Chapter 8
EIGHT
LELAND
Cassel’s words sink in as I realize the situation is much more dire than I even imagined.
Whoever is doing this is working quickly and efficiently.
And besides that first shot, I haven’t heard another.
While they might be using silenced weapons we haven’t heard, the dead bodies tell me that they’re using a knife.
I shift Teo over to Sophia. “He’s yours. I have bigger things to worry about. Cassel, what’s the person doing now?”
“They’re directing Everly and Tavish to a specific area.”
“Where are they at in correlation to me?”
“Go through the door in front of you,” he says.
I start to follow his instructions while behind me, Sophia drags Teo after her. I’m well aware that she is thinking of using him as a bargaining chip if things go poorly.
Using Cassel as my eyes, I don’t hesitate as I move through the door. I don’t need to when he can tell me if there’s anyone beyond it. But when each room just offers streaks of blood and signs of violence, it’s easy to keep moving.
Sophia, who doesn’t seem prepared to risk her life to meet the person who has caused this, continues to check the locked doors, but it’s clear we’re cattle being herded to the slaughter.
But I’m not going down without a fight.
Cassel’s voice comes over my earpiece again.
“Tavish and Everly are in the main room now. The person has followed them but hasn’t attacked them.
I think Tavish and Everly know they’re cornered, so Tavish is trying to talk to them, but I can’t hear sound over the cameras.
They’re in the room through the next door.
The person is to the left but has placed themself behind Tavish and Everly. You don’t have a clear shot.”
“Okay.” My hand hovers over the door as I think about what I should do. I can wait and hope that they separate enough that I could shoot the person. But what if I wait too long and they hurt Everly or Tavish, both of whom are here because of me?
My hand turns the doorknob, and I slowly pull it open, gun at the ready.
From here, I can tell that the unknown person is clothed in black, with a ski mask over their face. They have a gun pointed at Everly, and Tavish seems to be bleeding, but both are still alive. I just need to keep it that way.
Whoever this is, they obviously planned this perfectly so that I couldn’t take the shot I needed to take.
“We are not a part of this,” I say.
“Mr. Sandman,” the person calls, sounding elated and confirming my suspicions that he’s a man. “You’re finally here.”
I refuse to show any emotions on my face, but my idea that he was here for Teo quickly goes out the window.
No.
He’s here for me.
And I’ve put everyone in my family at risk by bringing them here today to help this woman.
We should have walked away. Yes, it would have been heartless of us to leave Sophia to deal with getting her son out of this alone.
And knowing the type of family the Barlows are, I doubt she would have.
They’d have dragged him into their world and wouldn’t have let go.
We were doing a good thing.
And look where that got us.
I observe the man closely, waiting for him to show his true colors. “I see you know who I am. We are simply here for a boy and have nothing to do with this family, and I’d love it if you stepped aside while I took my two here and went on my way.”
“I thought the Sandman worked alone,” he says, watching me from between Tavish and Everly. With the ski mask on, I can’t see his face, but his build seems pretty average. He has no discernable accent or anything else that gives away who he is.
“Do you have business with me or Teo?”
He waves over to where he’s piled at least six bodies. It’s hard to tell how many there are from the way they lie on top of each other. “A little present. For you.”
That sure makes me hesitate, but I know better than to let anything show on my face. “Oh? And what have I done to deserve such a present?”
“Everything,” he says, smile oddly eerie when I can see so little of his face.
“How much is this ‘present’ going to cost me?”
“That wouldn’t be a very good present if I made you pay for it, now would it? Let’s just say that I… appreciate your work. I’m your biggest fan.”
No part of this is going well, and the fact that he’s fascinated by me makes me even more leery of what is about to happen.
“How flattering, but I don’t do this work for praise or presents. Such a pleasure to meet you. I will be taking my men and going.”
The man walks over to a table, stepping out from where he was protected between Everly and Tavish, and sits on it. He crosses his legs, folds one arm over his torso so he can lean his elbow on the other, and with head in hand, he watches me.
“I really do adore you, Sandman. I’m so thrilled you’re back in the game,” he says.
I jerk my chin at Everly and Tavish to indicate they should leave the room, and they do so without hesitation.
