Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
HUNTER
Islipped through the unlocked backdoor of the mansion late the following Thursday night, almost snorting at how stupid rich people could be.
They might not have had to worry about crew wars like we did, but leaving your house unlocked was just dumb.
People like me could break in and steal whatever we wanted.
Mandy’s parents had both been nepo babies growing up, partying too hard until Mandy was conceived when they were teenagers.
I wasn’t sure if they decided to get married themselves or were forced into it by their parents, but after being married for two years, they found God.
He worked hard to prove himself before getting ordained and dedicated his life to God.
Him and his wife were so damn busy saving the children around the world with bible camps and bullshit sermons that they neglected their own kid.
No wonder they weren’t aware that their sweet daughter was getting gangbanged by a bunch of gang members and had gotten herself into a bit of a hole that she wasn’t even aware she had dug.
I’d say it was lucky for them that I wasn’t here to steal, but they’d probably wish I was by the time I left.
Music blasted from deeper inside the house, and I followed it to a bathroom.
House unlocked, music drowning out noise, and the bathroom door cracked open?
This was one dumb bitch.
I peeked through the crack, finding Mandy with her back to me as she danced in the shower to the music.
She was home alone, her parents away visiting multiple catholic schools to spread more of God’s good word, and Marco was currently hacking the cameras to keep any evidence of me gone until we could shut them down completely when I left.
Mandy was making my job really easy, there was no way anyone would hear her screaming over that music.
I slipped inside and shut the door behind me, leaning back to watch her to see if she’d notice me. When she didn’t, too busy having her own little party in there, I walked over and fisted her hair, jerking her out of the massive walk-in shower.
She flailed with a scream that I barely heard over the noise, her hands going to my wrists to try and pry me off.
The terror that filled her eyes made a smile tug at my mouth.
I didn’t like hurting women, but when they fucked over someone I cared about?
I’d happily chop them into tiny little pieces.
Girls like Mandy thought their money and connections made them untouchable, which made them dangerous. In most cases, it was a major problem to deal with someone like her, but not impossible when you had a plan.
“Did you really think the pigs would protect you?” I asked her as I leaned closer, my other hand swatting hers away.
I was completely covered, just in case something went wrong, making sure none of my skin was visible to hide my tattoos and to avoid her scratching me and getting my DNA under her nails.
“I didn’t do anything!” she screamed, the sound barely reaching me over the music.
“You did. You lied to get Rory locked up, didn’t you?”
“He made me do it! Let me go, please! He said he’d kill me if I didn’t!” she cried, struggling in my hold.
“Who?” I demanded, shoving her firmly against the wall so hard and fast that her face bounced off with a shriek. Definitely broke her nose.
Had the Soldiers gotten to her? It would make sense, they loved using people for their own amusement.
She was sobbing, clutching her face as blood poured out of her nose, and I grew impatient. I pulled out my gun and held it to her head, her sobbing getting worse as she put a hand up to try and talk me down, desperately trying to save herself.
“Matteo! He showed up at my house and told me he’d followed Rory and saw her kill her dad through a gap in the curtains! He gave me a gun in a bag and said it was the murder weapon, and to go to the cops to say I’d seen it!”
“And you just fucking believed him?”
Matteo. One of Skeeter’s own fucking guys. Someone who was supposed to be a brother to him, had gone behind his back to make Rory disappear. Not only had he followed her, but he’d dragged this bitch into it and made her rat to the cops instead of doing it himself.
That still made him a rat, if you asked me.
“He was going to kill me! He said the cops would keep it off the record, and—”
I slammed her face into the wall again, her hair so tight in my fist that I could feel some of it breaking away from her scalp.
“He fucking used you as a scapegoat. He never intended on you being safe. If you got killed, his secret involvement would be buried. What gun did he give you?”
When she just cried and fought me some more, I shoved her to the ground and stood over her, switching my gun for a knife. I straddled her, wrapping a hand around her throat and squeezing hard enough to make a point before slamming the knife into her hand and making her scream.
“What gun did he give you?” I repeated, leaving the knife in her hand.
“I don’t know!”
“The more you tell me, the longer you’ll get to live. The second I decide you’re no use to me, you’re dead. Fucking talk, Mandy.”
