24. Zane
Zane
A month after Psycho joined our family, everyone decides it’s a great idea to leave him home alone for hours.
This helpless animal who hasn’t been alone since he came to our house, besides an hour or two while Nox goes shopping.
How could they do this to him? The poor little guy is going to feel abandoned if we leave him all alone.
“We can’t just leave Psycho alone. He’s never been home by himself for so long before.” I try to make them as worried as I am because they should be.
Nox sighs. “He’s a cat. He will be fine home alone for a few hours. It’s not like he even comes to see me while you all are in class anyway. He will be fine alone.”
Sloane puts his elbow on Nox’s shoulder. “You two really haven’t started to get along any more, have you?”
Nox scowls at him, shaking his elbow off. “We’ve come to a mutual understanding; I leave him alone and he leaves me alone.”
“So… You’ve called a cease fire… With a cat?” The condescending tone of Cain’s voice and the slight raising of his brows doesn’t hide what he thinks about that.
While the twitch that starts to form in Nox’s left eye makes me worry he’s about to start stabbing people.
He better wait for Viv, she would love to see that.
I know she gets all turned on when Nox gets murderous.
With almost perfect timing, Viv comes down the stairs.
She’s wearing black leggings, and a skin-tight, black, long sleeve shirt.
She looks like a cat burglar in the best way possible.
Psycho follows closely behind her, winding himself between her legs, and somehow Viv manages not to trip.
Maybe they have an event for that in the Olympics.
Viv would take home gold for sure. Once she’s standing with the rest of us, Psycho makes the rounds rubbing against Sloane’s and then Cain’s legs.
He stops to raise his fur and hiss at Nox for almost a full minute before rubbing against my legs twice.
Then he goes back to Viv and lays at her feet, showing off his belly. It’s a trick. He’s played this particular trick on me a few times. He looks so cute, but the moment you touch his tummy he latches on to your hand and refuses to let go. I have no intention of falling for it again.
Viv smiles down at him because he’s the sweetest little kitty in the whole wide world, but she doesn’t fall for it either. “You know, if you guys had let me keep that puppy I brought home a few years ago, I think he and Psycho would be good friends.” I grumble.
They all turn flat stares on me, Cain’s eye now doing that twitching thing that Nox’s had been earlier. “That was a Coyote. Not a puppy.”
I huff. “I’m not an idiot. It was a Coyote puppy. He was such a good boy.”
Now Nox’s eye is twitching again. Maybe they should see a doctor about that. I think it might be contagious. “That thing ate a door, dug a hole through the drywall, and pissed on all of our shoes. And that was all within the couple of hours that you had him here before we got home.”
I roll my eyes. “He was just exploring. He didn’t know any better.”
Nox’s eye continues to twitch. “At least this fur ball is actually meant to be a pet.” He looks down at Psycho like he’s about to attack him at any moment.
They just can’t see my vision. He would have been such a great guard dog. Nobody would dare break into a house with a Coyote living in it. They never give me the benefit of the doubt.
“Umm… Are we all ready to go?” Viv asks, getting us back on track.
Cain huffs. “No, Zane is worried about leaving the cat here alone.”
Viv’s eyes find mine and she smiles. “He’ll be okay. I gave him plenty of food and water, and made sure his litter box was clean. He’ll be fine until we get back.”
I nod. “Okay.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?!?” Cain snaps. “We stood here telling you the same thing over and over again and you’re just going to accept it the first time she tells you?”
I shrug. “Yeah. Viv wouldn’t lie to me. Sometimes you guys lie when you don’t want me to freak out about something.”
He goes quiet because he knows I’m right. Though now he’s looking down at his toes like he’s done something unforgivable. I’m not mad about it. I can be a little much sometimes, but I like that Viv never acts like she’s walking on eggshells around me.
“Let’s get going then. I’m excited to see how you guys work.” Viv rubs her hands together like an evil villain about to start stealing candy from babies.
Cain adjusts the sleeve of his black crew neck shirt like it’s one of his fancy dress shirts. “You and Zane will ride with me. Sloane and Nox are picking up the target. They will meet us at the warehouse.”
I bounce on my toes and raise my hand. “I call shotgun!!”
Viv stares at me with her head tilted to one side. “Why would you want to use a shotgun? That would make such a big mess. I mean, I could see it if we were sending a message and wanted to leave a big dramatic scene behind, but a mess just to clean it up afterwards makes no sense to me.”
I grin at her. “I fucking love you.”
Her cheeks turn pink and she looks down at her shoes. “I love you too,” she murmurs.
Cain scoffs at us. “He wasn’t talking about using a shotgun. Calling shotgun is what people say when they want the passenger seat. But it’s my car and I say Viv gets it.”
She sticks her tongue out at me. Crossing my arms over my chest, I pout at the others hoping they’ll take my side, but they just kind of sweep the whole betrayal under the rug.
Viv bounces over to Cain and hooks her arm around his.
Then, like the mature grown up she keeps claiming she is, she looks back at me and sticks her tongue out again.
