Chapter Forty Five
Raya St Claire

Winchester claps his hands together, looking at Ezra and I with his head slightly tilted to the side, and a wide smile on his mouth. “I must say that I am quite impressed, Raya.” He smiles even wider, baring the teeth I had wished for so many years to cave in. “You survived, again.”

My fingers were trembling as I held my gun in both my hands, pointing it at Winchester. Despite me being filled with fear as I stood in front of the man who murdered my family eight years ago, I still smiled. I smiled because he was right; I did survive, again. I survived that night when he murdered my entire family right in front of me, and I survived being stabbed with a machete, too.

The smile disappears from Winchester’s mouth, and he just looked at me, with the same look he gave me eight years ago. “I knew you’d come here,” he says, smiling slightly again, “I have been watching you, and I have been waiting for Mr Holmes here to bring you here and he finally did.”

A smirk appeared onto my mouth, because he thinks we didn’t know he would show. “I know.”

He’s caught off guard for a second, but he composes himself almost immediately.

“Just like you have been watching me, I have been watching you, Winchester.” I lick my lips, feeling filled with adrenaline now that I was faced with the man whom I wanted to murder for eight years, and liking every second of it. “They don’t call me the best hacker for nothing.”

“You’ve found a way around the curveball?” Ezra asks from beside me and I nodded, while at the same time keeping my gaze on Winchester. I was too busy watching him like a lion who had its eyes on a deer after being hungry for days.

“What curveball?” Winchester asks, the curiosity clear in his tone.

“You see… while you were busy watching me, I managed to do this thing called reverse hacking… And that means that when you’re being hacked, you can hack the hacker in return.” I smile at him, tilting my head to the side to get a better look at him. “Not only did I notice that you were hacking me, but I hacked you back while you were doing it. Do you think I wouldn’t notice anyone trying to get into my database, Winchester?” I ask, rhetorically. “I guess you could say that I have learned that fine move from you. You did, after all, kill my entire family for it.”

“How?” He asks.

“It doesn’t matter how I did it. Just that I did.” I didn’t think it was possible for my smile to spread wider, but it did. “You are broke now… I took all of your money. Every. Single. Penny.” I emphasized each word, carefully, and watching the satisfaction disappearing from his face. “And while you were watching me, tracking my every move, I made sure you had nothing left.”

Ezra looked surprised beside me. I didn’t blame him, either. I didn’t want to tell him that I have found a way around the curveball in my room earlier because I wanted to make sure I had all my facts straight first, and I also couldn’t tell him that the passwords underneath Winchester’s desk planner was useless seeing that I have already took every single penny from Winchester’s accounts, because he was so dead-set on trying to help me take Winchester down, but now, seeing the look on Winchester’s face, all pale and shocked, I knew we were on the right path.

I did learn a few things from Winchester, after all.

It was just a shame that I lost my parents while doing so.

And not only did I take money from Winchester’s accounts, I also did a background check.

“I did some digging of my own…” I continue. “You have a nice little family, Winchester.”

Winchester’s face pales almost immediately.

“Do they know that you’re a murderer, Winchester?” I ask him. “Does your daughter know that the mouth you use to read her a cute little bedtime story every night is connected to a murderer? Or that the lips you use to press a kiss against your wife’s lips has voiced so many threats?”

Winchester swallows hard.

“I saw that you had a son on the way.” I continue. “I wonder if he’ll grow into the same man you are today? Because if he does, I might want to pay your wife a visit. We don’t want another small Winchester to roam around. I won’t allow it.”

Ezra pales beside me too.

He probably didn’t think that such a vile threat could leave my mouth, but little did he know that I wasn’t going to execute any of those threats at all. I wasn’t Winchester. I wasn’t a killer like he was. I only killed people who deserved it, and he did.

“You wouldn’t dare.” He says, his voice soft and wobbly.

“Why not?” I ask, raising my one eyebrow at him. “You killed my family. For another fucking dollar in your pocket. Why cannot I do the same? It would only be fair. Right, Ezra?”

