34. Thirty-Four Lakey
Thirty-Four: Lakey
T he asshole’s blood dripped onto the kitchen floor with a steady plink, plink, plink. I couldn't tear my eyes away from his mangled skull, a masterpiece of peeled skin that exposed him straight down to his bone. My fingers twitched, itching to add a few more brushstrokes.
"We need to decide what to do with this piece of shit," Cam said, giving me his knife to wash.
I chewed my lip, weighing our options, getting off the table and heading to the sink to run his knife under hot water. The blood swirled down the sink in a beautiful pattern, almost like a watercolor painting. "We could always dump him in the river. Fishes gotta eat too, right?" I giggled at my own joke, but Cam didn't crack a smile. Party pooper.
"Firstly, it’s fish. Secondly, this time it isn't a fucking game," he snapped. "If Chimera finds out we have one of their operatives..."
I rolled my eyes. "Woah, who pissed in your cereal. Relax, babe. They won't find out if there's nothing left to find." I traced a finger along our patient’s cheek, savoring the way he flinched as he was slowly coming around from his pain induced state. "I vote we carve him up nice and slow. Make him sing for us."
Cam's dark eyes met mine, a flicker of approval mixed with exasperation. He opened his mouth to reply, but a sharp knock at the door cut him off.
We both froze, exchanging a look of what the actual fuck? My heart started pounding like a jackhammer. Who the hell could that be? We didn’t have friends.
"Shit," Cam hissed, already moving towards the door. His whole body was tense, ready to pounce. I couldn't help but admire the way his muscles rippled under his shirt. Blood was splattered up his neck and across his cheeks. He looked like a butcher. Ugh, it was so sexy. Focus, Lakey. Now's not the time to get horny.
I watched Cam's face as he peered through the peephole, curious to see who had interrupted our little torture party. His expression morphed from annoyance to shock in the blink of an eye.
"No fucking way," he muttered, his hand hovering over the doorknob.
My curiosity was killing me. "Who is it?" I stage-whispered, inching closer. "The ghost of Christmas Past? Girl Scouts selling cookies? Ooh, I hope it's cookies."
Cam shot me a look that clearly said shut up, but I just grinned back. What can I say? Danger makes me giddy.
As he slowly opened the door, I felt a thrill of excitement race through me. Whoever was on the other side was about to make our night a whole lot more interesting. And if they turned out to be a threat... Well, there was always room for one more on our little torture table.
I craned my neck, trying to get a better view as Cam opened the door just a crack. His massive frame blocked most of my view, but I caught a glimpse of a familiar face that shocked me.
"Well, fuck me sideways," I breathed, my eyes widening.
There, standing in the doorway like she'd just popped out for milk instead of disappearing for years, was Sarah. Our old social worker. The one who'd tried to "save" us back when we were bouncing around from home to home.
I pushed past Cam, ignoring his grunt of protest. "Sarah?" I whispered, my voice coming out all weird and breathy. For a split second, I felt like that scared little girl again, desperate for someone to care.
But I squashed that feeling quick. I wasn't that pathetic kid anymore. I was Lakey fucking Aldrich, and I didn't need anyone's help or pity.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I demanded, my shock quickly morphing into anger. "Come to check up on your favorite little psychopaths?"
I felt Cam's hand on my shoulder, a silent warning to cool it. But I was too wound up. Sarah's appearance had thrown me for a loop, and I hated feeling off-balance.
As I glared at her, taking in her confident stance and the knowing look in her eyes, a thought hit me like a bucket of ice water. How the fuck did she find us? And what does she know about what we've been up to?
My hand inched towards the knife on my thigh. If this bitch was here to cause trouble, well... I'd make sure she regretted it.
Sarah breezed past us like she owned the damn place, her eyes sweeping the room before landing on the operative strapped to the table. I tensed, ready to pounce if she so much as twitched wrong. But she just stood there, cool as a cucumber, while Cam and I were internally losing our shit.
"Well," Sarah said, her voice steady as she regarded our mess before her eyes landed on Rose, "I see you two haven't changed much."
I barked out a laugh, harsh and brittle. "Oh, you have no idea."
Sarah turned to face us, and I swear to God, she looked almost... amused? Like this was all some big joke to her. It made me feel uneasy. Fucking hell, she almost had a better poker face than Cam did.
"I know this is a shock," she said, walking into the living room and looking around before checking out the broken window that Beaver had come through. "But we have a lot to discuss, Lakey. You too, Cam."
I glanced at Cam, trying to gauge his reaction. His face was a mask, but I could see the tension in his jaw. He was just as thrown as I was.
