I turned on my best impression of my brother, tapping into his usual brooding but playful nature, and tried to buy myself time.
“You came all the way from Massachusetts for me? I’m touched. Thanks for making me feel like a real part of the family.”
Without hesitation, Wavy plunged forward and punched me in the jaw, sensations of raw pain jackhammering through the rest of my face. My nose suddenly felt like it was on fire, makingme think that it was at least on the verge of breaking from my previous run in with Wavy’s fist. My head rocked back as I grit my teeth, trying to keep from fainting again.
“Shut the fuck up!” Wavy shouted. “We’re here for the fucking money. So tell us where it is.”
After squaring my shoulders, I saw that Ponytail was sighing to herself, her crossed arms telling me that she wasn’t as antagonistic as her sister was hellbent on being.
“Where the fuck do you think it is?” I took the growing blood in my mouth from her punch and spat it out by her boots on the dirty floor. “It’s in the bank where it belongs.”
“Itbelongswith the family.”
“This is fucking stupid, Cheyenne.” Ponytail said, finally giving me more insight to what their real names were. She walked over to her twin and forced her to look at her. “We should just leave while we can.”
“What do you mean,leave?” Wavy said back. “You want us to just keep him here? This is what we do, Casper.”
I broke out into a quiet laughter, earning me a look from both of them. Now that I knew there was enough discourse between them, as well as learning their names, I could switch to the other half of this dual-part plan. My laughter bubbled up, and I could still taste blood in my mouth as I truly began to cackle. Honestly, I should be gifted an award for this portrayal of Troian. I wasn’t nearly this playful or dramatic.
“And just what the fuck is sogoddamnfunny?” Cheyenne said, flexing the black leather covering her hands.
“I’m sorry,” I said between my dying down laughter, still putting on the front as best I could as I drove my way to my verbal destination. I needed to make sure it was just perfect so I could truly rattle them. “It’s just really hilarious, considering the fact that you’re also twins.”
“What are you talking about?” Casper said, surprising mewith her interest as she put her hunter green leather hands on her hips. “What does us being twins have to do with anything?”
“I know you guys can’t be this bad at your job,” I guffawed, sighing deeply to match Casper’s previous energy. “You had to know that we’re twins too.”
“Of course we know about your brother. Thayer, is it?” Cheyenne smirked, thinking she had the better of me. “You want us to bring him in on this, Troian?”
“That’s the thing, I’m not Troian.” I watched in delightful distracting glee as both of their faces became mirrors of wonder and disbelief. “You’ve got the wrong twin.”
Chapter 20
Panic charteda perilous course across both of the Rhodes twins' faces. Casper glanced at her twin with rage boiling between her eyes. I could tell that a sisterly spat was about to break out.
“What the fuck, Chey?!” She stomped over to her sister and lightly shoved her. “I told you I didn't think he looked right.”
Cheyenne scoffed, smoothing out her black outfit before glaring daggers back at Casper. “They're fucking twins, Cas. They're both living in the same city, it was always a fifty-fifty shot.”
“But we're supposed to be better than making mistakes like that.”
“If you wanna take the lead for once, be my fucking guest.”
Now that their bickering was off to the races, I flexed the restraints holding my hands together. There was the slightest give to them, hope ringing in my ears as I subtly tried to work against them while they continued to debate.
“This is why it's so fucked thatwe'rethe ones forced to do this.” Casper scoffed as her hands gripped at her own hips. “I mean, we're the youngest ones. Who the fuck puts twenty-twoyear olds in charge of being the family assassins? This family is so fucked and I amoverit!” Casper strutted over to one of the machines and kicked out until her perfectly outfit matching green heels scrapped the forgotten metal. Cheyenne looked dumbfounded at her twin's actions. Casper paced further down the warehouse, giving me even more time to work against the restraints. I could feel it working, garnering more and more give. Just a little bit more and I might just be able to break my hands free. Thank goodness they hadn't gone through the trouble of constricting my legs to the chair.
Cheyenne ambled over to her twin, reaching to place a hand on her sister's shoulder, but it was instantly bucked off. Casper turned around to face her mirror image, but she kept silent.
“Look, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you when you had doubts we grabbed the right guy. But this is what makes us valuable to the family. This is what we were tasked to do.”
“And you don't think that it's fucked up?” Casper countered, still pacing and eyeing the rest of warehouse like a suddenly obvious exit with her name was about to appear and save her the trouble of being here. “I’m so tired of killing. I'm so tired of being told I hate Orbs when the truth is, I don't care! I just want my own fucking life. That's what I want.” She turned to me, making me pause my latest shift to free my hands so I wouldn't be found out. “Not killing the guy that married our sister's son.”
“The brother of the guy that married your sister's son.” I solidified, still attempting to rile them up for more time.
They both glared at me and spoke in unison. “Shut up.”
The Rhodes twins looked at each other again, starting up more conversation of what their next move should be. I took the opportunity to use as much of my strength as I could without alerting them to try to get my hands free. With the faintest of snaps, I felt my hands break through the taped confinements. The sisters kept talking, not noticing my success over their oppositions. Now I just needed to plot my next move.I knew that my best option was getting inside that office. If it didn't have my phone or some way to contact the outside world, then at least I could try and barricade myself inside.
