The Darkness of Perfection by Michael Schneider Read Free Book Online

starts pouring again?”
    I contemplated my options, knowing this really was the best place from which to take her. Her dorm room was at the end of the hall next to a stairwell that faced the parking lot. A roommate who couldn’t make up her mind where she slept at night, an overzealous punk drunk with his first taste of power as the dorm’s resident advisor, and a simple deadbolt lock were all that stood between us tonight.
    We could circumvent the lock and wait out the RA, but the roommate was the real problem. If she woke before I got Jayden safely away from the dorm, she could raise the alarm. If I took the time to drug the roommate, Jayden might wake. Either way, it was too risky to try for her tonight. I would have to wait another day.
    Her mother was smarter than we gave her credit for. She’d thrown us off track by leaving evidence behind that she was headed to Missouri, so no one would suspect she and Jayden were tucked away in a little town in Colorado with the same name, making it impossible to grab her over the summer. With a population of less than two thousand, strangers tended to stick out and be remembered by the nosey busybodies. Snatching her from that small town would raise too many suspicions and her mother would suspect it was me. From a large college in a city of over three-hundred-thousand it would appear more like a random act and I’d had enough of her interference in mine and Jayden’s lives.
    If it wasn’t for her, Jayden and I would already be married and possibly expecting our first child by now. Our life had been on hold for twelve years because of that bitch, and I wouldn’t tolerate any more interference from her.
    I had to wait until Jayden left for college. I watched my beautiful, lost girl trying to be so brave in a world she didn’t belong in. She was too shy, and the hormonal vultures that surrounded her daily would eventually eat her alive. I’d been tempted too many times already to make some of those boys disappear as they stared at my girl with their lustful looks. It was fortunate she didn’t return their regard or things would be much worse for her when we get home.
    “Son of a bitch!” I growled in frustration, slamming my fist against the hood.
    “You’d think the bitch had a guardian angel or something,” Jerome smirked. “Maybe you should just give up.”
    I turned swiftly to the fool beside me and grabbed him by his throat, slamming his head against the hood twice before holding him there, squeezing his windpipe until he wheezed.
    “Whoa. Whoa. He didn’t mean it. Let’s just relax before we draw unwanted attention,” Antonio warned, looking around the parking lot for possible witnesses. He tried to pull me off Jerome, reminding me although it was well after midnight we were still out in the open.
    Antonio was in his mid-thirties and had worked for our family the past five years. He’d moved up in rank, joining our inner-circle of trusted men two years ago. My brother, William insisted on bringing him with me to watch my back and help keep my temper under control. He’d proven himself over and over, handling every situation. He had the background and the knowhow, but I still just didn’t like the guy. There was something about him that rubbed me wrong.
    Jerome was still new and had yet to prove himself to me. I had to remind myself that he didn’t know my history with Jayden. He was a couple of years younger than I was and blended in, making it easy to keep track of Jayden’s whereabouts on campus. He wasn’t around when she was taken from me, or the years we spent searching for her. As far as he knew she was just a pretty face that caught my attention while on vacation; nothing more, nothing less. Still, what he’d called her made me furious.
    “Do. Not. Call my wife a bitch again, unless you have a death wish,” I snarled, shoving his head against the hood again before releasing him and jerking my shoulder from Antonio’s grasp. I knew she wasn’t