Chapter 6 Present Day 1
? Rafe ?
He was here. I knew it the same way I had known every time he was coming for me as a kid, my body locking tight.
I threw the car into park at the edge of the orphanage’s property, my eyes narrowed on the vehicle idling in the long driveway.
The cockroach thought it would be that easy to pluck Henry and leave.
I stepped out of the car and booked it to Viktor’s, scanning the backseat for Kane.
Heart in my throat, I opened the driver’s door, popped the trunk, and rounded the back.
Empty. A black hole opened in the center of myself, the same one I’d been battling since the day we lost Thorne.
It was the place everything fell into when I let myself imagine being too late, the familiar drop in my stomach where names turned into voids.
I couldn’t let it take me again, even as I knew that if Kane wasn’t here, then he might’ve been in that van.
The thought clawed at old scars. He might be inside, I lied to myself, and I would continue to lie to myself until Henry and every other kid was safe.
I cocked my rifle and strode up to the porch, a chill running down my spine at the sight of the propped open front door, a woman slumped against it, a bullet wound in her chest and her gaze dead.
The position of her body told me she hadn’t been given time to understand what was happening.
I recognized her as the one in charge, meaning the kids had absolutely no one looking after them.
It had to have only been maybe ten minutes since Viktor got here, but I’d lost a lot more in a lot less before.
I carefully passed the den, freezing when I spotted several small figures crouched on either side of the couches.
They must have been watching TV when Viktor came in shooting.
I scanned them quickly, ensuring none of them got caught in the crossfire, refusing to look at faces longer than necessary and desperately wanting to ask if any of them saw where Viktor went.
Being unable to, I forced myself to leave them behind.
Leaving children unguarded wasn’t ideal, but I didn’t have a choice.
I had no way to reassure them, and something told me nothing would bring them peace anyway beside Viktor’s head.
One of them though must have recognized me from the rescue at Viktor’s estate, because he pointed a finger down the hall toward the backyard.
The gesture was hesitant, like he expected punishment for helping.
I offered him a grateful smile, but he huddled back down, blinking back tears, already folding himself smaller.
Keeping my pace quick but cautious, I moved down the hall, sweeping every shadow or room before slowing at the threshold of the back door.
My breathing ticked up a notch when a rock bounced across the patio.
I rounded the corner, lifting my gun, my gaze narrowing on Viktor Shaw’s back, the sight of him making that damn black hole inside me rear its ugly head.
He stood at the edge of the lawn, his hands cupped around his mouth as he must have yelled something toward the play set.
His calm posture alone was enough to sour my stomach, the casual confidence of a man who had never learned what it felt like to be powerless.
I caught sight of dark hair between the slats of the playhouse attached to the upper part of the set before another rock got chucked through toward Viktor.
A weird sense of pride filled my chest when I realized it was Henry defending himself.
Then I made a beeline toward Viktor, my focus narrowing until there was nothing but the line of his spine and the space between us.
I could’ve shot him from the doorway, but as much as I wanted the bastard dead, this kill was just as much Arden’s as it was mine.
That truth stayed my hand. I shoved the muzzle into the back of Viktor’s head.
He froze, slowly lifting his hands up. I butted the muzzle against him with a grunt, trying to get him to turn and face me, to stop looking anywhere near that boy.
But he didn’t. Why wasn’t he fucking turning—Something slammed into me.
I tipped over into the grass, throwing my rifle up, both hands gripping either end, to block the incoming attack.
A guard in full tactical gear shoved his own gun beneath my chin.
He spat in my face, yelling at me, but I didn’t dare let go of my gun.
I kneed upward into his groin, but the asshole had a cup on, barely phased as he kept me pinned, forcing me to tilt my head back as the muzzle dug in further below my chin.
Viktor must have told his attack dog to shut up, because the guard pressed his lips into a thin line of contempt before easing up, Viktor looking down at me.
It was the first time I’d looked into that man’s eyes in over a decade, and it was still one of the most evil gazes I’d ever been cursed with.
The years hadn’t dulled it; they’d sharpened it, polished it into something practiced and unashamed.
