Chapter 16 #3
The sooner we eliminate the threat, the safer she is.
All it means is Jude is going to be that much more determined to have a redo of this night and make it ten times bigger and better. It’s just the way his brain works.
“I’ll grab drinks for everyone,” I offer in an attempt to get everyone back on track.
After the movie starts, it isn’t long before both of their eyes are getting heavy. We were careful with the dosage, not wanting to have any side effects, it should feel like a regular hangover tomorrow.
The conversation continues with everyone making comments about the movie and Jude throwing out random ideas about what to add to the fort next time, but as the movie progresses, everyone grows more quiet until both girls have passed out.
“Time?” Jude whispers, brushing a strand of Berlyn’s hair from her face. The lucky bastard snagged the spot on her other side and now she’s curled against him like a kitten. She was no more than buzzed, but it really did allow us to see a whole new side of her. A more relaxed, affectionate side.
“We have twenty minutes,” I tell them, checking my phone. Everything has been planned down to the minute and there is no room for error.
Jude checks his own phone, no doubt checking in on Berlyn’s security system. “The back door is not engaged,” he confirms once more. Even without the alarm being set, the system records each door and window opening.
We thought about setting the alarm but figured it may raise more questions for Berlyn than it would help add to our alibis. The record of no doors being opened and our car being on film should be more than enough. We won’t leave any reason for them to dig any deeper in the first place.
The minutes tick down as we all run through the plan once more in our minds. Berlyn’s breathing grows deeper until soft snores fill the air, making us all smile until it’s time.
“Let’s go,” I whisper to my brothers. Jude carefully disentangles himself from Berlyn’s sleeping form and I hate leaving her. Nothing but her protection would ever be able to make me walk away.
Leaning down, I press a kiss to her forehead. “We’ll be back,” I promise.
We don’t rush as we leave through the back door, quietly shutting it behind us. Any of the security cameras that cover this area have been looped, giving us just enough time to find the wooded path that leads to the park.
As soon as we reach the park entrance, we pick up our speed, looking like we’re out for a late night jog. It’s late enough for the park to be mostly empty but not so late we look out of place or suspicious.
When we reach our back up vehicle, we pull out the change of clothes we each left in the back seat and leave what we were wearing in the backseat before we head to the professor’s house.
“He’s at the studio?” West asks, clicking his seatbelt.
I check the surveillance I set up on him while Jude starts the car and backs out of the parking spot.
“Looks like he’s getting ready to go to bed,” I answer.
“Alone,” I add. The good professor is married with two kids in high school, but as far as I’ve been able to tell, his wife took the kids and left him.
They still own the family home, but it sits empty more days than not now.
Richards splits his time between there and the studio he has closer to campus.
Though finding the studio took a bit more digging, as it’s not actually listed in his name.
Neither of his kids has had any contact with him in recent months. Not even a text. While they have kept up the facade of a happy family, the couple is clearly separated and has been for some time. Was she aware of what he was doing with his students?
Doesn’t matter now.
“Remember,” I warn my brothers, “we have to do this quick and clean. No playing with him.”
They both grumble but we’ve already had this argument. We have to stick to too tight of a timeline to get creative with this one. This isn’t about sending a message or getting justice. It’s about protecting Berlyn. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Can we at least take an organ or something?” Jude asks. I hate that I know he’s being serious about it.
I sigh. “Why would we do that?”
He gives me an incredulous look like I should already know. “To gift Berlyn,” he answers like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
My immediate reaction is to recoil, but as the thought sinks in… it might have merit. It is something that’s happened in plenty of her favorite books. “Like his heart?”
Jude shrugs. “Or his liver. I don’t really want her to have the guys’ heart. Too romantic.”
That’s a fair point. “Liver sounds good,” I agree, reconfiguring our plans in my mind to see if we can make it work.
If we give him the drug meant to paralyze him, we can probably make quick work of cutting out his liver.
It will be messy though. Messier than I wanted it to be.
