Page 37 of Sleeping with the Dark (The Righteous 3)
Master? He could get used to that. “Can you show me the hostiles outside the house?”
The screen began to flip through images when a loud crash and a body sailed into the hallway. A second later Arek followed like the deadly predator he was. The guy was groaning and trying the crawl away. Smashing through a door will do that. Arek stepped on the guy’s back, halting his movement before he shot him in the head without even looking. In an eerie almost robotic movement Arek turned his attention to the office and marched on.
The image stopped when the camera picked up movement in the backyard. The three left outside were sneaking toward the back door. Cody changed course, letting Arek deal with the ones in the house, and ran for the kitchen. He got low, watching the shadows as they passed the window nearing the sliding glass door. The guys hastily shot at the door to break it.
Guess they weren’t worried about a quiet entry.
Cody slid back into the shadows of the corner and waited like a snake ready to strike.
The small party of three was far too focused on the sounds going on in the office to notice their real threat. In all his years with Tyson, he’d never experienced this level of shit-storm before, and he’d seen some crazy shit. Raising his gun, he fired two quick shots hitting the two that were directly in front of him. The third guy spun as he fired and ended up using the fridge as a shield. Cody rolled out of the way as the guy’s gun rounded the fridge to shoot at him blindly.
This house was going to need some serious repairs. He could only imagine the look on Trev’s face when he saw the mess.
“If you leave now, I won’t kill you,” Cody called out from his own hiding spot.
“Je ne suis pas né d’hier.”
“Dude, I have no idea what you just said.”
“Would you like me to translate?” Delilah came through his earpiece, and he rolled his eyes.
“No, I don’t want you to translate,” Cody said.
“Qui Moi?” The guy asked, and Cody wanted to smack himself in the forehead. That’s it, forget this. Rolling out from behind his hiding spot, he fired, catching the guy in the leg. The man screamed as he crumpled to the ground. The face that stared back at him was young, nineteen maybe. His hand wavered as he pointed the gun at the scared young face.
Taking him by surprise, the guy’s face twisted in rage, his gun raising to point at him, and then he fell silent. Eyes wide, the body went limp as blood seeped across the marble floor. Cody looked up at Arek, his face hidden in the shadows.
“Even children know how to use guns, never falter, or you will end up dead. I thought you’d know that by now.” Turning, Arek walked out, and he was left staring at the face that could easily have been him not long ago. Not sure why he was drawn to the young man, he crawled across the floor and wiped the hair away from his face, and closing his eyes.
“Why couldn’t you have just left?” Peeling himself off the floor, he walked out of the kitchen to search out his family, but there was a new scar etched on his soul.
Trev felt like he was propped up in the corner of the basement’s torture room, like a rag doll. The stark white and easily washable walls were hurting his eyes to stare at. He’d never had to use this room and hoped it would remain that way when he had it built, but apparently it would be tainted with red along with his and Arek’s soul.
Arek yelled with barely contained rage as his fist collided with the man handcuffed to the chair. The loud yell coupled with his brother’s incessant rave music thumping was making his head pound harder. All they needed were some fucking glow sticks. Arek had cuffed the man with his ankles and hands each attached to one of the four legs of the chair. The metal cuffs that were securing his wrists behind his back rattled against the metal chair as he jerked from the blow.
He just really wanted this to be over so he could lay back down for a few hours before he would be required to arrange the clean up. Arek waved his bottle of whiskey back and forth as he wiggled his ass to the new song. He was starting to wonder if the reason he was so successful at torture was because people just wanted the fucking music and dancing to stop—he sure as hell did.
Trev glanced at his phone, checking up on the latest regarding the police who were supposed to be trying to find the house. So far, there were three cars driving in circles as Delilah scrambled their equipment. The hope was that they would give up and run along home. So far, it worked out, and Cody and Sally were out cleaning up the debris. He hated the idea of moving the family from this house, but it seemed it was something they would have to do, at least until renovations were complete.
Something metal clanking on the table had him glancing up as the music was lowered to a reasonable decibel.
“Why did you come here, Lorena?” Arek asked the man in front of him.
“Stop calling me that,” the man said and spit blood out on the floor.
“Why, it suits you.” Arek smiled wide.
The man Arek nicknamed Lorena had blood dripping from his broken nose and a cut at the corner of his mouth. If looks could kill, Arek would’ve been dead.
“Lorena, why do you make your life so difficult, does it look like you’re going anywhere, anytime soon?” Arek held out his hands to show off the room with it’s assortment of weapons hanging from the walls and the chains that could hold a bear. “Just answer the question, why did you come here?” Arek rolled out his shoulders and cracked his knuckles as he slowly made his way over to Lorena again.
“Fuck you.”
Arek’s fist made an audible noise as it connected with the man’s face. Trev had to concede he was pretty impressed that his brother had showed enough restraint to keep this one alive.
Once more, silence greeted them. This guy was tough. So far, he had taken all that Arek had thrown at him and done so with a smile. Well, a bloody smile now, with fewer teeth, but it was a smile nonetheless.
Lorena, or better known as Alejandro’s second looked over at him and smirked. “I’m surprised to see you alive. Last I heard you were strung up like a dead cow.”
