I tuck my hair behind my ear as I list all the reasons why I think I’m right. Yep. He like likes me. Cool.
Kingston is pressed against Joey, splooting his body as long as he can make it. Joey absently pets behind the dog’s ear, closing his eyes and resting his head against the pillow. The moment is perfect.
Until my stomach grumbles and he opens his eyes, throws on his pants and shirt, and leads me into the kitchen. For a cabin that is supposed to be a safe house, it's well stocked with high end steaks and fancy Irish butter.
Noticing my curiosity at the stocked fridge, he offers, “Dimitri and Katya came here last weekend to celebrate one of their many anniversaries.”
He’s basting the steak in butter when the alarms go off. Pulling the steak off the burner, he runs to get a gun from the bedroom, leaving me standing still in the middle of the room. He yells to get behind the couch and stay low as two headlights flood the cabin with blinding light.
He cracks open the front door, lets out a few rounds of ammo at the car, and everything is silent. I’m able to breathe again and things feel semi safe when a smoke bomb crashes through the window, and we don’t have much time to act.
We head out the back door, but there’re already guys waiting for us. Kingston starts barking and growling, but one of these motherfuckers kicks him. The poor puppy screams and howls worse than when he was in the vet.
Joey takes a swing at the guy bellowing, “Don’t fucking hurt my dog.”
Another guy draws his gun and shoots it. It misses Kingston, but scares him, and he races in a panic into the woods.
Joey is punching and fighting everyone he sees, and suddenly there’s a sharp pain in my neck. I call out his name as a pair of hands grab me. My vision goes blurry, but I see someone else grabbing Joey and injecting something into his neck too.
Am I dying? Everything is heavy and empty at the same time. Breathing slows. I need to get to him. I need to be by his side, to go save Kingston. My body feels like lead-covered elephants are standing on my arms, legs, and back. I can’t move. It’s getting harder to see, to feel, to hear.
There’s a car door opening, and my body is shoved forward. Joey screams my name before everything is blank, just darkness and emptiness.
And I'm still hungry.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Joey
My head throbs as darkness fades into slivers of light. My face is raw and tight, swollen from a few sucker punches. It’s my knees that are killing me though. Face down on hardwood floors, and my entire body weight is focused on my joints. My wrists refuse to move and my fingers tingle. Shit, they’re bound. This is not a kink I have for myself. Good to know.
The last hour replays in my head. Fuck, why didn’t I upgrade the cabin with more defensive tactics? Bullet-proof windows work as a shield to protect yourself but suck in defense. I opened the door to shoot at them and gave them a clear opportunity. And how in the hell did they get past the security cameras and alarms? Some elite hacker did some coding shit? Or did someone give these assholes the code?
None of these questions are as important as focusing on my surroundings. Where am I?
On the other side of the room, there’s a pile of clothes and some upside-down chairs. There is a coloring book and crayons on the opposite side of the room. Does a kid live here?
To my left, there’s a whimpering cry. “Not here, please not here.”
Donny?
He sounds like he's in pain, but it’s the fear that gets me. Donny’s been in scrapes before. He’s had the shit kicked out of him multiple times. Ever since the kids were taken a few months ago, he’s been teetering on a breakdown. But this is different, it’s terror.
Further to my left is Uncle Gio, all blood, spit, and venom. He’s been roughed up the most. Blood drips down the side of his face, and his nose is smashed up. But it’s the tears that have me concerned. His head is down, his chin quivering, and tears form a river down his cheeks.
There’s a guy, I can’t tell from here who he is, but he’s got a cell phone shoved in Gio’s face. “Shot the shit out of the car. Got the video and everything. Your daughter’s dead.”
What?
Donny wails, “Izzy!” and crumbles into sobs.
Izzy’s gone? Dead? No. It can’t be. She wasn’t in this life. She did one job for Gio, one message at a wedding. But she wasn’t connected to anything. We made sure of that.
The guy standing in front of me punches the guy standing in front of Gio. “Who’s that other bitch in the car?”
“Alana Fucking King. We gunned down the Deviant’s number one target.” The two of them laugh. “We’re fuckin’ legends.”
Izzy and Alana? How is that possible? Gone in a hail of bullets? Were they scared? Did they see it coming? Was it fast and painless?
