Hunter's Rise Read Free

dazed. Sylvia knelt down at her side and waited until that fog started to lift before she said anything.
     
    “I don’t appreciate having my time wasted, sweetheart,” Sylvia said once Faith was looking at her. The arrogance she’d seen was gone now, replaced by fear and worry. Good. “You don’t want to be married? Listen to your friend… file for divorce. But don’t lie to get me here.” Rising, she went to take a step away when Faith clamped a hand over her ankle.
     
    “You can’t go to the cops,” Faith said, the fear in her eyes taking on a desperate slant. “I… shit. I’ll
pay
you, damn it. Just don’t tell them.”
     
    “Sorry. I don’t do bribes or blackmail.” She shook Faith’s hand away and kept walking.
     
    Behind her, Faith sat up, pushing her hair back. At the sound of the sirens wailing out in the streets, she blanched and shoved upright onto her feet. “I’ll tell the cops it was
your
idea,” she said. “If you turn that in, you look as bad as I do— since you agreed to
meet
me.”
     
    Sylvia paused at the side exit door and looked back, chuckling. “But I was never here, sweetheart. The cops don’t even know who to look for.”
     
    “I’ll tell them. I’ll give them your name, your phone number… everything.”
     
    “My name? My number? Faith, darling… do you
really
think either of those is real?” She smiled. It was a lovely, rather disturbing smile. “They’ve been looking for me for years… I’m nothing but a ghost.”
     
    Y
     
EARS.
    Decades.
     
    But she’d been evading them with ease. Sylvia had learned how to hide when she’d been running for her life, certain the monster who’d created her would change his mind, come looking for her. That never happened, but it had taken years for the fear to fade.
     
    Years before she finally stopped hiding in the shadows.
     
    Before somebody had all but
forced
her to stop cowering in those shadows.
     
    Then, she had to learn to hide for a different reason, as she became a predator in her own way. A killer-for-hire,one who hunted other monsters. Sometimes, people came to her for revenge, sometimes people came looking for justice… and she’d learned to hide her trail very, very well.
     
    Hours later, Sylvia let herself into the little apartment that was the closest thing she had to a home. It wasn’t leased to Sylvia James— she used one of her other aliases, Alice Sanders. Boring, simple Alice.
     
    Boring simple Alice and Sylvia had one thing in common… they only existed on paper. Kind of like the guy in
Shawshank Redemption
. She loved that movie… something about it just clicked for her. She’d escaped from the hell that had been her life. Andy Dufresne had escaped from the hell that had been his prison after he’d been falsely accused of murder. Both of them escaped. She had adopted a new persona— or ten. He had adopted a new persona.
     
    Of course, Dufresne had kept his cool a lot better during his imprisonment than Sylvia had.
     
    The “James” part was completely made up. Sylvia, however, was her real name, one she’d chosen for herself, years and years ago. She used it from time to time. She should probably shift away from it again for a while, but that was a problem for another night.
     
    For now, all she wanted to do was sit down, relax with a better glass of wine than she could find in any bar and just zone out. It had taken hours to deal with that nasty mess involving Faith Dwyer. The vapid little bitch— she’d really thought she could hire Sylvia to kill her husband just so she’d inherit? Of course, it wasn’t the first time, but it still pissed her off.
     
    “Stupid cow,” Sylvia muttered as she headed into the bathroom. She needed a shower. She’d managed to feed, but it had been late and she hadn’t had the luxury of being choosy. Now she smelled like the inside of a beer keg. She could blame that on Faith Dwyer, too.
     
    The woman probably had her hands full right