When Viv’s not looking at Cain, he smiles down at her with such soft eyes I almost melt from the affection he’s showing her. Then his normal blasé mask takes hold.
Though he does pull out of Viv’s grip just to wrap his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in closer to his side.
I know they’re both worried about tomorrow because of their meeting with that chair guy to discuss their unorthodox relationship, so I let them have their moment of peace before the stress of tomorrow.
I watch as they head toward the door while Psycho watches after Viv’s retreating back like he’s been mortally wounded.
Sighing sadly at the poor little thing, I follow after the others. In the car, we head toward one of the warehouses we rotate between using for jobs like this. It’s Viv’s first time working with us all and I’m super excited. This is going to be the best day ever!
It’s been thirty minutes already and I’m bored.
Cain and Viv decided it was important to set out plastic sheeting to contain the bloodshed but I feel like that’s kind of pointless when there’s a drain in the middle of the floor.
I mean, sure it keeps blood off the walls, but then we have to clean up the plastic and dispose of it.
If we just got a gallon sprayer, we could just spray the room in that stuff Viv likes to use and then rinse the walls and floor.
If we repeated that a few times, it would be fine.
When I suggest that to them though, they make eye contact for a long moment before looking at me like I’ve stripped naked and started doing the chicken dance. “That’s actually not a bad idea. We can do that next time,” Cain says with his brows raised.
“Of course it’s a good idea. It was mine, after all.”
Cain’s lips roll in and he doesn’t agree with that statement. I would feel offended if I couldn’t recall several bad idea’s I’d come up with that the guys had promptly vetoed for good reason. The door bangs open and Nox and Sloane carry a struggling man into the room.
Finally! Let the murder and torture start.
I don’t actually even know what this guy did.
Nox has been oddly quiet about it, which usually means that it’s bad.
Or likely to trigger one of us. They get the guy strapped down to the chair in the middle of the room, making sure the restraints are tight enough that he won’t be going anywhere.
“So, are you going to tell us what this asshole did?” Sloane asks, stepping back from the man trying to yell through his gag.
Viv circles him closely. “Well the state he left his cat in is plenty reason to end his life if you ask me.”
The muffled yelling gets higher pitched and Nox rubs his brow, subtly stepping in front of Sloane. Shit. Sloane’s the one who’s going to be triggered.
“Producing, selling, and buying child pornography,” Nox says, making the guy’s eyes widen.
Sloane goes very still, which is a bad sign, and Viv clucks her tongue as she circles him once more.
As she passes in front of his eyes, she pulls a thin knife out and twirls it in her fingers.
“What ever shall we do with him?” She trails the knife over his shoulders and stops just behind him.
Her knife trails up to the base of his head, right where his skull and back bone meet.
“If I severed his brain stem, he would forget how to breathe and his heart would stop pumping blood through his body.” The guy in the chair goes very still, as if Viv might forget that he’s there.
She starts to circle again, like a hungry shark, before coming to a stop, this time in front of him.
Lifting her hand, she poises the knife just under his ribcage to the left-hand side.
“If I stab him in the kidney he’ll be in too much pain to scream as he slowly bleeds to death. ”
“That’s too easy on him,” Sloane says in a gruff voice.
Nox now has a hold on his arm to keep him in place.
Viv hums in agreement as her knife trails down to rest over the guy’s groin.
This time, she looks directly into his eyes as she speaks.
“Some people think that a penis can be peeled like a banana, but that’s not true.
You’ve got to slice through the connecting tissue of each layer of skin.
Would you like me to show you how?” Her head tilts to the side like she’s expecting an answer.
He starts shaking his head and tears are streaming down his face as he whimpers behind his gag.
Viv clucks her tongue again. “Awe, are you sure? I’m not allowed to touch your penis, but I’m sure one of my friends here would love the anatomy lesson.
Sloane’s not that great at Biology, I’m sure he could use a refresher. ”
The smile that spreads over Sloane’s face is menacing and dark. “I do always enjoy your tutoring.”
Nox lets go of Sloane and he approaches Viv.
She holds out the knife, handle-first to him and he takes it thankfully, already wearing a pair of gloves.
Viv starts talking in a hushed voice to Sloane as he crouches down in front of the guy, their shoulders blocking my view.
Viv places a hand on his shoulder and makes motions with her other one.
The guy starts to struggle in his chair, but luckily Nox and Sloane tied him down really well.
Soon, his screams behind his gag start to become more audible as he cries out louder, clearly in pain.
Half an hour passes before the guy’s head falls limp.
Sloane sits back, and I can see his gloves are now slicked in blood.
He stands, and I get a good look at the guy in the chair.
The bloody mess in his lap doesn’t even resemble a penis anymore.
And yeah… It kind of does look like a deflated peeled banana.
“What do we do with him now?” I ask, looking at the idiot who thought he was allowed to pass out.
Viv shrugs and Sloane answers in a calm, controlled voice. “We wait for him to wake up then kill him slowly and painfully.”
Viv grins up at him. “So… Kidneys then?”
Sloane’s only answer is a smile.