Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 126580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
A pair of headlights flashed through the house as a truck slowed and turned into their driveway. Ashton and I were both waiting in the kitchen.
“He’s coming.” Demetri moved to the back of the door.
Pajn was on the other side.
They were big guys and could be mistaken for bodybuilders, but both were trained to handle themselves. They’d learned on the streets and moved like cats right now. Quiet and stealthy.
Ashton tapped the table to get my attention. He mouthed, “He alone?”
I leaned back, moving the curtain a slight centimeter. Billy Garretson was trudging toward the back door of the house. I nodded to Ashton and turned back, watching him coming.
His head was down. He didn’t suspect anything.
We heard keys jangling.
A key inserted into the lock, turned. The door was pushed open.
“Fuck dammit—” He stepped in, and we were hit with a rank odor coming from him. He fumbled inside, reaching for the light switch, and he flipped the light. It should’ve turned on, but the fuses had been turned off in the basement. “What the hell?” He stepped all the way in, shut the door, and flipped the light switch up and down before growling. “Bitch. She blew a—” He turned, making a startled choking sound as he came face to face with Pajn.
“Hi.” That was Pajn, and punch!
Pajn hadn’t wasted time.
Ashton and I both stood, expecting a fight.
It didn’t happen. Pajn hit him once, and the guy wavered on his feet before falling.
Pajn smothered a chuckle, stepping back and over the body. “The dude’s out.”
Both Pajn and Demetri knelt and picked up the body.
“Now you’re going to have an ego about this, saying you’re a coldcocker,” Demetri grumbled.
They lifted him together.
“Yeah, yeah. You can start now. Address me as Mr. Coldcocker from here on out.” Pajn made a gagging sound. “This guy reeks. Did he shit his pants or something?”
“Who knows. That room downstairs smells like a sewer.”
Pajn grunted in response to Demetri as they carried him downstairs.
I waited, giving them time to set him up down there.
“The information we got was that he was a religious nut.” Ashton was looking around. “Not seeing any religious items in this house.”
He was right. There were no crosses, no Bibles, no Bible verses anywhere. No rosaries, if those were a part of his religion. The walls were sparse, empty. The rooms each had the minimum of furniture. A couple chairs in the living room. The kitchen had only a small table, big enough to be a card table, and two chairs. The second chair was pulled back, sitting against the wall as if when he sat to eat, she sat there to wait on him.
The built-in shelves were empty as well.
I’d walked through the kids’ rooms earlier, knowing they had three younger children. It was the same there. Bed mattresses on the floor. A pillow. A blanket, if even one. One of the closets had some children’s books in the corner, a flashlight next to them.
“We won’t be working with this man.”
Ashton’s head snapped to mine. “Your uncle is firm.”
I shook my head, my gut flaring. “He deserves a slow and tortured death. We’ll reach out to his supervisor, make sure whoever is put in his place will work for us instead. We’ll handle it if we need to.”
“And when this guy disappears? If someone starts asking questions?”
I gave him a very dark and long look. “You really think anyone is going to ask questions?”
“She might.”
“Then she and I will have a conversation when that happens.” I was going with my gut that if this guy disappeared, everyone would consider it a blessing.
Demetri called up from the bottom of the stairs. “He’s ready.”
Questioning or interrogating someone wasn’t new to us, but Ashton was the one who looked forward to it. He thrived on the cruelty of it. Me, it wasn’t my specialty, but this time was different.
With what I wanted to do to this man, this time I was just as excited.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
JESS
I wasn’t ready, not by a long shot, when I saw my aunt. Sarah was a shadow of my mom, and my mom was already a shadow of herself, so that was saying a lot there. Then a little girl lifted up her head, and I was staring at a female version of my brother.
Same eyes. Same shape of eyes. Same coloring all over and the same almost-white hair color. My brother had a boyish look to him, at least he did when he wasn’t trying to be fierce, and this girl had the same. It was in the cheeks—both had the same round cheeks.
I was struck speechless, my throat closing up before I took in the other two kids. A little boy playing with trucks in the corner and another girl, this one with frizzy red hair sticking out. All of the kids were taking me in, but they weren’t scared. They weren’t curious.