25. SIREN
25
SIREN
T onight Gasoline dies, and I’ve never felt so giddy about making a kill in my life.
Reaper practically sent me on my way with a kiss and a packed lunch, telling me to have a great day. But truth be told, I think he was jealous. Ever since the fire, he’s wanted revenge on this vile woman just as much as I have, but he knows I need this more. Besides, he thinks the brothers are planning something, and until he figures out what that is, he’ll be tailing them.
Mila has been working on tracking Gasoline for the past few days, and this morning, we finally got a hit. She’s been staying in one of the old warehouses in the industrial area where this whole bullshit started. Personally, I find staying in a warehouse unimaginative. The Boston Maneater did it too, and I can’t figure out why they would want to spend their last days on earth in a rundown building with no heat or access to working amenities. I get that living it up in a holiday home like Reaper, Shadow, and I have been doing certainly has its disadvantages, but I wouldn’t trade a working bathroom and a proper bed for anything.
With my car becoming a casualty of the suite fire, I had no choice but to walk my ass out to the industrial park, and after already knocking out many of the big contenders of War Games, I really don’t mind the stroll. Hell, I even let my guard down and try to enjoy the fresh air. Though despite doing what I can to enjoy my night, I keep to the shadows. My typical assassin-style outfit, complete with the black lips and long rope-like hairstyle is more than enough to draw the wrong kind of attention, and after the FBI have been sniffing around Blue Springs, the last thing I need is to get my ass caught.
There are only a few contenders left in the competition. The brothers, Gasoline, and a woman named Silver. For the most part, she’s managed to fly under the radar, and I haven’t paid much attention to her. I assumed she would be taken out by someone else earlier in the game. Yet as I approach Gasoline’s warehouse, I can’t help but notice the silver-haired woman creeping around, and judging by the way she’s carrying herself, this is definitely not a planned visit.
Hmmmm. Interesting.
My brow arches, and as I stick to the shadows, Silver attempts to be discreet. She glances around, missing every possible sign that someone is watching her, and despite not knowing much about her skill level, it’s clear who will be the one walking out of this one tonight.
I shake my head. There’s nothing I loathe more than an unfair fight, and someone like this has no business going after a woman like Gasoline. However, I can understand why. During that very first meeting in the warehouse just down the road from here, when these two women introduced themselves to the circle, it was clear that there’s a history there, and I bet Silver has been waiting for her chance to get the drop on Gasoline. The only issue is that tonight isn’t the night, nor is any other night.
Gasoline is a snake. She doesn’t fight fair, and her idea of beating someone is by stabbing them in the back. There’s no honor in the way she kills, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from a serial killer. Silver might have the chance to surprise her, but Gasoline won’t allow her to have the upper hand for long.
When Silver disappears into the rundown building, I launch myself over the back fence and slip in through the side entrance, immediately getting smacked in the face by the putrid stench of gas, telling me I’m more than in the right place. The main overhead lights are out, but there’s a few spotlights that create just enough glow to catch Silver as she creeps through the building with a blade in each hand.
She looks left and right as if trying to sniff out Gasoline, but with the foul smell in the air, I don’t know what she’s expecting to find. There are gas cans everywhere, and my stomach starts to sink. I’m getting a bad feeling about this.
I can’t be burned alive again. That shit wasn’t fun the first time, and if that’s her backup plan, then I need out. I won’t risk that again. There’s too much accelerant littering the warehouse, and it would only take one simple spark to send this place up in a blaze. The fire at the resort will look like a campfire compared to what happens here.
Silver creeps right into the center of the warehouse when I notice something in the rafters, and I lift my gaze, only to find Shadow watching over me. My jaw drops, and as she cringes, it’s clear she knows she’s been caught. I hold my hands out in the universal sign for what the ever-loving fuck do you think you’re doing? And when she simply shrugs her shoulders in apology, all I can do is shake my head.
Now is not the time to discipline my delinquent child . . . or whatever she’s supposed to be to me.
I narrow my gaze at her, letting her know that we’re going to have words about this when we get home, and just as a cocky smirk tears across her gorgeous face, a flash of red hair catches my attention.
Gasoline.
She stands in a narrow doorway, her gaze locked heavily on Silver, and I realize that we’ve all been caught in her trap. We were lured here, and now she’s the one with the upper hand.
I signal to Shadow to watch Gasoline, and just as Shadow nods in understanding, my phone buzzes in my pocket. I ignore it, realizing it must be Mila checking in, but when a second text comes through, I reach for my phone. Mila knows I’m out, but she also never messages twice. It’s got to be Reaper.
Swiping my thumb across the screen, I unlock my phone and check the message.
Reaper - Get out of there. It’s a trap.
Reaper - Fucking answer me, Siren.
Shit.
