Hidden (To Love A Killer #1) by Lexie Ray

disgust.
                  “They were looking for Thomas,” Twitch went on. “That’s why they beat me. They thought I knew where he was.”
                  “He’s dead,” said Hunter with an edge of satisfaction. “He broke into my apartment. I was going to shoot him, but Ash got to him first. But he’s dead. They should all be dead,” Hunter directed that last part to Ash.
                  “Did they say anything else?” she asked again eager to know everything as soon as possible. “Did they say where they were staying?”
                  “No,” said Twitch.
                  Hunter had begun to pace. She felt agitated, on edge. She sucked on her cigarette, drawing in puff after puff almost without exhaling.
                  “Hunter, you need to calm down,” said Ash in a concerned tone.
                  “Don’t tell me to calm down,” she snapped. “They need to die, Ash. All of them need to die.”
                  “No one disagrees,” said Twitch. “but they could be halfway home by now. We don’t know where they are, Hunter.”
                  “They’re not headed home,” she said, almost to herself. “They’re still here. I can feel it. They’re going to take me if we don’t do something.”
                  “I’m not going to let that happen,” said Ash who grabbed her shoulders, preventing her from pacing further. She was making him nervous. “But we can’t go off half cocked.”
                  “They know where I live. They’ll be back here,” said Hunter, thinking out loud. “Should we wait for them? Ambush them the next time they come?”
                  Ash took a deep breath, considering it. He knew that even though Hunter’s apartment was covered with traces of the murder, there was no way the landlord would go inside. And since the men were from New Hampshire and not New York, no one would file a missing person’s report on Thomas, least of all Dale and Travis who were breaking the law left and right anyway. But Ash wasn’t sure that would be the best course of action. Her apartment and his were the least safe places in the city. And after what had happened to Twitch, the way he had been left for dead in the East River, Ash wasn’t willing to take any risks.
                  “Well?” Hunter asked. “Does that sound like a plan?”
                  Ash said nothing.
                  “Is it too passive?” She asked. “How many other girls are here in the city?”
                  Twitch lifted his gaze, squinting through his swollen eyes. “Five or so. They run with some street kids around the Gowanus, but I don’t exactly know where they are staying. They move around a lot. They’re pretty scared.”
                  It made sense to Hunter that any of the girls who made it down this far would wind up in the Gowanus. That’s where she had gone. She had slept in the sugar factory for a good long while. She understood the feeling of never feeling safe. She understood why the girls would keep on the move. As rough as Brooklyn was, nothing compared to the wrath of the men from the farmhouse. When Hunter had been living on the streets, she would’ve preferred to get attacked by street thugs and stay hidden than she would to get caught and brought back up north.
                  “Do you think the men will go looking for them?” asked Hunter.
                  “Yeah,” said Ash. “They couldn’t find you here. Maybe they think you joined the other girls.”
                  “Wouldn’t they still be looking for Thomas?” she asked.
                  “I don’t think so,” said Twitch. “Thomas was a pawn. I’m not sure they cared about him. They only wanted to find him because they thought it would lead to