34. Chapter Thirty-Four Lakey
Chapter Thirty-Four: Lakey
The asshole's blood dripped onto the kitchen floor with a steady plink, plink, plink. I couldn't tear my eyes away from his mangled skull, a masterpiece of peeled skin that exposed him straight down to the bone. My fingers twitched, itching to add a few more brushstrokes.
"We need to decide what to do with this piece of shit," Cam said, handing me his knife to wash.
I chewed my lip, weighing our options, climbing off the table and heading to the sink to run his knife under hot water.
The blood swirled down the drain in a pattern, almost watercolor.
"We could always dump him in the river. Fishes gotta eat too, right?
" I giggled at my own joke, but Cam didn't crack a smile. Party pooper.
"Firstly, it's fish. Secondly, this time it isn't a fucking game," he snapped. "If Chimera finds out we have one of their operatives..."
I rolled my eyes. "Woah, who pissed in your cereal?
Relax, babe. They won't find out if there's nothing left to find.
" I traced a finger along our patient's cheek, savoring the way he flinched as he slowly came around from his pain-induced blackout.
"I vote we carve him up nice and slow. Make him sing for us. "
Cam's dark eyes met mine. He opened his mouth to reply, but a sharp knock at the door cut him off.
We both froze. My heart started pounding. Who the hell could that be? We didn't have friends.
"Shit," Cam hissed, already moving towards the door. His whole body was tense, ready to spring. Blood was splattered up his neck and across his cheeks. He looked like a butcher. Ugh, it was so sexy. Focus, Lakey. Now's not the time to get horny.
I watched his face as he peered through the peephole. His expression went from annoyed to blank to something I couldn't read, all in about two seconds.
"No fucking way," he muttered, his hand hovering over the doorknob.
My curiosity was killing me. "Who is it?" I stage-whispered, inching closer. "The ghost of Christmas Past? Girl Scouts selling cookies? Ooh, I hope it's cookies."
Cam shot me a look that clearly said shut up. I just grinned back. What can I say? Danger makes me giddy.
As he slowly opened the door, I craned my neck, trying to get a view past his massive frame. He blocked most of the doorway, but I caught a glimpse of a face that made my stomach drop.
"Well, fuck me sideways," I breathed.
There, standing in the doorway like she'd just popped out for milk instead of disappearing for years, was Sarah. Our old social worker. The one who'd tried to "save" us back when we were bouncing around from home to home.
I pushed past Cam, ignoring his grunt of protest. "Sarah?" My voice came out all weird and breathy. For a split second, I was that scared little girl again, the one sitting in a cold office with unbrushed hair, desperate for someone to give a shit.
But I squashed that fast. I wasn't that pathetic kid anymore. I was Lakey fucking Aldrich, and I didn't need anyone's help or pity.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I demanded. "Come to check up on your favorite little psychopaths?"
Cam's hand landed on my shoulder, a silent warning to cool it, but I was too wound up. Sarah's appearance had knocked me sideways, and I hated feeling off-balance. It brought back too much. The offices. The paperwork. The promises that things would get better that never, ever came true.
My hand inched towards the knife on my thigh. If this bitch was here to cause trouble, she'd regret it.
Sarah breezed past us into the apartment, her eyes sweeping the room before landing on the operative strapped to the table. I tensed, ready to pounce if she so much as flinched wrong, but she just stood there, taking it all in, while Cam and I were internally losing our shit.
"Well," Sarah said, her voice steady as she looked from Beaver to Rose, "I see you two haven't changed much."
I barked out a laugh. "Oh, you have no idea."
Sarah turned to face us, and I swear to God, she looked almost amused. It made me uneasy. She had a better poker face than Cam did, and that was saying something.
"I know this is a shock," she said, walking into the living room and looking around before checking out the broken window that Beaver had come through. "But we have a lot to discuss, Lakey. You too, Cam."
I glanced at Cam, trying to read him. His face was a mask, but his jaw was tight. He was just as thrown as I was.
"How about we start with why the fuck you're here?" I took a step towards her. "Last I checked, social workers don't make house calls to their old cases. Especially not ones they fucked up so spectacularly."
Sarah didn't flinch. She just looked at me with those steady eyes, and my anger climbed higher. Who the fuck did she think she was, waltzing in here while we had a man bleeding out on our kitchen table?