This is a man I have no interest in turning my back on.
I even think about killing him, but he didn’t kill anyone innocent, did he?
While the Barlow family controls people who are innocent, none of them would be at this level in the family.
They wouldn’t be free to make their own decisions or be in charge of keeping anyone important alive.
Teo takes the moment of distraction to twist away from Sophia. The woman looks like she’s debating grabbing him again, but probably realizes that dragging him around is only going to slow us down. So she steps through the door, disappearing after Tavish and Everly.
“Sandman… before you go, you might want to wait a second. I’m afraid there was an issue.”
I really don’t want to play this man’s games, but at least he allowed the others to leave. “An issue bigger than this?”
“You see… one of Teo’s men got away from me, the slippery little shit. And right before I ended up here, I saw him chasing that husband of yours.”
I refuse to let any trace of emotion cross my face as I watch him, calculating what to believe and how much he’s trying to drag me along with this fucked-up show he’s created.
“I know it’s hard to gain trust in this world. So let’s just say I want to offer my first tiny grain of trust.”
He reaches out and grabs a rifle that was sitting on the table then holds it out to me, gripping only the barrel like he wants to prove to me that he’s not going to shoot me.
I still have Cassel on the line to double-check whatever this man might claim, so before I make a single move, I murmur, “Where is Jackson?”
“I’m looking,” Cassel says in my ear.
“Look faster.”
“I’m sorry. I’m trying. I was focused on you because Jackson and Henry seemed safe the last time I looked in on them.”
The man is still holding the rifle out. The door is so close to me that I could slip through it in a second. I could run off and find Jackson myself… but I left my rifle in the van, knowing I’d be inside the building where a rifle would be of little use.
I know this man is toying with me. He’s offering something, and I’m well aware that whatever he’s offering won’t be free. To add to it, he was in here with us. How does he know what’s going on outside of these walls unless he’s been watching it on some device or he set this situation up himself?
“Jackson is outside… but someone has him. Leland, go, now!” Cassel shouts in my ear.
I lunge forward and grab the rifle, making the man laugh.
He’s loving it.
Who knows if he’s fucked with the rifle. Who knows if it’s going to blow up in my face. All I know is that the tone in Cassel’s voice tells me that I need to go.
“Take a left,” Cassel says, and I shove through the door. “Window there. Can you see them?”
I throw the locks up on the window as I see Jackson kneeling on the ground, illuminated by one of the many floodlights around the estate.
I see the way his fingers are digging into the grass, like he’s reached his limit of knowing what to do.
And while I lift the rifle, the man in front of him raises his gun, bringing it up toward Jackson’s head.
There’s no hesitation on my end.
The bullet strikes the man right in the head, and he’s thrown back, hitting the ground on his back.
The shot was precise.
Blood splatters from the wound as he lands and Jackson jerks back in shock.
I know Jackson wouldn’t want me to kill him, but if I shot him anywhere else, there was still a chance he could take away the man I love.
How the fuck did all of this go so wrong?
A clap sounds behind me, making me turn and aim the rifle at the man leaning against the doorframe. I’d been so focused on Jackson that I hadn’t even heard him.
This is why Lucas never let me get to know anyone. Any relations I had with people were with ones I was going to kill because the very moment you throw someone else in, everything spirals out of control.
As I’ve shown today.
“That was fucking beautiful,” he says.
“What do you want?” I ask, tone sharp.
“I want the Sandman to come out of retirement. And it looks like I’m going to get my wish.
I hope you enjoyed your present. I’d be happy to give you more,” he says before he slips out of the doorway and into the hallway.
I debate going after him; I debate killing him too.
It’s another man who knows my face, but worse yet, he knows my husband’s face.
Back when I was the Sandman, I was discreet.
I could kill without anyone ever seeing, but it wasn’t like I did everything I could to keep my face hidden because it really didn’t matter to me.
But now? Now, I don’t want this man to know anything about me.
I feel like I should do something, but what?
While he’s harassed us, he has let us go. And I’m not sure who wounded Tavish.
However, my desire to get Jackson away from this runs stronger than my need to follow the unknown man.