Forever Mine: Tormentor Mine: Book 4

1 Henderson “What are you doing?” Bonnie’s anxious voice startles me out of my planning, and I look up, shoving the folder I was studying into a stack of files on my desk as I prepare to answer with a plausible lie. Except my wife of twenty-one years is not looking at me. She’s staring at the computer behind me, where a photograph of a beautiful chestnut-haired bride smiling up at her handsome groom takes up most of the screen. Fuck. I thought I’d closed that tab. My neck muscles spasm with tension, the bile returning to burn up my throat as I see Bonnie begin to shake. “Why do you have his picture?” Her voice turns shrill as her eyes swing to me, accusing. “Why do you have that monster’s picture on your screen?” “Bonnie… It’s not what you think.” I stand up, but she’s already backing away, shaking her head, her long earrings flapping around her skinny face. “You promised. You told me we’ll be safe.” “And we will be,” I say, but it’s too late. She’s already gone. Back to the refuge of her bed, her pills, her mindless reality TV. Back to where the kids and I can never reach her. Sinking back into my chair, I roll my head from side to side, releasing the worst of the agonizing tightness as I pull out the folder again. The name inside stares at me, each letter taunting me, stoking the bitter fires of rage. Peter Sokolov. I’m the last person remaining on his list. The only one he hasn’t killed yet for what happened in that shitty village in Dagestan. One mistake, one careless order given, and this is the result. For years, he’s hunted me and my family, torturing our friends and loved ones in an effort to get to me, starring in my children’s nightmares, destroying our lives in every way. And now, thanks to his buddy Esguerra’s pull with our government, he’s allowed to roam free. To marry his pretty, chestnut-haired doctor and live in the United States as if all’s forgiven and forgotten. As if his promise not to kill me is something I’m supposed to believe. My gaze falls on the rest of the names in the folder. Julian Esguerra. Lucas Kent. Yan and Ilya Ivanov. Anton Rezov. Sokolov’s allies—monsters, all of them. They must pay for what they’ve done. Like Sokolov, they must be neutralized. Then and only then will we be truly safe.