"I'm here because we're connected, Lakey," she said softly. "We always have been. And right now, you need my help more than you know."
I laughed, but it sounded hollow even to me. "Help? Lady, you couldn't help us when we were kids. What makes you think we need your help now?"
But even as I said it, a tiny part of me wondered. She had always been good to us. Kept us together. Until she didn't, and Cam went to prison.
She took a deep breath. "I wasn't just your social worker," she said, her voice low and steady.
"I was part of Chimera. Which, judging by the fact that you have one of their guys on your kitchen table, you've heard of.
That changes everything, don't you think?
You are both in over your heads and quite frankly, could use someone on your side. "
The words landed on me like a truck. My ears started ringing. My hands clenched into fists so tight my nails cut into my palms, and the sting of blood welled up in the creases. "What the fuck did you just say?"
"It's true," Sarah continued, her calm making me want to scream. "I was recruited out of college. Told I'd be helping kids. It wasn't until later that I realized what they were really doing."
I looked at Cam. He was silent, but underneath that silence, something was building. His nostrils flared, the tendons in his neck taut. If Sarah wasn't careful, she wouldn't leave here in one piece.
"They were experimenting on us," I spat out. "All those tests, all those 'counseling sessions.' It was all bullshit, wasn't it?"
Sarah nodded. "I didn't know at first," she said. "But when I figured it out, I started digging. And what I found was worse than I could have imagined. You were their pride and joy. Everything they threw at you, you handled. Both of you."
My mind was reeling. All those years, all that pain. It hadn't just been neglect and bad luck. It had been deliberate. Planned. My stomach churned and I tasted bile.
"Why should we believe a fucking word you're saying?" Cam's voice was almost a growl. I wanted to grab him and kiss him and stab Sarah all at the same time. Always protecting me. Protecting us.
Sarah looked at him. "Because I'm the only one who can help you understand what they did to you. And why they're still after you now."
I laughed, but it came out more like a sob. "Fuck you. Fuck you and your 'help.' We don't need anyone but each other. Besides, apart from this fuck, no one knows where we are."
But as I said it, doubt crept in. What if she was telling the truth? What if there was more to our past than we knew? Then could we remember? I glanced at Cam again, saw the same conflict on his face. We were both torn between the instinct to lash out and the desperate need to understand.
"Tell us everything," I finally said, my voice barely above a whisper. "And if you're lying, I swear to God I'll carve out your fucking heart."
Sarah regarded us for a long moment. Then she sighed, "I faked my own death. It was the only way to protect myself and to watch over you two."
My jaw clenched so tight I thought my teeth might shatter.
"Watch over us? Like some guardian angel?
You fucking left us to rot, Sarah. I don't think that's very nice.
" I kept my voice light, but my insides were twisting.
Part of me wanted to believe her. Wanted someone to have cared enough to look out for us.
But trusting people only led to pain. I'd learned that before I could tie my own shoes.
"I've been tracking Chimera's movements, gathering intel," Sarah continued. "I couldn't intervene directly without risking everything, but I've been there. In the shadows."
Cam's hand found mine, squeezing hard enough to bruise. I welcomed it, grounding myself in the pain as everything I thought I knew tilted sideways.
"Bullshit," I hissed, but my voice lacked conviction. "If you cared so fucking much, where were you when—"
"When they took Cam to prison?" Sarah cut in, her face contorting. "I tried, Lakey. I really tried. They wanted to see if he could survive. The things that happened to him in there—"
Cam's voice cracked through the room like a gunshot. "You shut the fuck up right now!"
I looked up at him with a frown. "You've never said anything."
He looked down at me, bent to kiss my forehead.
His lips lingered there, warm and firm, and I closed my eyes for a second.
Something about the way he held his mouth against my skin told me more than words could.
Whatever happened in that place, it had carved itself into him deep enough that he wouldn't let it see daylight. Not even for me.
"Because it doesn't matter," he said against my skin. "I survived. I made it out. I made it back to you. That was my goal from day one. So don't you speak another fucking word, Sarah, or Chimera will be the least of your concerns."
At least Sarah had the decency to nod before looking over at Rose, who had been quietly observing all of this, her face pale. "Hello," Sarah said, her expression softening.
Rose didn't reply. None of us said anything for a while. The silence sat heavy in the room, thick with blood and bleach and too many revelations.