"How about we start with why the fuck you're here?" I snarled, taking a step towards her. "Last I checked, social workers don't make house calls to their old cases. Especially not ones they fucked up so spectacularly."
Sarah didn't flinch. She just looked at me with those knowing eyes, and I felt my anger rising. Who the fuck did she think she was, waltzing in here like this?
"I'm here because we're connected, Lakey," she said softly. "We always have been. And right now, you need my help more than you know."
I laughed again, but it sounded hollow even to my own ears. "Help? Lady, you couldn't help us when we were kids. What makes you think we need your help now?"
But even as I said it, a tiny part of me — the part I tried so hard to bury — wondered if maybe, just maybe, she was right. She had always been good to us. Keeping us together. Until she didn’t and Cam went to prison.
She took a deep breath, her eyes darting between Cam and me. "I wasn't just your social worker," she said, her voice low and steady, "I was part of Chimera. Which, judging by the fact that you have one of their guys on your kitchen table, you’ve heard now. That changes everything, don’t you think? You are both in over your heads and quite frankly, could use someone on your side."
The words hit me like a fucking freight train. My ears started ringing, and I felt my hands clench into fists. "What the fuck did you just say?"
"It's true," Sarah continued, her calm demeanor pissing me off even more. "I was recruited out of college. Told I'd be helping kids. But it wasn't until later that I realized what they were really doing."
I glanced at Cam, seeing the same mix of disbelief and rage I felt mirrored on his face. He was silent, but underneath that silence a righteous anger was building and if Sarah wasn’t careful, she wouldn’t leave here in one piece.
"They were experimenting on us," I spat out. "All those tests, all those 'counseling sessions'. It was all bullshit, wasn't it?"
Sarah nodded; her eyes filled with something that looked almost like regret. But I wasn't buying it. "I didn't know at first," she said. "But when I figured it out, I started digging. And what I found, well, it was worse than I could have imagined. You were their pride and joy. Everything they threw at you, you handled. Both of you."
My mind was reeling. All those years, all that pain. it hadn't just been neglect and bad luck. It had been deliberate. Planned. My stomach churned, and I tasted bile in the back of my throat.
"Why should we believe a fucking word you're saying?" Cam growled, his voice low and dangerous. I felt a rush of affection for him, mixed with a possessive thrill. Always protecting me. Protecting us.
Sarah looked at him, her expression softening. "Because I'm the only one who can help you understand what they did to you. And why they're still after you now."
I laughed, but it came out more like a sob. "Fuck you," I snarled, but even I could hear the uncertainty in my voice. "Fuck you and your 'help'. We don't need anyone but each other. Besides, apart from this fuck, no one knows where we are."
But as I said it, I felt a tremor of doubt. What if she was telling the truth? What if there was more to our past than we knew? Then we could remember? I glanced at Cam again, seeing the same conflict in his eyes. We were both torn between our instinct to lash out and the desperate need to understand.
"Tell us everything," I finally said, my voice barely above a whisper. "And if you're lying, I swear to God I'll carve out your fucking heart."
Sarah nodded, regarding us with curiosity. "I faked my own death," she confessed, her voice cracking. "It was the only way to protect myself and... to watch over you two."
My jaw clenched so tight I thought my teeth might shatter. "Watch over us? Like some guardian angel? You fucking left us to rot, Sarah. I don’t think that’s very nice." I sounded light, but my insides were twisting. Part of me wanted to believe her, wanted someone to have cared enough to look out for us. But trusting people only led to pain.
"I've been tracking Chimera's movements, gathering intel," Sarah continued. "I couldn't intervene directly without risking everything, but I've been there, in the shadows."
Cam's hand found mine, squeezing hard enough to bruise. I welcomed the pain, grounding myself in his touch as my world tilted on its axis.
"Bullshit," I hissed, but my voice lacked conviction. "If you cared so fucking much, where were you when—"
"When they took Cam to prison?" Sarah cut in, her face contorting with anguish. “I tried, Lakey, I really tried. They wanted to see if he could survive. The things that happened to him in there”
Cam’s eyes flashed. “You shut the fuck up right now!”
I looked up at him with a frown. “You’ve never said anything.”
He looked down at me, bending to kiss my forehead. “Because it doesn’t matter. I survived. I made it out. I made it back to you. That was my goal from day one. So don’t you speak another fucking word, Sarah, or Chimera will be the least of your concerns.”
At least Sarah had the decency to nod before looking over at Rose, who had been quietly observing all of this, her face paling. “Hello.” Sarah said, her face softening as she regarded our little flower.
Rose didn’t reply. None of us said anything for a while and it was getting weird.
“So, uh, how do you know Rose?” I made the fatal mistake of using her name when I spoke, internally chastising myself at the fuck-up.