My gaze snaps back to Shadow, trying to figure out how the hell I’m supposed to get her out of here before this shit turns sideways. But it leaves me wondering how the fuck Reaper knew that.
Siren - Can’t. Shadow’s here. I’m not leaving without her.
Reaper - Fuck.
I clench my jaw, trying to figure out a game plan when a figure slips in through the back entrance, quickly followed by another at the main entrance.
The brothers.
Reaper was right. They’re working together.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath before double-checking that Shadow has seen what I’ve seen. But I shouldn’t doubt her. She argued once that despite her young age, she knows what she’s doing, and yet I can’t help the need to look out for her.
With her backup in place, Gasoline finally finds her backbone and steps out of the darkened doorway, announcing herself to the room with a cocky attitude that has me desperate to kick her right in the vagina with a studded boot.
“Where is she?” Reaper’s deep tone suddenly says from right behind me.
I jump, my heart launching right out of my fucking chest before scolding myself for not realizing he was here. He was spending the night tailing the brothers, and the second they made their way inside the warehouse, Reaper would have followed them straight in.
“Rafters,” I say, indicating toward the ceiling.
Reaper’s sharp gaze sails to the ceiling, and he spots her immediately, but when she gives him the same guilty smirk she offered me, I can’t help but laugh under my breath.
“Shit,” he mutters.
“My thoughts exactly.”
His gaze sweeps the warehouse with confidence, and in a matter of seconds, his face shifts. I know he’s figured something out.
“Certainly took your time,” Gasoline says, her chilling voice sending shivers spiking across my skin and throwing me right back into that resort suite with my wrists and ankles bound to the table. Her gaze flicks toward the corners of the room, and as if on cue, The Texan Reaper and The Boneyard Slayer step out of the shadows, leaving Silver defenseless.
The Texan Reaper drags a heavy chain behind him, the sound of it against the concrete enough to turn my blood cold. “Had to lose a tail first,” he says, clearly having known that Reaper was following them, but he’s too fucking daft to realize he followed them right into the warehouse.
Silver panics, her gaze flicking around the run-down building, frantically searching for a way out, but she won’t find one. Every last exit is covered.
“They don’t know we’re here,” I tell Reaper, pointing out that this trap was solely for Silver, and while I waltzed straight into it, I’m not a target tonight. If they were as clever as they thought they were, they could take out all four of us and win this shit. Only, they don’t possess the skill nor the brains to pull it off.
The three of them begin to creep toward Silver, and she whips around with her blades, trying to find a way out of this. In pure panic, she makes a break for it, lunging for the main entrance. She throws her knife at The Boneyard Slayer as she passes him, barely grazing his thigh, and before she can get another step, he darts out toward her, grabbing her by her upper arm and throwing her back into the center of the warehouse.
Silver stumbles and falls, and by the time she can even attempt to get back on her feet, the brothers and Gasoline are already on her. They tie her up with the industrial-sized chain, and with her small frame, she doesn’t stand a chance.
“You really thought you could get the drop on me?” Gasoline taunts, pulling out that same packet of matches and pulling one free. My stomach sinks. “Look around you, Silver. You’re nothing but an old fool.”
Silver spits at her, and Gasoline instantly hurries into her, slamming a booted foot into Silver’s ribs. “You fucking bitch,” Gasoline grunts. “You’re gonna suffer for that, mark my fucking words.”
Silver laughs despite being at a complete loss. “Mark your words?” she questions. “You couldn’t do shit if you didn’t have brainless one and two doing all your dirty work for you. You know they’re going to slaughter you the first chance they get, right? You don’t mean shit to them.”
“Let’s just get this done,” The Texan Reaper demands, clearly done with their bullshit.
Silver just scoffs, looking back at The Texan Reaper. “You better watch your back too,” she says. “I’ve known this bitch for twenty years, and the second she gets a chance to cross you, you’ll be chained in a warehouse just like this.”
The Boneyard Slayer rolls his eyes and goes to take a step when his attention sails up to the rafters, making my stomach tighten with knots. “Fuck,” he roars, tossing the end of the chain he’s holding to the ground as he breaks into a sprint. “IT’S THAT FUCKING KID.”
Chaos erupts, and both Reaper and I dart out of the darkness. My one and only goal is to get to Shadow, and I’m trusting that Reaper will handle the rest, but it all happens too fast. “SHADOW, RUN!” I scream at the top of my lungs.
Shadow rushes to her feet, making a break along the rafters, and The Boneyard Slayer rushes after her while his brother launches into action, noticing me and Reaper immediately. Deciding Reaper is his biggest threat, he darts toward him as Gasoline freezes, her sharp gaze quickly assessing the chaos.