Messes lead to evidence being left behind. Mistakes.
“I brought a jar,” he adds, tilting his head to his backpack in the backseat.
West clears his throat. “Berlyn doesn’t like blood.”
Jude waves him off. “We’d clean it up first obviously.”
I turn to find West not looking very convinced. “It’s definitely in her books,’” I point out to him, but that still doesn’t seem to convince him. His nose scrunches in disgust.
“The smell?”
Jude scoffs and I give him a curious look. He obviously put more thought into this than I thought. “We have formaldehyde.”
“We do?” I laugh, and he nods. Damn. Who knew my brother was capable of planning that far ahead?
He’s never been one to really think ahead, usually flying by the seat of his pants.
I’ve always been the one that has had to pull him back on track, keep him focused, and make sure he has everything he needs. Maybe he’s growing up.
“I don’t think she’s going to want that,” West argues, but it’s two against one. Now it’s only a matter of making it happen for her.
The professor lives only twenty minutes away from campus, a bachelor pad studio apartment. It’s nice enough, but not very secure with plenty of people coming and going.
We leave the car a few blocks away, slipping our masks on and grabbing Jude’s backpack before exiting the car. These things have come in handy more often than I thought when we first bought them. They were only ever intended as a part of our game with Berlyn, but they’ve proved useful.
At least, at this time of year anyway. No one even questions them. We wouldn’t have that luck the rest of the year, but we have other less obvious means of camouflage.
Today though, they work perfectly and we’re able to slip into the professor’s apartment unnoticed.
It’s quiet in here. Bare of any touches that makes it feel like a home. No personal items, photos, mementos. Nothing.
My brothers are only a step behind me, making no noise as we close the door behind us and head straight for the bedroom. Weston takes the lead, stepping in front of me to open the bedroom door.
That wasn’t part of the plan. I could stop him with one word. Hell, with one touch to his shoulder he would fall back. But part of me is curious. What is it that he needs?
He’s not one to speak up with his own ideas, needs, or desires very often. Normally going along with whatever plan I concoct. I wish he would say something rather than go rogue, but it can’t be helped. We all have our flaws.
The professor sleeps on his side, his back to the door. West moves straight to the man, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him from the bed.
Nope, not part of the plan at all. Fuck the drugs I acquired, I guess. It is kind of hot though. The way West is able to hold him by the throat, the professor’s body limply dangling in front of him, his feet a fair few feet above the ground.
The man startles awake in immediate terror, eyes wide and full of pain and fear.
Good. It’s everything he deserves. Maybe the drugs wouldn’t have given us enough satisfaction at all.
It would have been too quick, too easy. To let him fade away into nothing without him ever knowing he should be scared.
His fear excites me, thrills me. The worst and most degraded parts of me love the way his face changes colors and the millions of emotions that swirl through his eyes that all come back to the one basest feeling of our nature. Fear.
He’s been a predator. Gotten off on exerting his power and dominance on those he views as weaker. Now, we’ve made him our prey.
This way is better.
Fingers claw at West’s hand, straining and fighting with everything he has for even just a modicum of relief. To taste the slightest bit of air once more.
I said no playing, but I watch West with an enraptured curiosity, almost hoping he disobeys me. To let the man have that taste of air he so desperately seeks, only to snap it away from him again.
To make this more painful after the terror he put our girl through.
For ever thinking he could touch something that wasn’t his to touch.
He had no way of knowing who was protecting her.
That she had three shadows as she fondly calls us.
Yet, I feel no guilt as the light fades from his eyes, as the fight falls from his fingertips until his hands fall away and hang at his sides.
Don’t be a predator if your teeth and claws disappear the moment your prey isn’t weaker than you.
West’s eyes flare with disgust as he shakes the body in his grip and it flails uselessly. A loud snap fills the room as West twists his neck and lets the lifeless body fall to the floor at his feet.
I arch a brow in question. Was that wholly necessary? He only shrugs, giving me a satisfied smile as he steps over the body and back towards the door.