“Rose.” Sarah said, almost reverently. “That’s such a pretty name.”
I blinked. “I’m sorry, how the fuck do you know her?”
“I don’t. Well, not directly at least. Rose is part of a special project that my husband and I have been tracking. It’s a next gen tech that developed because of you and Cam. But you were both too unstable. Too unpredictable to test it on. They had decided to keep you as they’d originally designed you.” She looked sad as she spoke. As if she didn’t want to relive whatever was playing out in her head.
I felt a sudden, unexpected kinship with Sarah. Her eyes held the same haunted look I'd seen in my own. She was damaged, just like us. For a moment, I let my murderous mask slip.
"We need to protect her," I said softly, my usual playful tone replaced by raw determination.
She nodded, a ghost of a smile touching her lips. "That's why I'm here. To help. Not just… Rose. But you and Cam as well. There’s so much you don’t know, but we don’t have a lot of time."
The tension in the room shifted, a fragile trust forming between us. But before I could respond, a harsh laugh cut through the air.
"How touching," Beaver sneered from his place on the table. "A reunion of traitors."
I'd almost forgotten about our captive. My eyes snapped to him, narrowing dangerously. "Shut your fucking mouth before I shut it for you."
Sarah stepped forward, her face hardening as she addressed him. "Hello, Christian. Still Chimera's loyal lapdog, I see."
Christian's eyes widened in recognition, then narrowed with pure hatred. "Sarah fucking Miller. I should've known you weren't dead. Always were a sneaky bitch."
I watched, fascinated, as Sarah's calm demeanor cracked. There was history here, ugly and raw.
"You don't know the half of it," Sarah spat. "And if you had an ounce of humanity left, you'd help us take Chimera down."
Christian's laugh was all venom. "Help you? I'd rather die. And when Chimera finds you — all of you — you'll wish you had."
I felt my fingers twitch, itching to wrap around his throat. But as I looked at Sarah, seeing the pain and determination in her eyes, I realized we had bigger problems than this asshole.
"Well," I chirped, plastering on my sweetest smile, "looks like we've got ourselves a party. I’m pretty much done with him; Cam should we toss him off the cliff?"
The tension in the room was thick enough to choke on. I glanced at Cam, seeing the wheels turning behind those dark eyes of his. He was probably calculating how many ways we could make Christian scream before he'd spill his guts – literally and figuratively.
"Lakey," Sarah's voice cut through my thoughts, "think before you do anything rash. Chimera's reach is vast, and Christian here will be missed. That being said, he also can’t know I’m alive. Sorry, Chris, the only way out of here isn’t going to be on your feet. You’re going to have to dispose of him in a way that no one can find him. And fast. Judging by the mess in his head, you disabled his tracker, and someone will notice soon.” She paused, tilting her head, “Well done on that, by the way. It took my husband a while to figure out how to get mine offline.”
I cocked my head, studying her. "Oh, you'd be surprised what a little creativity can accomplish. I've got a whole toolbox of fun just itching to be used."
Christian sneered from the table. "Go ahead, you psychotic bitch. I've been trained to withstand anything you could possibly dish out. You just peeled the skin off my scalp and if you let me off this table, I’d still be able to gut you like the hog you are."
I felt that familiar darkness bubbling up inside me, a grin spreading across my face. "I find it so crazy that now that Sarah is here, you’re acting like a big bad wolf. You’re scum, Beaver. No one is going to miss you." I grabbed my knife, itching to carve him a new smile.
Cam's hand on my arm stopped me before I could take a step. His touch sent electricity through my skin, grounding me. "Easy," he murmured, his eyes never leaving Christian. "We need to take him to the cliffs alive. Remember we don’t want to kill him here, it’s gonna cause issues. The bin isn’t taken until Thursday and it’s Monday. The smell will attract attention. We have to get him to the dump spot, babe."
I pouted, but the look in Cam's eyes promised future fun. God, I love this man .
Sarah cleared her throat, reminding us of her presence. "We're running out of time. Chimera will be looking for him, and they won't be gentle when they find us."
"Well," I sighed, twirling a lock of hair around my finger, "I guess we should go get rid of him then. Clean the place, maybe have a shower. I stink."
Rose spoke for the first time in the last couple hours, “And we need to fix the window. Maybe Sarah and I can do all that while you deal with Beaver?”
The room fell silent, all eyes on me. I grinned, feeling that delicious anticipation building. “That’s an excellent idea. Cam, mind doing the honors and knocking out our guest? Can’t have him screaming down the halls and attracting attention.”
He cracked his knuckles, a smirk blessing his face. “With pleasure.”