Chapter 17 #3
Without a second thought to the life I’ve just taken, I pull my keys out and say, “I’m leaving.” I hold my hand out and Damien hands my phone over. I check the map again so I know where I’m headed and then start to leave.
“Sasha,” my dad starts to say, but I cut him off right as Mia comes running in.
She meets my eyes and says, “I’m sorry. I was following something up on the other side of the city. I got here as soon as I could.” She looks at Christine’s dead body and then asks, “Did she give you anything useful?”
“Not really,” I say. “I’m on my way to get Cyn.”
Without missing a beat, she hauls ass to meet my stride and says, “I’m coming with you.”
“We all are,” our dad says. “I just need you to not lose your shit until you’re away from witnesses, Sasha. That’s all I’m asking. Busting you out of prison would be such a pain in the ass.”
“I won’t get caught,” I tell him, but then I turn my head before I push open the back exit. “But if I do, promise me you’ll keep Cyn safe.”
“Of course I will,” he says.
“We all will,” Luka adds. “Don’t worry about that, but we’re not going to let you get caught.
” He hollers for Val to join us, and when we get outside, I yank my helmet on to keep my face hidden while the others either get into cars or onto their bikes.
I lock my phone onto the mount by the throttle so I can easily see where Cyn is, and then I’m starting the engine and racing into traffic.
I know the others will follow me, but I’m not about to slow down and make it easy for them.
As I speed up and skirt around traffic, following the same path Ben had taken when he’d left the club, I’m not surprised to see Mia in my rearview mirror.
She stays right on my ass with our dad right behind her.
The rest are following in cars behind him.
It’s the shortest drive of my life and also the longest. Taking my eyes from the road, I watch the red dot stop and feel my heart start to race at the thought of Cyn passed out in the back of that fucker’s car.
Making a quick right turn, I race down the side street before cutting through an alley and stopping near an apartment complex.
The house across the street is rundown, but not more so than any of the other houses around here.
Nothing makes it stand out. Nothing puts it on my radar except for the blinking red dot that’s stopped right at this address.
Now it has my attention, and every single person inside this house is dying tonight because of it.
I don’t have my mask with me, but even if I did, I wouldn’t wear it. I want them to see me. I want them to know exactly who’s ending their lives and why I’m doing it.
“You okay?”
I look down at my sister and shake my head. “Not even close, little witch.”
“I figured, but you’re doing a good job of keeping it together,” she says.
“Don’t worry, you’re going to get to let loose in two minutes.
Luka’s on the phone with Niki. He’s knocking out security cameras and blocking cell signals.
Whoever is in there will be trapped with no way to contact anyone outside this house. ”
I’m jittery, too tense to stand still, and instead of the calm I usually feel before a kill, I feel fear instead.
Not for myself and what I might find inside, but for her.
The mere thought of something happening to her is impossible for me to think about, the very idea threatens to undo me, and I can’t come apart just yet.
Before I lose all sense of everything, I look down at my little sister and say, “Keep yourself safe, little witch. You can’t depend on me to watch your back in there.”
Instead of being worried, she scoffs at me and says, “I can take care of myself. Don’t worry about me. Find Cyn and make sure she’s safe. We’ll take care of everything else.”
I know she’s right, but I still glance over her head to our dad. He nods, letting me know he’ll watch over Mia.
“I saw that,” she says.
“You’re my daughter, little witch, of course I’m watching your back.” He checks his watch and looks at me. “Thirty seconds. Watch your ass, Sasha.”
I tighten my grip on my knife and start walking to the front door.
I’m making no attempt to sneak in. The house is surrounded, and all access to the outside world has been cut off.
Whoever’s in here is trapped and waiting to be killed.
They just don’t know it yet. I see the others run around the house so they can barge in the back while I kick my way in from the front.
As soon as I hear my dad say it’s time, I lift my foot and kick the door hard enough to bust it right open.
When I cross the threshold, something inside me switches off.
Whatever humanity I had is gone. The loud blaring of a TV has me turning my head to the right, and when I see the living room filled with young men, my mouth twitches at the corner.
“Who the fuck are you?” the guy closest to me asks. He stands up and puffs out his chest, but I don’t give a fuck what position he plays on the football team, he’s no match for me. I thrust my knife up through his chin and into his head before he can threaten to kick my ass.
“Holy shit!” one of the guys screams, but it’s cut off when Mia stabs him in the gut before punching him in the nose and knocking him on his ass.
I take out one of the others with a deep slice from ear to ear that nearly decapitates him.
Blood sprays over me, and when I wipe it from my eyes, I see my dad finishing off the last man in the room.
My Uncle Vitaly pokes his head in the room and looks around at the three of us. “Our family is fucking insane,” he mutters before walking past to check out another spot.
I follow him and then turn to the right to check another room.
As soon as I see movement out of the corner of my eye, my instincts take over.
The man doesn’t get far, and his scream is cut off when I shove my blade into his spine.
I don’t have time to make his pain last, so I pull the knife out and slam it into the side of his neck before rocking back and forth so everything is shredded and there’s no chance he won’t bleed out.
Without waiting for his last breath, I stand back up and start heading for the stairs.
I see Luka and Val disappear into the kitchen while Mia and my dad head down the hall to check the rest of the first floor before joining me.
The carpet on the stairs is old and stained, and my vision begins to narrow as I think about Cyn’s perfect skin touching this disgusting, germ-infested place.
Blood drips from my knife and hands, leaving a trail behind me, and when I hit the top of the stairs, I’m met with a long hallway.
Closed doors are on either side, so I take the first one and barge in.
The young woman lying on the dirty mattress screams and curls into a ball.
She’s not Cyn, so I leave and hit the next room.
The woman in this one immediately starts begging me for help, but I ignore her, too, and keep checking.
The third door I open is different. The first thing I see is a man’s ass.
He’s rearing back, about to thrust into whoever is beneath him, and for one terrifying moment I think it’s Cyn.
I lunge across the small room and fist his hair as I stab him through the back, piercing his heart as I yank him further from the bed and off the woman beneath him.
Twisting the knife, I make his yells turn to garbled wails and then finally nothing but pained gasps.
My eyes run over the naked woman beneath him, but it takes several seconds for me to convince myself it’s not Cyn. I do recognize her, though.
“Oh my god,” Brittney cries, trying to cover herself up. “Please don’t hurt me.”
When the body falls to the ground, my head jerks back to her when she says, “Sasha? Is that you?”
“Where’s Cyn?” I ask, already stepping back to the door.
“I don’t know. You can’t leave me here!” she yells, but I’m already out the door and onto the next one.
There’s only one room left. I’m not sure what I’ll do if she’s not in it.
I stop in front of the door, hearing my family come up the stairs behind me.
When I turn the doorknob, I hear Cyn’s voice filter into the hall.
Instead of her usual sweet tone, it’s shaky and filled with terror.
I’ve never heard her sound so scared, not even on the night she watched me kill three men.
As soon as I open the door and see her pressed against the wall by some fucker who’s pawing at her shirt, I officially lose control.