“We still need his liver,” Jude whispers, but West shakes his head, leaning against the doorframe and pulling out his phone. He’s not going to take any part of the organ extraction.
I sigh. “Let’s get to it,” I agree and Jude and I get to work. We remove the masks in order to see better but keep the black gloves and sweatshirts on. We already have a plan for their disposal so while the blood wasn’t a part of the plan, it won’t cause issues either.
Science is one of my strongest subjects and Jude is great at taking things apart and putting them back together again. How hard could this really be? It’s not like it has to be pretty.
Pretty it is not, but between the two of us, we get the job done.
West looks on in a mix of fascination and disgust with the occasional sigh of exasperation thrown in there.
He doesn’t think Berlyn is going to like the liver, I think she’ll find it endearing.
Especially if she realizes just how hard it was to get.
I hadn’t thought about the ribs being in our way.
We got it though.
Now to figure out when we give it to her?
Immediately after the murder may cause too many questions. May make the cops look in her direction a little too quickly.
“Here?” Jude puts his hand out, asking for me to hand him the liver. It’s bigger than I thought it would be. I hand it to him, and he carries it into the bathroom. West’s face is comical as he backs up when Jude gets near him.
The water turns on and West watches with an apathetic kind of curiosity. I turn my attention back to cleaning up the mess Jude and I made while we cut into the professor’s body. There’s no reason to put him back together, so I don’t bother.
The scene is gruesome, blood soaked sheets, pieces of bone and organs strewn along the side and in the middle of the bed lies the professor, neck bent at an odd angle and torso splayed open like a fish.
Grotesque, honestly.
What would Berlyn think if she saw us like this? How would she feel looking at this scene and knowing it was all for her?
Would she be horrified? Honored?
Probably both. I won’t ever have her see the ugly things in life though. There’s no need for her to be faced with violence when we will always take care of it for her. She can live in blissful ignorance and we’ll clear the path for her to always have it be so.
After making sure we haven’t left any traces of ourselves behind, I remove my bloodied gloves and throw them in the backpack before grabbing a new pair and join my brothers in the bathroom. Well, I join Jude while West continues to stand in the doorway, shaking his head.
Water runs over the organ in Jude’s hands while he rubs his hand over it to clear off all the blood. I reach past him and grab his discarded gloves and toss them into the backpack as well, not wanting to forget them.
“Can you grab the jar?” he asks when he notices the bag. Reaching in, I find the jar quickly and pull it out. It’s bigger and heavier than I thought, already filled with formaldehyde. Unscrewing the lid, I walk closer to Jude and the chemical smell fills the bathroom.
West crinkles his nose and shakes his head again, but says nothing. I roll my eyes at his antics but ultimately ignore him as Jude slips the liver into the jar. It slides in with a rather unimpressive plop, making some of the liquid splash over into the sink.
Tightening the lid back on and rinsing it, I hold the jar up and we all look at the souvenir we’ve got for our girl.
“It’s kind of…” Jude starts but trails off, not finishing the thought. Yet I know exactly what he means.
I nod my head in agreement. “Boring,” I finish for him.
“Unassuming,” he adds. “I mean an organ in a jar sounds a lot cooler than it looks.”
West shakes his head again. “Gross. Sounds gross. Is gross.”
“When did you become the buzzkill?” I ask, cocking my head to the side and studying him as he eyes the jar warily.
He ignores me, turning his back on us and walking out of the bathroom. I sigh, checking the time. We’ve spent too much time on this and our window is narrowing to get back to Berlyn’s.
“We gotta move,” I warn Jude and we both snap into motion. He starts pouring bleach down and around the sink, while I grab all the bloody clothes and shove them into the backpack. Thank god for layers.
All three of us have our masks back firmly in place while I do one last scan to make sure nothing has been missed. When I don’t see anything, I nod to my brothers and we head out once more.
Time to get back to our girl.