26. Stevie #2
Confused and thrown the fuck off, I follow his command and slide into the back seat. Hayden quickly turns out of the alley and drives down two blocks through the small downtown area.
We arrive at a rundown establishment only a couple of minutes later—one you’d only rent by the hour. Hayden parks in front of Room 17, the last one along a strip of hotel room doors with chipped seafoam green paint. The parking lot is not well lit and isn’t somewhere I’d ever want to be alone.
An eerie feeling settles inside my chest as the guys exit the vehicle and go around the back to remove Pete from the trunk. They don’t carry him in, but make him walk instead, which he can barely do. Sebastian and Hayden look like they’re helping out a friend who’s had too much to drink.
I follow quickly behind them.
With one of Pete’s arms over Sebastian and the other, Hayden, they take him into the dark motel room.
The thick, stale air filled with a musty odor infiltrates my nostrils—it’s what I imagine a 1980s living room might smell like. They haven’t updated the interior since that decade either, matching the whole ambiance of the place.
The guys toss Pete’s body onto one of the queen-sized beds. Hayden pulls out a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket and secures one of Pete’s wrists to the metal base of a wall lamp.
“He’s all yours,” Hayden says, opening the door to the hotel. “I’ll be right outside.”
Chewing on my lip, I try to tear my eyes from Sebastian, but I can’t. His entire demeanor has changed once again. This is what it means when there are multiple sides to psychopaths. But I’m not afraid of this side of him either—I want to be closer to it.
“What now?”
Sebastian paces back and forth at the foot of the bed, his eyes narrow on Pete like a lion ready to pounce on its prey. “We didn’t give him much. He’ll regain consciousness soon.”
“Okay. What does that mean?”
“It means I need to act fast.”
I step forward, resting my hand on his forearm. “Should I go so you can…take care of him?”
Sebastian whips his head around. “I’ll shoot him. But first, we’re going to remind him of what he did wrong and why he has to die.”
My lungs rise with a sharp breath. “I should leave.”
“No, I think you need to stay for this.”
I take a moment to replay his words before I respond. “Okay.”
Sebastian walks to the head of the bed, pulls out a small white cylinder no bigger than the size of my pinky from his pocket. Then he snaps it and hovers it under Pete’s nose.
“What’s that?” I ask in a hushed tone.
“Smelling salts. It won’t be enough to wake him completely, but he’ll be alert for the short time we need him to be,” he tells me.
Pete’s mumbling grows louder while his arm jerks at the handcuffs, but his limbs move slowly and without normal rhythm. He’s trying to free himself, but it’s no use.
“Hi, Pete.” Sebastian smiles.
Pete’s heavy eyelids peel halfway open and scan the room before landing on Sebastian. “Whashgoingon?” he slurs.
“Did you kiss my girlfriend?” Sebastian accuses right off the bat.
What? Why is he asking him that?
“Shouldn’t we talk to him about, uh, murdering innocent women?” I whisper, unsure.
Sebastian’s arm springs out from behind him, waving me off to silence me.
Really?
“You kissed my girlfriend, didn’t you?” he repeats, firmer this time.
“YesIdid.” Pete struggles to lift his head. His attempt at a smile is unmistakable. “Butsheecameontome.” Then his unstable head turns in my direction and gives me a slow wink.
“Don’t fucking wink at her,” Sebastian warns.
Pete ignores him and does it again.
Sebastian rushes Pete, his gloved hand at Pete’s neck, pressing on his windpipe. “Do not wink at her again, or I’ll put this bullet in your fucking head faster than I was going to,” Sebastian threatens, making my heart skip a beat.
Pete ignores him once again and keeps his focus trained on me.
Sebastian’s broad shoulders square with anger.
He doesn’t like Pete’s cockiness. “There are a number of reasons why your life is going to end tonight, and the plan was to talk to you about why your reign of terror will end—with me.” Sebastian releases his grip on Pete’s neck and reaches around his back, slipping a handgun from his waistband.
Then he screws on what I immediately recognize as a silencer to the barrel of the gun.
“But because you touched what’s mine, you don’t get to live any longer, Pete. ”
Pete’s legs kick in slow motion as if they have weights attached to them. “Whatdidyouguysdotome?”
“We drugged you, my friend.” A sinister smile grows across the sharp features of Sebastian’s face.
“Poetic justice, wouldn’t you say?” His arm extends, pointing the end of the gun at the middle of Pete’s forehead.
“You trap women by drugging them, only to then rape and torture them. And for the last couple of days, I’ve had to listen to you brag about it. ”
He cocks the gun. The sound echoes throughout the stained walls.
I suck in a deep breath, capturing it inside my lungs because I won’t let it out until Sebastian has shot Pete.
“Goodbye, Pete.” Sebastian pulls the trigger. A loud pop fills the small space.
I cover my ears as a reflex, but there’s no need, since the silencer muffles the sound. “Fuck.”
Blood covers the white pillow behind Pete’s head, but it remains relatively contained to one area.
Sebastian stares at Pete’s body for a beat, then his eyes shoot over to me. “Are you all right?”
I let the air escape my burning lungs, turning my breath into panting. Holy fuck. “Yeah, I think so.”
Sebastian bounds toward me, his boots thundering against the old flooring. “I should have cut his lips off.”
I rub my temples, squeezing my eyes shut. “His lips barely touched mine for a millisecond.”
“I don’t fucking care. They shouldn’t have even come that close.” His brawny arms wrap around me tightly. I’m stiff at first, still shaking, but the longer he holds me, the more my muscles relax. “But you did well.”
My face rests against the cold leather of his jacket, taking a moment to breathe through what happened. Suddenly, the door swings open. Hayden is standing in the frame with a wide smile on his face.
“I thought that was your muffled shot I heard through the door.” His eyes go straight to Pete with a single bullet hole in his head. Crimson splattered pillowcase beneath him. “The crew is around the corner. Why don’t you take the SUV back to the chateau? I’ll catch a ride with the guys.”
Sebastian releases me. “Yeah. No need to keep up appearances with transportation now since Silas knows we’ll all be out tonight anyway.”
Hayden tosses the keys to Sebastian, who catches them with one hand. As I walk past Hayden, he gives me a friendly pat. “You killed it tonight. You and your sister are something else.”
And somehow, his gesture makes me proud, like I’ve done something no one else could do. Sure, I didn’t kill Pete or Larry myself, but I helped. I was part of something bigger than myself.
I turn to Sebastian only to find his expression still hardened from earlier. His energy has suddenly shifted, and I can’t tell why. I thought I did what I was supposed to do?
Did I do something wrong?
I don’t have to ponder long over what happened before Sebastian hooks an arm around me and directs me out of the motel room, but I can sense a rigidity in his body.
“Let’s go, Stevie.”