Hunter's Alpha (gxg) ✓

46. Sunlight

HUNTER

I know who the Holy Murderer is.

The Campus Killer. The criminal Anise wanted Jude to find.

I know who she is, and I know she's a copycat.

I did kill the Campus Killer that day, when I stumbled into the alley with bloody hands and discovered there are 100 floors in the Underground.

But this—her—she is a fake.

An imitation.

"Why?" I ask Sylvie Beck.

"Because I saw what the real killer was doing, and it was justice," she seethes. "Those whores didn't deserve the chance to—"

I slit her throat.

Her head falls back. One problem solved.

The next—Lacy and Kiara.

I have a flight, borrowing Angel's private jet, in one hour. Which leaves the matter of my sister to deal with before I go.

Because, knowing her, she will take Lacy and Kiara when I am farthest. When it is too late.

So as I leave Sylvie's body in the Crescent Sorority House and I make my way to the Underground, thinking of how Falcone and Conti's wedding is in only days, I can't help but again of Jude's mom.

There is something off about this.

I'm a chess player. I have to be three—four—five steps ahead of the game at all times, and I know I'm missing something.

A vital piece of information. The key to this—everything.

I know what Jude's mother looks like. And as much as I have been trying to deny it, I know I saw her.

It just doesn't make sense.

Why would she be in a car with people trying to kill her daughter?

And if she is working with the Yakuza, how did she accept the plan to kidnap Jude and use her as a hostage?

The most pressing question, though, is—Why did she fake her death?

As long as I don't know the answers to these questions, I am losing the game.

And since I became Gamemaster, there is one true thing about playing with me: I always win.

Once I am in the Underground, Mikayla falls into step with me.

"I hear Pierce took Jude," she says.

"I don't know how you heard that," I say, though I am impressed that she knows this much.

"I want to come."

"It's too dangerous," I growl, pressing the button to the elevator that will take me straight to Anise.

"I want to come," she insists. "Jude is my friend and Pierce is my cousin."

"I'm sorry you're related to her," I say. "But you're not coming."

The doors open on the 25th floor, and Gianina is standing there, eyes narrowed on us—as though she just ran down here in order to get on the same elevator.