Ezra doesn’t answer me.
I didn’t expect him to either, though.

I sounded creepy as shit right now, I did just threaten a man’s unborn child, after all.

That was so unlike me, but I guess that eight year’s pent-up hate could do that to a person.

“What do you want?” He mutters under his breath. “What do you want?”

“That’s easy.” I tell him. “Tell me where Ezra’s little sister is. And if you don’t comply, I will send someone to your house right now, and...” I pause, biting my lower lip. “Well, I don’t think I need to go into the gory details.”

“You won’t dare.” He says through clenched teeth. “They didn’t do anything!”  

I laugh at him.

I actually laughed at him.

But when I stopped laughing, I looked at Winchester with so much hatred, even the newcomer who was standing beside me started to look worried. I don’t know if he was worried for me for sounding like a complete lunatic, or if he was worried for Winchester and what would happen.

“My family didn’t do anything either but you still killed them.” I tell him, feeling my knuckles turning white against the gun I still had pointed at him. “You killed them in cold blood and for what? A little money in your pocket?” I shake my head at him, feeling tears welling up inside my eyes, but even as my vision started to get blurry from the tears collecting at the bottom of my eyelids, I didn’t bother to wipe them away. “While I was alone and scared in the streets, hungry and dirty from sleeping on the cold and hard alleyway grounds, you took the money you stole from your company to buy your wife a brand new necklace and your daughter some gifts…”

The first tears started to roll down my cheeks.

Ezra shifted on his feet beside me.

I never went in complete detail about my life before the NC, so it must have got to him.

“While you went home to your loving family, I couldn’t go back home because I was afraid that you’d be waiting for me there to finish what you started. While you went home after you slaughtered my entire family, you ate a delicious meal while I choked on my sobs, wondering where I was going to go. While you were sleeping in that comfortable big bed of yours, I hugged my knees to my chest trying to get comfortable when the cold night’s breeze enveloped me.”

I swallow hard, the memories of those nights still haunting me each and every time.

It pained me to talk about it, but he needed to know what he put me through even though he won’t feel a tiny bit of remorse towards me. “While you kissed your wife and daughter goodbye to go to work, I had to steal a fucking newspaper just to see if my family has been properly laid to rest because I couldn’t dare to go to the funeral because I didn’t know who’d be watching me, waiting to kill me the second I would be alone.”

I must’ve imagined it, but I could’ve sworn that I saw a tear rolling down Winchester’s cheek too.

“I always blamed myself for their deaths. I always resented myself for hacking and for putting all of our lives in danger because of it, but the more I blamed myself, the more I realised that I wanted to do the right thing. I wanted to tell the cops that it was you who stole the company’s money.” My tears were completely wet with tears, but I kept the gun pointed at him. “But when you found out that it was me who was trying to compromise you, you killed my entire family without remorse. You killed them for another dollar in your pocket.”

I hold the gun firmly in my hands.

“But now you’re going to die.” I tell him. “I am going to kill you with no remorse whatsoever. I am not even going to feel guilty for shooting you in your face. I am not even going to feel a thing because you deserve to die.”

“Please.” He begs.

The sound was music to my ears.

“No,” I tell him, “because that night when I begged for my family’s life, you didn’t listen. You didn’t feel any remorse when you pulled the trigger on my mother, or my father… I am not going to feel remorse for you now. So, you’re going to tell me where Ezra’s little sister is right now and I just might let you live long enough to make one last call to your loving family.”

“Please, Raya.” He begs. “You’re no murderer.”

“Everyone’s a murderer if you push them hard enough, Winchester.” I tell him, clenching my jaw shut, gritting my teeth. “And you pushed me hard enough.”

“Please—”

“Tell me where she is, Winchester!” I yell, seeing him wince at my tone.

He started to sob in his hands.

He sobbed and sobbed.

But the unthinkable happens and he stops sobbing.

He looks directly into my eyes and smiles at me. “Ezra’s little sister is here.” He says, smiling. “And if I make a call right now, well… I don’t think I need to go into the gory details.”