She knows she doesn’t stand a chance in this warehouse, and without a fucking care, she tosses the lit match toward the gas tanks as horror pounds through my chest. She takes off at a sprint toward the back exit as my feet slam against the ground, only having a few seconds to save myself.
The Texan Reaper roars something to his brother, but the deafening boom of my pulse beating in my ears makes it impossible to hear a damn thing except for the sound of my own fear. I don’t take my eyes off Shadow as she races across the rafters, and then just as a strong arm locks around my waist and yanks me aside, Shadow throws herself right out of the second-story window, glass shattering around her.
My body is violently yanked, and the next thing I know, I’m flying through the main entrance and crashing to the hard ground as the piercing scream of a terrified woman fills the warehouse behind me. A body slams down over mine just moments before an almighty BOOM blasts through the warehouse.
“FUCK,” Reaper roars over me as the searing heat of an explosion hits our backs, shooting plumes of fire up into the dark sky. His body crowds mine, his arms bracing around my head as he buries his face into my back. “SIREN? BABY, ARE YOU GOOD?”
“Fuck,” I groan, unable to tell if I’m hurt from the explosion or from Reaper’s impressive weight crashing down over me, but none of it matters as I try to shove him off me. “SHADOW!”
Reaper is off me in seconds, grabs my arm, and drags me to my feet as we race through the night, desperate to get Shadow.
We find her face down in the overgrown bush by the side of the warehouse, the wall of the rundown building having mostly protected her from the blast, but that doesn’t mean she got off scot-free.
“Shadow,” I gasp, crashing down to my knees beside her and grabbing her arm as I quickly roll her over, but before I even get a chance to assess her, Reaper is there, scooping her into his strong arms.
“We have to get out of here.”
Shadow fights his hold, and relief soars through my chest. “I’m okay. I’m okay,” she rushes out, pulling herself free. “I can walk.”
Not wanting to overstep her boundaries, Reaper releases her and allows her to balance on her own two feet, and despite her protests, he keeps his hand on her upper arm as we hurry away from the massive blaze.
“What the fuck just happened?” I demand as we slip into a back alley that offers us privacy from the road and the sirens that are quickly coming this way.
I lean against the wall of a building, closing my eyes as I try to catch my breath, but feeling Reaper’s gaze on my body, I open them again and find him assessing me for injuries. “You okay?” he asks, his voice deeper than I’ve ever heard it.
I nod and immediately start doing the same, noticing burns all over his back and arms—burns that would have been mine had he not thrown himself on top of me. “You?”
“Fine.”
He’s the furthest thing from fine, and seeing that I’ve noticed the burns across his bronze skin, he simply pulls me into him and locks his arms around me, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I’m fine,” he repeats, his tone demanding compliance.
“Gasoline and the brothers?” I ask, shifting my gaze to Shadow and checking her from head to toe for the millionth time in the last few seconds.
“From what I could tell, they got out,” he tells me before pulling back and indicating further down the alley, silently telling us it’s time to get our asses out of here before the FBI scours every inch of the industrial park.
“Fuck. I was hoping that would have wiped them all out so this shit could have been over,” I murmur. “But if anything, us showing up and robbing them of a satisfying kill is only going to piss them off, especially with Silver out of the competition. It’s going to be us three against them, and the only way they’re going to be able to break us down is to pick us off one at a time.”
Shadow walks up ahead of us, and as she reaches the end of the alley, she begins climbing up an old dumpster, preparing to launch herself over the back wall. “Is this my fault?” she asks, pausing as she looks back at us. “If I wasn’t there, they would have made their kill and then taken off for the next week. They wouldn’t be focusing on us just yet.”
Reaper shakes his head. “Whether you were there or not, they’ve run out of options. If they want to win this thing, they have no choice but to lure us out, but we’re not going to let that happen. It’s important now more than ever that we stick together. We can’t be going off on our own. I can’t risk losing either of you.”
Shadows nods and reaches for the edge of the wall, preparing to pull herself over. “So what do we do?”
Reaper lets out a heavy sigh as Shadow pulls herself up on top of the wall and glances back down at us. “We figure out one hell of a game plan, but before we do that, we eat.”
“Now that’s a plan I can get down with,” Shadow says before dropping down on the other side of the wall, her feet not making even the slightest sound as she lands.
I follow suit, and before I know it, Reaper is dropping down beside me, and the three of us start the long trek back home.
We take every backstreet we know, doing whatever we can to keep off the main roads as they become flooded by emergency services trying to figure out how an old warehouse that hasn’t seen the light of day in years suddenly blew up.
Almost an hour passes when we reach the city center of Blue Springs, and despite how silent Shadow is, there’s no denying the sound of her rumbling stomach. “You wanna stop at a diner?” I ask her as we stride down the street in silence.
“Oh god, yes,” she says with a sigh of relief. “I’m starving.”
