Chapter 23 Rob
ROB
“Sitting here is not going to fix the situation,” Sinner said, tossing a ball up in the air.
I studied the camera feed, doing my best to ignore him. He’d been rambling on for the past hour about how I needed to talk things through with Krista. Since the last time I went I nearly mauled her, I didn’t think talking to her would be a good option right now.
“What does Knight do for fun around here?” Derek asked, opening all the drawers he could find. “There’s nothing here but guns and computers.”
“Not even a TV,” Sinner snorted.
“I could be wrong, but since we’re on the run from the bad guys, maybe we could be looking out for them like we normally would.”
Sinner stopped tossing the ball and looked over at me. “Look out for what exactly? Knight has the place wired down to the last blade of grass. If anyone comes close, that little alarm will go off, and we’ll all know it.”
We all looked at the not-so-little red alarm over the office door.
“And it’s not going off,” Sinner grinned. “We’re in the clear.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Why don’t you jinx us?”
“Hey, did I say piece of cake or it’s not like anything’s going to happen? No, I did not.”
“You just did!” I snapped.
“And the alarm still hasn’t—”
Alarms blared all throughout the house, and the red light over the door went wild.
Rolling my eyes, I stood from my seat. “What the fuck did I say?”
I pulled the footage up on the various monitors around the room, checking each one for the intruders. We all walked over to a single monitor, watching as three men strode over the property line, completely unaware that we were watching them.
“That’s it?” Derek snorted. “Three of them?”
“I’ve got this.”
I slapped my hand against Sinner’s chest, stopping him in his tracks. “Whoa, what do you mean?”
“I mean, I got this. I thought that was pretty self-explanatory.”
“There are three of them,” I pointed out.”
“Uh…yeah, I can count, too.”
“That means we each get one of them.”
Derek raised his hand. “Hold up. Technically, there are only two of them. We need one alive to interrogate.”
“Then you get the one alive, and we’ll take out the other two,” I answered.
“How come you get to take one out, but I don’t?”
“Because this is my ass on the line. I should get to kill one of them,” I argued.
“If we’re going by that reasoning, since it’s your ass on the line, you should grab one to interrogate. You’re the one who needs answers.”
Gritting my teeth, I knew he had me, but that didn’t mean I was giving up just yet. “Fine, I’ll take one of them, but you’re gonna have to step in because the anger inside me is boiling. There’s no way I’ll be able to hold back.”
Derek stared at me for a good thirty seconds before bursting out in laughter. Then Sinner joined in, both of them howling uproariously to the point that Sinner was crying.
“I’m sorry,” Derek wheezed. “You should have seen your face!”
“The anger inside me is boiling!” Sinner shouted, clasping Derek on the shoulder to keep himself upright.
“What? You think this is a joke? You think I would lie about this? I’ll kill him right now! I’ll gut him like a fish!”
The laughter turned even louder, and the tears streamed down Sinner’s face. “Man, you should take this on the road. That’s hilarious.”
“I mean it!” I shouted. “I’ll go right now! I’ll take them all out!”
The laughter finally started to die as Sinner wiped the tears from his cheeks. Derek was bright red, still trying to control himself, but it was too late. Neither of them believed me.
“Listen, how about this? We’ll do Rock, Paper, Scissors for who gets the honor of not killing one of them,” Sinner suggested.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Because you think I won’t go all Rambo on them?”
“That, and I want to give you a fair shot.”
“I didn’t agree to this,” Derek scoffed. “I’m still taking one out.”
“It should be my choice,” I grumbled. “It’s my life on the line.”
“Which should mean you want answers more than anyone else, but sure, we’ll make a game out of it,” Sinner said, holding out his fist.
“Fine,” I muttered, holding out my fist.
It wasn’t right. I should get first dibs on taking them out, but they did save my ass, so I suppose it was only fair.
“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” I shouted, holding out paper.
Sinner held out rock.
“Yes!” I shouted, pumping my fists in the air. “I win. You lose!”
“Wait, wait, wait! That’s not right. It’s best out of three.”
“What? You never said anything about that. You can’t just throw out rules now that you lost.”
“I didn’t lose!” he shot back. “Everyone knows it’s best out of three. Always has been. Always will be.”
“He’s right,” Derek agreed.
I couldn’t believe this. I was losing at my own game, and not because I was playing badly, but because they were ganging up on me.
“Fine, you want to cheat? Let’s go again. I’ll kick your ass this time, and the time after that!”
“Sure, you will,” Sinner chuckled, tossing out his fist and taking a fighting stance. “Are you ready for this?”
“Oh, I’m ready,” I sneered. “I’m so ready, I’m gonna kick your ass and toss you into next year.”
“Yeah? If you don’t back off, I’m gonna punch you in the face!”
I circled him, holding my fist out with my hand beneath it. “Ooh, brilliant comeback from the genius over here!”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was talking to someone who didn’t understand basic concepts.”
That didn’t even make sense. “Basic concepts of what?”
“Of me punching you in the face!” he shouted, continuing to circle me.
“Ooh, I’m really scared now!” I laughed.
“You’d better be because the last thing you’re going to see is the ceiling when I lay you out flat!”
“You couldn’t hit me if I stood right in front of you!”
His fist flew out, slamming right into my lip. “What the fuck?”
He cocked a grin at me. “Would you look at that? It seems I can hit you, and you weren’t even standing still.”
“You’re not supposed to fucking hit me! We’re playing a game.”
“A game you’re gonna lose at.”
“That remains to be seen.”
“Oh, you’ll see it alright. You’ll see it when my rock crushes your scissors!”
“If I throw out scissors. Maybe I’ll throw out Spock!”
“Spock isn’t part of the game!” he retorted.
“It is when you play Rock, Paper, Scissors, Spock!”
“But we’re not playing that. You can’t just change the rules in the middle of it!”
“Why not? You did!” I shouted, hunching low, ready for the battle to begin.
“Fine, you wanna go? I’ll play ya for it!”
“Oh my God!” Derek shouted, stepping between us. “You two are terrible at this! All you had to do was throw out your hand five minutes ago! How are you two still arguing about this?”
I frowned at him. “We aren’t arguing. We’re bantering.”
“Yeah, it’s part of the game. You gotta wear your opponent down,” Sinner explained.
“You’re wearing me down. All I wanted to do was go kill someone, and you make even that complicated!”
Motion on the screen caught my eye, and I rushed over, staring as Knight walked to the edge of the house, pointed a rocket launcher toward the men entering the property, and fired.
“Wait—”
An explosion sounded in the distance, not enough to shake the house, but enough to let us know that something had happened.
I rushed over to the computers and flicked through the feeds, frowning when I saw a hole in the ground, smoking.
“That was my kill!” I shouted.
“Technically, it was your interrogation,” Sinner retorted. “Guess we don’t get to have any fun after all.”
The audio crackled, and Knight came over the speaker. “While you ladies were bickering, I took care of the problem. And by the way, only idiots solve their problems with Rock, Paper, Scissors.”