He was older now, dripping in the wealth he’d made off kids like me.
The clothes, the confidence, the way he held himself all said the same thing—that he had never once believed he would pay for it.
I had known so many Buyers, Halden included, that were the scum of the earth, but Viktor was one of the worst. He hadn’t just participated; he had built himself out of it, brick by brick, child by child.
He was a perpetrator of child rape and degradation, and I didn’t care if at the end of today, Arden and I were back in cuffs.
I wanted to see his body on fire, and I wished I had my ability to hear just to take in his screams.
“Rafe,” he said, and I read his lips, bile burning at the back of my throat.
“It’s been a long time, kid. I didn’t think I’d get lucky enough to get you back, but here we are.
You’ve got a hell of a debt to pay to the syndicate.
Do you have any idea how much money you’ve cost them?
Me?” He scowled and kicked the toe of his dress shoe through the patch of dry dirt beside my head, flinging it into my eyes and causing them to sting.
“All you’ve done is waste time with that fucking prison sentence.
If you wanted less freedom, you only needed to ask.
You would be amazed at the creative ways there are to cage an asset these days. ”
Hate was not a fucking strong enough word. I huffed, blinking rapidly, trying to clear my vision from the dirt.
"You're going to pay it back, Rafe. You all will," Viktor continued.
"Every fucking penny. I don't care if it takes generations of Creed—you four made a grave mistake underestimating the syndicate.
Gone and pissed the wrong people off." He clicked his tongue.
"So much wasted potential but at least now we know where we went wrong with you. We won't make that mistake again."
The guard pushed beneath my chin harder, the chronic injury in my throat flaring with pain as I was forced to stretch those muscles.
My frantic gaze darted to where Henry hid in the playhouse.
I was only staying down for his sake. I couldn’t shoot, not with him out here.
I wouldn’t risk it. Beating the shit out of these motherfuckers though was completely on the table.
“H-h-” I shouted, embarrassment stinging my cheeks as I hoped the words would be clear enough to understand.
“He-nry…ru-n!” I banged my rifle upward, hitting the guard in the nose.
He jerked back, covering it with a hand, and I took the opening, crushing upward and seeing Henry climbing down from the playhouse one-handed, his other lifting the bottom of his shirt that he was using as a makeshift carrier, rocks piled inside.
I twisted, finally getting out from under the guard, but Viktor greeted me with his own gun, pushing it firmly into my chest when I lurched toward him.
I snarled. If I had backup, I wouldn’t think twice.
I would die. Right here. Right now. I’d miss my girl, but I’d have no regrets if it meant my life for Henry’s, and I knew Arden would do the very same.
But I didn’t have backup. If I died, then Viktor would scoop up the kids inside, Henry included, and put them straight back into hell. I was the only thing standing in his way. He nudged my chest with his gun.
“Put it down, Rafe,” he said.
I inhaled deeply. Then I tossed my rifle into the grass.
“Good.” Viktor’s lips curled into a tight smile. “Now, where is she?”
My heart stopped.
“Where is my fucking Doll? She’s here, isn’t she? You two are rarely apart,” he continued, studying me. “If she isn’t here yet, then she’s close.”
My hands twitched at my sides, my eyes dropping to his gun.
I could wrangle it. I was sure I could. I tilted my head, eyeing his backup.
The guard I bashed wasn’t the only one. There were at least six along the back of the house.
I’d walked right past them like an idiot.
I was shocked they didn’t try to stop me when I first walked out, but maybe that was the point.
Maybe all of this was about Arden. Viktor knew we were each other’s lure.
I hated that he was right, that she was almost here. She had to be.
But he was also severely wrong to call my girl a Doll. She was as much of a corpse as any Creed, and I knew she had no plans of earning an early grave without Viktor’s skeleton burning beside hers.
Viktor’s attention snapped behind me, his smile flattening before he jammed the gun against me, furious. “Cops? Do you have a fucking death wish?”
She was here. She was here. She was—The thought fractured everything else, adrenaline burning through the anger as my focus locked forward.
We are exactly as you made us, I signed despite my fucked hands and snapped forward.