Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
Stories Sloane told me about living job to job and hoping she had enough to get a hotel room come to mind, and she didn’t have a baby to take care of while doing it. I look at the silk robe on the floor that she discarded when she got dressed, “Give me the belt from the robe.”
It slides out of the loops as she picks it up and hands it to me, “Step away,” I say when I take it, and she steps back to the crib. I hogtie Miller on the floor and turn back to her, “Show me the safe.”
She runs from the room, and I toss the second gun to Jax as I follow her.
She passes Scott downstairs, staring at him with wide, terrified eyes as she runs to the office behind the kitchen.
Her focus is solely on getting to the safe, she doesn’t even look in my direction as she pushes a part of a bookshelf with her palm, and it clicks open to reveal the safe hidden behind it.
With swift fingers, she turns the knob and pushes the bar down to pull the door open, grabs a folded duffel from the top, and starts shoving stacks of money into it.
There has to be half a million to a million stacked in that safe, she reaches back in, but her hand falters and she turns to me, “I want to take the gun, I need to be able to protect myself.”
Stepping over to where she is, I see the Ruger on the shelf. I grab it, eject the clip and the bullet in the chamber, and drop all three pieces into the bag. “Anything else?”
She nods, grabs a couple of velvet bags from the same shelf the gun was on, and drops them into the duffle. I zip it for her since the baby has laid its head on her shoulder and gone back to sleep and loop the strap over her other shoulder.
Before she turns to leave the room, she whispers, “This is about the girl that was in the basement yesterday, isn’t it?”
I look over her face, she is young and pretty, too young and pretty for the asshole upstairs, and nod my head.
“I knew it, they rarely bring girls here. Tell her I’m sorry I didn’t help her, I couldn’t, or he would take my baby and probably kill me.
” She pauses and whispers again, her lip pulling up to bare her teeth, “I was taken to be one of those girls, but he liked me and kept me like a dog. So, thank you.”
Nodding again, I step to the side so she can leave the room. I follow her through the kitchen, and she slips on some shoes next to the door and grabs a set of keys from the counter. I watch her strap the baby into a car seat in a black Land Rover and she lifts the garage door and leaves.
“She’s out, we need to hurry,” I say as I turn to go back upstairs.
Scott’s voice comes over comms, “I’m done down here, you’ve got ten minutes.”
Back in the room, I walk behind Miller where his legs are bent at the knees to tie to his hands and kick his shin as hard as I can. The satisfying sound of the crack is like a balm to the anger that has been heating me from the inside out.
He hisses in pain and rests his forehead on the floor as he takes deep breaths. I pull my knife off my belt and sink the blade deep enough into his skin on his palm to feel the bone touch the edge, blood starts pooling in his hand and soaking into the sweats he’s wearing.
Since we only have minutes, I have to work quickly, and I regret that I don’t have the time to make him suffer like he made Sloane suffer. I cut the short length of the belt between his feet and hands and he whisper-screams when his legs swing forward and hit the floor.
Rolling him over, I crouch over him. Slipping my hand into my pocket, my fingers curl around the brass knuckles that I brought with me just for this, “You get off on hurting defenseless women?”
At first, he glares at me, anger shooting from his eyes but then a smile forms on his face, and he laughs, “You mean the cunt that was so tight around my fingers? The one I should have fucked? Maybe you should have taught her to fight back.” His voice is no more than a whisper and I’m glad that she was able to cause the damage that he has lived with for the past two years.
Not letting his comment goad me, I slide the metal over my fingers and smile back at him, “She has me to fight for her.”
Not waiting for him to respond, I smash my fist over his eye and he hisses in pain again, spittle collecting around his mouth. “Hurts, don’t it?” I say as I look at the split skin across his eyebrow. “As much as I would love to hang out and play some more, I’m short on time.”
Picking my knife back up, I slide the blade across his throat. His eyes bulge in surprise and he starts moving his mouth like a fish. Staying crouched over him, I keep my eyes locked on his until the focus is gone, and he doesn’t see me anymore.
“You done with him?” Jax asks and I look up to the fucker on the bed, a wet spot has formed on the edge of the bed under him and is dripping onto the expensive-looking area rug.
“Yeah, we’re out of time,” I say as I stand up and close the distance between us in two steps.
I grab the thinning hair on his head and make him look at me, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?
” The knife easily sides through the skin on his neck and his hands fly to the gash like he can stop the blood from flowing from his body.
We quickly make our way to the stairs and meet Scott at the side of the house where we came in. “Get ready for a show.” He says and smiles as we take the same path we used before to go back to our car.
Just as we get inside and close the doors, we see the flames in the downstairs windows and within seconds, the windows are blown out with an explosion. Scott set it up so that it will be a loss before the fire department even gets here.
We watch the flames start to shoot out of the windows for a moment and then I say, “Let’s go, I need to get back to Sloane.”