"So, uh, how do you know Rose?" I made the fatal mistake of using her name when I spoke, internally chastising myself at the fuck-up.
"Rose." Sarah said it almost reverently. "That's such a pretty name."
I blinked. "I'm sorry, how the fuck do you know her?"
"I don't. Well, not directly at least. Rose is part of a special project that my husband and I have been tracking.
It's a next-gen tech that developed because of you and Cam, but you were both too unstable.
Too unpredictable to test it on. They had decided to keep you as they'd originally designed you.
" She looked sad as she spoke, as if she didn't want to relive whatever was playing out in her head.
Something shifted in me. A kinship I didn't want to feel. Her eyes held the same haunted look I'd seen in my own reflection. She was damaged. Just like us. For a moment, I let my mask slip.
"We need to protect her," I said softly, my usual playful tone gone. Just raw determination.
Sarah nodded. "That's why I'm here. To help. Not just Rose. But you and Cam as well. There's so much you don't know, but we don't have a lot of time."
Before I could respond, a harsh laugh cut through the room.
"How touching," Beaver sneered from the table. "A reunion of traitors."
I'd almost forgotten about our captive. My head snapped to him. "Shut your fucking mouth before I shut it for you."
Sarah stepped forward, her face hardening. "Hello, Christian. Still Chimera's loyal lapdog, I see."
Christian's eyes widened in recognition, then narrowed. "Sarah fucking Miller. I should've known you weren't dead. Always were a sneaky bitch."
There was history here, ugly and raw. Sarah's composure cracked just enough for me to see the hatred underneath.
"You don't know the half of it," Sarah spat. "And if you had an ounce of humanity left, you'd help us take Chimera down."
Christian's laugh was pure venom. "Help you? I'd rather die. And when Chimera finds you, all of you, you'll wish you had."
My fingers twitched towards his throat. But looking at Sarah, seeing the pain and the fight in her eyes, I realized we had bigger problems than this asshole.
"Well," I chirped, plastering on my sweetest smile, "looks like we've got ourselves a party. I'm pretty much done with him. Cam, should we toss him off the cliff?"
I glanced at Cam, seeing the wheels turning. He was calculating. How many ways we could make Christian scream before he'd spill his guts. Literally and figuratively.
"Lakey," Sarah's voice cut through my thoughts, "think before you do anything rash.
Chimera's reach is vast, and Christian here will be missed.
That being said, he also can't know I'm alive.
Sorry, Chris, but the only way out of here isn't going to be on your feet.
You're going to have to dispose of him in a way that no one can find him.
And fast. Judging by the mess in his head, you disabled his tracker, and someone will notice soon.
" She paused, tilting her head. "Well done on that, by the way.
It took my husband a while to figure out how to get mine offline. "
I cocked my head, studying her. "Oh, you'd be surprised what a little creativity can accomplish. I've got a whole toolbox of fun just itching to be used."
Christian sneered from the table. "Go ahead, you psychotic bitch. I've been trained to withstand anything you could possibly dish out. You just peeled the skin off my scalp and if you let me off this table, I'd still be able to gut you like the hog you are."
The darkness bubbled up inside me, a grin spreading across my face. "I find it so crazy that now that Sarah is here, you're acting like a big bad wolf. You're scum, Beaver. No one is going to miss you." I grabbed my knife.
Cam's hand on my arm stopped me. His touch sent electricity through my skin, grounding me.
"Easy," he murmured, his eyes never leaving Christian.
"We need to take him to the cliffs alive.
Remember, we don't want to kill him here.
It's gonna cause issues. The bin isn't taken until Thursday and it's Monday.
The smell will attract attention. We have to get him to the dump spot, babe. "
I pouted, but the look in his eyes promised future fun.
Sarah cleared her throat. "We're running out of time. Chimera will be looking for him, and they won't be gentle when they find us."
"Well," I sighed, twirling a lock of hair around my finger, "I guess we should go get rid of him then. Clean the place, maybe have a shower. I stink."
Rose spoke for the first time in hours. "And we need to fix the window. Maybe Sarah and I can do all that while you deal with Beaver?"
The room went quiet, all eyes on me. I grinned. "That's an excellent idea. Cam, mind doing the honors and knocking out our guest? Can't have him screaming down the halls and attracting attention."
He cracked his knuckles, a smirk crossing his face. "With pleasure."