I roll my eyes. No matter how much we feed this kid, she is always hungry, and honestly, I don’t know where she’s putting it. She’s practically skin and bone.
We stop at the next diner, picking a private booth close to the back exit, and before the waitress has a chance to hand us the menus, Reaper rattles off a quick order, getting us each a burger and fries, and demanding she make it quick.
“Okay, Shadow,” Reaper says as the waitress scurries off to grab us some drinks. “You’re killing me here. I can’t sit by and not ask anymore. How the fuck did you end up here?”
My eyes widen, shooting toward Reaper. We’ve made a point not to ask her about her life, hoping that she would open up when she was ready, but time is quickly running out, and despite how comfortable she’s become with us, she hasn’t dared to even whisper about her life or how she managed to become one of the best contract killers at only thirteen. I won’t lie, curiosity has been killing me too, but I’ve managed to bite my tongue so far. Reaper apparently doesn’t possess the same self-control.
Shadow freezes, her gaze shifting to me, and seeing that same curiosity in my eyes that she sees in Reaper’s, she lets out a breath, and I prepare myself for whatever’s about to come out of her mouth.
“I, umm . . .” she pauses, grabbing hold of the napkin on the table and quickly tearing it to pieces. “I was raised in an organization that trains children to become super spies and assassins. We’re stolen from the hospital right after birth. We’re never even held by our birth mothers. They were told their babies were stillborn, and from there, the babies were shipped off to their underground training camp, which is where I stayed until I was enrolled in these games. There’s no love there. Toddlers learn how to handle weapons before they learn to walk, and the second they are capable of holding their own, they are taught to fight.”
Tears fill my eyes as I look at this sweet child. “Tell me this is a sick joke,” I beg her.
Shadow shakes her head, glancing away as though the emotion in my eyes is too much for her to bear. “We’re not raised to have the same values and morals as normal children. We don’t ride bicycles or indulge in arts and crafts. Up until you hugged me in my room the other day, I’d never experienced that in my life. We’re raised to be fearless robots, yes-men to our captors, and we’re taught that our lives are expendable. We’re nothing more than a number, and when our number is called, it’s an honor to do our part, even if it means sacrificing yourself for the mission.”
Holy fucking shit.
My heart breaks for her, and all I can do is reach across the table and take her hand, knowing without a doubt that Reaper and I have to do something about this. We can’t let her take the win only to end up right back there after we’re gone.
“What do you mean number?” Reaper asks, his usual mask of indifference beginning to slip.
“The organization . . . They don’t believe in names. It weakens us. It’s seen as an unnecessary luxury that conforms to typical family values. Offering somebody a name is to give them value, and once they’ve been given that, they will learn to depend on it, and soon enough, they are a slave to their emotions. Allowing yourself to be ruled by simple human emotions . . . It’s weak. And weakness has no place in our organization. I am known as thirty-eight.”
I squeeze Shadow’s hand, drawing her dark gaze back to mine. “To have love doesn’t mean to be weak, Shadow,” I tell her. “To allow yourself to open up to another and learn to trust shows incredible strength. To have vulnerability and make mistakes . . . it makes us human, and that’s perfectly okay. Surely you can see that.”
She nods, her bottom lip beginning to quiver. “I am starting to learn that,” she tells me before shifting her gaze back to Reaper. “I don’t ever want to go back to that place.”
“You won’t,” he vows to her. “I promise you, Shadow. I don’t know how this is going to play out or what’s going to happen, but these games end the second the brothers and Gasoline are dead. I’m not sacrificing either of you, and the second we can, the three of us are getting out of here together.”
“You really mean that?” she asks, sitting up straighter.
“Yes, Shadow. You, me, and Siren; we’re a family now. I have your back, just as I expect you to have both mine and Siren’s. From here on out, we stick together.”
Shadow nods just as a burger and fries are placed down in front of her. “Okay,” she finally says, as a smile pulls at her lips. “I’ve never had a family before.”
“Neither have we,” I tell her, my heart breaking for everything this girl has been through in her short thirteen years. “It’s a learning curve for us all, but we’re going to figure it out along the way.”
“Okay,” she says again. “I just have one question.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“Are families supposed to share everything? Because Reaper’s got these really cool custom blades that I’ve been dying to get my hands on, and if I’m being honest, I already stole three of them.”
Reaper scoffs. “I fucking knew some of those blades were missing.”
I can’t help but laugh as I meet Shadow’s gaze. “I’ll make you a deal,” I tell her. “If the three of us get out of Blue Springs unscathed, I’ll order you all the custom blades your little heart desires.”
“You’ve got yourself a deal,” she tells me with a wide grin before finally scooping up the burger that somehow seems bigger than her whole head and taking a massive bite, ultimately shutting her up for the next forty-five minutes.