Chapter Fifteen
“What are you doing here?” Joe demanded. His hands rested on his hips as he scolded her. “Your face is still healing. You should be home.”
“I’m going through work withdrawal. Had to get my fix.”
Joe grunted, and when he did that, it usually meant she won. With a smile, she hurried to the dining room and took stock of tables, guests, and two women she didn’t recognize serving the food. They had to be the ones Saint sent over.
“Hi,” she greeted with a smile.
One of the women took one look at her face and her eyebrows shot up. “Honey, you should be home, taking care of yourself.”
“Truthfully, I’m bored so I thought I could come and help out. I’ll take out the trash?”
“I’m not gonna say no to that.”
Kira laughed. For the first time in two years, her heart felt lighter. The bitter shame that had rested on her shoulders seemed to have melted away. Maybe this was why people went to therapists. Sinn’s words tumbled through her mind on repeat, and filled her with peace.
Methodically, she emptied the trash receptacles and replaced the filled bags with new ones.
Hauling them to the back door, she grabbed one and marched to the dumpster.
When the last bag had been tossed away, she turned only to see her ex standing in the diner’s back doorway, holding a gun aimed at Joe.
Instantly, her feel-good moment died. Terror filled her. Not for her, this time it was for Joe. She couldn’t allow anything to happen to him.
“Let him go, Hoff.”
“Kira, Kira, Kira. Nice to see you again, my dear ex-girlfriend.”
That was a voice she hoped never to hear again, and a face she never wanted to see, even in her nightmares.
As much as she had feared Hoff Bennett, she now saw him as a weak man.
He raised his foot and slammed it down on the concrete step, giving her a little jump-scare which caused her to dance a few steps away.
Her heart thundered in her chest, and her palms grew clammy.
She was still afraid of him, but Sinn’s words echoed in her head.
With all her courage, she lifted her chin and stared at him in the eyes.
His widened just a bit, obviously surprised by her bravery.
He tsked. “You’ve been right under my nose for years. Practically my backyard, and here you are, taking out the trash.”
“Would you like to join it?”
His eyes widened. “Is that a spine you grew?”
“Let Joe go.”
“Now, why would I do that when he’s the only leverage I have?”
“How did you find me?”
“Funny story, actually—”
Suddenly, Joe knocked his elbow into Hoff’s chin, and he staggered back. Joe turned, ready to charge, then a gunshot cracked through the air. She screamed. Joe slumped to the floor, and she went to race to his side. Hoff grabbed her arm and stuck the barrel under her chin.
“This way, my love.”
There would no doubt be bruises from his harsh grip. If only she could get to Batman, then she could bash Hoff’s brains. Just maul them up and maybe feed them to the local wildlife. Tears sprung in her eyes as she stared at Joe’s body.
“I’m not your love,” she muttered, twisting her wrist in hopes of breaking his hold. “Let me go, you fucking prick!”
The words had no sooner left her mouth when he turned on her, backhanding her cheek. Pain bloomed and she crashed to her knees, only to be jerked back to her feet, and yanked around until they were only a breath apart.
“I don’t like your tone of voice,” he sneered.
“You’re disgusting.”
“Where has all this attitude been? Babe, it’s turning me the fuck on.”
“You’re a fucking psycho.” Kira turned her head away. “And your breath smells like you just got done eating shit.”
She remembered Saint’s lesson, and was ready to punch him right in his nose, when he bashed her head with the butt of his gun and immediately sent her into oblivion.
****
“I don’t understand why you brought me here,” Cas said, looking around a large outcropping of rock. They’d hiked the trail and then swirled off the beaten path.
Saint had ordered Cas to follow him and Sinn, not telling a goddamn thing about his suspicions. Lucifer had chosen a meeting spot between the two cities, someplace where he could torture Cas until he talked.
Then Cas was a dead man.
“Don’t question me,” Saint snapped.
If he hadn’t been looking for some type of subterfuge, he would’ve missed the worried, shifty gaze that bloomed in Cas’s eyes. He didn’t have any time to say more because Lucifer showed up with a black van trailing him.
“Are we killing Lucifer today?” Cas quickly asked.
The man never could keep his fucking mouth shut.
A moment later, everything was quiet as Saint approached Lucifer as he dismounted from his bike. He cast a quick look over his shoulder.
“That your man?”
