slit her throat, or her wrists, letting her gradually bleed out. She couldn’t believe her father would do this, or that any father would be capable of such a thing, but the relation they shared was only by blood. Grizzly was a monster. The idea that he was her father was a joke.
                  Abruptly, Grizzly grabbed her face, squeezing her cheeks between his massive fingers, holding her in place. Hunter let out a low, miserable moan, terror stricken for what might come next.
                  “Killing you would be a waste, Hunter,” he said. His sour breath seeped from his mouth, causing Hunter’s stomach to wretch with nausea. “I’d rather play a game.”
                  Hunter glared at him through her tears, her jaw clenching, her teeth gritting with disgust.
                  “I think you’re a soldier, Hunter. I think that’s why you’ve strung that bullet around your neck. It’s your trophy. I can’t kill a soldier I need. But you’re going to have to prove yourself. Prove that you’ll be of value.”
                  Hunter couldn’t help shake her head in disgust, though imperceptibly, at her father’s twisted mentality. He was a madman, a psychopath, but unless she wanted to be killed right here and now, she would have to listen. She would have to play along.
                  “I’m going to let you make the choice, Hunter,” he went on. “You can either come home, come back to the farmhouse and submit to me, join me like you belong. Or you can return to the farmhouse to stop me. Whichever you choose, I’m giving you until the end of the week to come back. That’s three days, Hunter. Three days to return and join me, or return and stop me.”
                  She didn’t want to have to ask. She didn’t want to play into all this, but she had no choice.
                  “Stop you from doing what exactly?” she said finally.
                  He smiled wide. This was entertaining him. He was sick.
                  “Your little sister’s getting too old for the barn. I’m thinking about making a little film, nothing special, just a short video. I’d like to record her passing. She is, after all, my daughter.”
                  “Oh my God,” Hunter said under her breath. She couldn’t fight the shock that was seizing her. She had done everything within her power to block Blair from her memory. It was too painful to remember that she had a little sister. It was too excruciating to know that Hunter had left her behind to save herself.
                  Grizzly seemed to be eating up Hunter’s horrified reaction. His eyes were glued to her, wide and unblinking, as though he didn’t want to miss a thing.
                  “Snuff films,” he whispered. “It’s going to be a new direction. It’s the best way to end the girls. Most of them are too old, you know? They’re no good for the other videos at their age.”
                  The huddle of girls began to cry. They knew he was referring to them as well as all the girls up at the farmhouse that had gotten too old.
                  Grizzly rose to his feet.
                  “Like I said,” he continued. “Come back and join me or come back and stop me, but Hunter... We both know you’re coming back.”
                  Not a moment after he stood, the front door of her