“I’ll pay you! I’ll retract my statement and say I made it up!”
“I don’t want your money. No matter what you bargain with, you’re not getting out of this alive. You really think I’d let you go after you started ratting out Matteo so fast? Nothing would stop you from running to the cops about me,” I bit out.
“I don’t even know who you are!” she insisted, crying out as I yanked the knife from her hand and held it to her throat, pressing the blade to her skin and watching as a small trickle of blood dripped down her neck.
“You don’t get to fuck with her and get away with it,” I said bluntly, not sure if she heard me properly but not caring.
“She’s safer in prison anyway!” she claimed, reaching her bloodied hand out to grab my hoodie. “He was going to take her and teach her a lesson but figured the Soldiers would do it. He had a whole plan.”
“What was the plan?”
“Him and Cliff were going to take her somewhere remote where no one would find her. I heard them talking about it one night when Matteo thought I was sleeping. They were going to tie her down and take turns with her. Cliff said he was going to fuck her with a knife when they were done so none of the guys would fuck her again.”
Nausea mixed with my fury at the thought, and I stabbed her other hand because what kind of woman didn’t at least warn another woman about a threat like that?
She was screaming again, but I was fucking done. I knew whose fault this was and that he was planning to harm Rory on top of it, so I didn’t need any more information.
“For the record? No matter where someone takes her, I’ll always fucking find her,” I murmured before sliding the knife across her throat, her hands coming up to try and stop it as she gasped and gurgled, drowning in her own blood.
I sat on top of her until she finally went still, getting to my feet and glaring down at her. I was pretty sure she didn’t even care about Matteo’s plans for Rory, even if she wasn’t being threatened.
Marco hadn’t called to let me know there was a problem, so I set to work on covering my tracks, leaving the water running, music blasting, and dropping a used cigarette butt and an empty beer bottle outside on my way out.
One of the Soldiers had tossed them outside their little hideout, so I’d only been doing my community duties by picking them up for him this morning.
I drove the car to the blind spot point, setting it ablaze and climbing into the next car, doing it again at the next blind spot but switching my clothes this time.
I headed to my place next, finding Marco in the office where I’d left him at my computer.
“No problems?” I asked, leaning over his shoulder to check the cameras.
“Nope. Any small trace of you I’ve wiped, and I’ve wiped the home security system to make it look like it was switched off prior to you arriving. What did you find out?” he asked, glancing up at me.
“It was fucking Matteo. He threatened Mandy to rat on Rory, and he gave her a gun. No idea what gun, but it has to have her fingerprints on it though. When she was arrested they got her prints, so for them to still claim they have the murder weapon, they’ve obviously compared them and it was a match. ”
Marco let out a low whistle. “Damn, one of Skeet’s guys set her up?”
“That’s not even half of it. Mandy claims she overheard Matteo and Cliff discussing kidnapping and assaulting her repeatedly until finishing by fucking her with a knife. Mandy didn’t even seem that bothered about it,” I grunted. “I need to dispose of the knife.”
“What now? Do we go after Matteo? Tell Skeet?”
“Let Matteo find out about Mandy’s murder on his own and see how he reacts.
The Psychos knew we were handling it but we don’t need them knowing the facts, especially if they have a rat among them.
Matteo might not have been the one to go to the cops, but that doesn’t make a difference to me.
He’d just tell someone else who could rat on us,” I warned, making him scowl.
“What about when Rory gets out then? You really want that fucker running around still?”
“It will take a few days for her lawyer to get the case thrown out. She won’t be out before the weekend.”
“I need to get that fucking murder weapon. If I can’t break in and take it, we need someone who can make it vanish,” he stated, and I blew out a breath as we tried to come up with a plan.
“I know we need to keep the Psychos out of this, but maybe D can help? He’s got some of the cops in their pocket, right? I wonder if he can get the evidence to vanish without any of us having to break in?” I wondered out loud, already reaching for my phone.
“Can’t hurt to ask. We can meet him when he’s free. Maybe tell him about his rat problem too,” he agreed, double checking everything was fine in the system before closing it all down.
I called Diesel, a little surprised he answered since he was probably at the Shed still.
“Hey?” he greeted, question in his tone.