“Yes, I believe so. Kira is missing. Asshole took her from her job at gunpoint. Her boss, Joe, was shot, but he gave very distinct details of the man.”
“Damn,” Lucifer said. He nodded over to Cas. “Think he knows where she’s at?”
“He better. I can’t accept anything else. Sinn, I want you to record what’s about to happen.”
His brother nodded, immediately pulling out his phone to do that. Together, they headed over to Sinn and Cas, whose gaze darted around. Fear crept onto his face.
“What’s going on?”
Saint nodded at his brother, and Sinn pulled out his gun, pointing the barrel at Cas’s head.
“Whoa!” Cas threw up his hands. “What the fuck?”
Saint punched him in the stomach, causing Cas to double over and hold his abdomen. Pain bracketed his mouth.
“Give it up,” Saint growled.
“Give what up?” Cas bellowed.
“I know it was you who tried to steal the money.”
Cas carefully stood up, although one hand still rested on his middle section. He tried to pull off an innocent air, but Saint saw the facade.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Saint turned to Lucifer. “Who’s your guy?”
“His name is Hoff Bennett. He was our prospect two years ago, until I found him holding a woman down so his friends could rape her. I might be a son of a bitch, but I don’t hurt innocent women.”
The last name caught Saint’s attention. Cas went very still.
“Interesting,” Saint said. “That’s Cas’s last name as well.
Castor Bennett. I might as well tell you now, Cas, that I went back and studied the area where you were taking a piss that night.
It wasn’t adding up, until I realized that the only way for the duffel to get into the stack of tires was if there were two people.
One to start the gunfight and one to grab the bag. ”
Cas looked at each man. Sinn took a step forward so the gun was front and center in his face.
“Now, Cas, you have two options,” Saint said. “The first, Sinn kills you right now and we leave your body in the woods to rot into eternity. Or two, you tell me where Hoff has taken Kira and I might spare your life.”
That was a flat-out lie, but Cas didn’t need to know that. Saint nodded to his brother and Sinn shot Cas in his calf. With a painful cry, he fell. When he still didn’t talk, Sinn shot his other calf.
“Okay! Stop!” he yelled, with a sob coming through his words.
“Hoff is my cousin. I ... fuck, I told him about our newly formed partnership with the Bone Breakers. He hatched this plan to steal the cash and we could go to Brazil or someplace and live high on the hog. At first, I said no, and then, I don’t know, the more we talked the better it sounded.
So, I agreed. I had to make sure Wrong Way came with us instead of War because War wouldn’t have let that bag go during a shoot-out.
So, I slipped a heavy dose of a laxative in his beer. ”
“For that alone, I should let War kill you,” Saint muttered.
“What if Wrong Way hadn’t dropped the duffel?” Sinn asked.
“We had a contingency abort,” Cas explained. “But it went perfectly. I thought everything was in the clear and I could sell the idea that the Bone Breakers stole the money. Then Kira came into the clubhouse.”
“You recognized her,” Lucifer stated.
He nodded and closed his eyes as he tried to touch his ruined legs. His hands shook and tears leaked from the corner of his eyes.
“A-at the first opportunity, I went back to grab the duffel, but it was gone. That’s when I told Hoff about her.”
“You put two and two together,” Saint added. “You told your cousin she worked at the diner.”
Again, he nodded.
“He burned down her apartment complex, didn’t he? Just like he killed her parents and burned their house down.”
“Y-yes. Please, I need a doctor.”
“Where did he take her?”
Cas didn’t answer. Maybe to protect his cousin.
Maybe hoping this wasn’t the day he died.
Saint could care less. He pulled out his own gun and shot Cas in the stomach.
It was pretty much a kill shot, but it was a helluva painful way to die.
Cas wailed as he lay on the ground, slowly bleeding to death.
“Where?” Saint yelled. “Tell me!”
“His cabin!” Cas cried out. “But you’re too late! He hates her. He wants to punish her. Please! I need a doctor.”
Lucifer stepped forward, his own weapon trained on Cas.
“Denied.”
All three shot Cas. In the head, throat, and heart, and instantly, the traitor was dead.
“I know where the cabin is,” Lucifer said, holstering his gun. “My men will dispose of the body. Follow me.”
As they sped away, two men exited the van and walked over to Cas. There was a reason they had gone way off the beaten path, and now, Cas had just been erased from existence.