“You guys fought,” I nodded, hands still up. “You fought and she left you.”
“Shut up.” The words sounded like a warning but they were hidden behind the obvious choked sob she wanted to emit, but her pride wouldn’t let her.
“She’s right, you know.” I told her. “About it being fucked up that you guys are the ones who have to do the dirty work for the family. Your own family is making you kill, Cheyenne. Do you even want to kill?”
“It doesn’t matter what I want,” Cheyenne sniffed, reaffirming her grip on the gun. She readjusted her aim so that it was pointed right at my chest. “I have to do what’s expected of me, what’s right for the family. Everyone has their role. We’re the killers. That’s just how it is.”
“But it doesn’t have to be.” I assured her. “Madison got out. Casper is trying to get out. You can too.”
Cheyenne huffed, a weak laugh spilling between her lips. “Madison got married and thought she could be free. That’s not how it works when you’re born a Rhodes. She had to come back after her husband’s death and took on the financial parts of the family business. That’s the only reason she’s even still alive. Because she’s still useful. If I leave…” She shook her head, unable to finish the sentence. She couldn’t even see that she was already serving a different kind of sentence by letting her family control her like this.
I didn’t know that Madison was even that tied to the familyanymore, but that’s because I wasn’t Troian. My ties to the Rhodes family were tangential at best.
Rolling her shoulders, Cheyenne lifted the gun back to my face. “If I shoot you, it’ll all be fine.”
“It won’t be fine though.” I said, thinking as quick as I could handle. “I might have been alone when you guys took me, but I was with someone.” I didn’t dare speak Bas’ name so that she could file it away and use it against me in the future. “They’re going to look for me.”
“Not if they find your corpse instead.” I could see her finger daring along the trigger and a quick jolt of panic ran through me. I needed to stall by any means necessary.
“But killing me isn’t going to make you right with the family. What’s going to happen to you when you go back without Casper?”
Her breathing hitched, and I felt like I’d hit a nerve that might just save my fucking life. She hadn’t thought about returning home without her sister, only of completing the mission. Exploiting the absence of Casper was my last ammunition and I needed to make sure it hit my target without missing.
“You’re a set, a useful pair.” I kept twisting the knife of my last chance. “Without Casper, will you still be useful?”
More tears spilled down her cheeks, her sniffling making her lower the gun so she could wipe her face with the back of her leathered sleeve. When her face was wiped clean, she didn’t even bother raising the gun, letting me silently breathe in relief. But I didn’t dare let that show on my face or the rest of my body. I kept my hands raised in defeat and stayed exactly where I was, further displaying that she held all the cards to play even though I’d clearly struck a nerve and was shifting the dynamic for good.
“This is garbage!” Cheyenne cried, lifting her black boot and shoving the chair that was by the desk clear across the room. Itdidn’t shatter but it did fall to the floor with a clattering disturbance.
Her gun was still lowered but I wanted to tread lightly as the beginnings of her breakdown unfurled in my favor.
“It’s unfair.” I agreed.
“It is!” She sniffled angrily, accepting my words and rolling with them like I wasn’t her captive. “Our family isn’t even fucking important enough to need people eliminated like we’ve done. It’s garbage. I don’t hate Orbs either. Casper was right. I want what she wants. I want my own life. But I can’t have one without her in it.”
“Then you need to go chase after her.” I could see the wheels turning in her head as she truly thought about whether or not that was an option she could explore or not. “She couldn’t have gotten that far by now. Plus, you’re twins. You know her better than anyone. I’m sure you know where she’d run off to.”
Cheyenne broke, allowing herself to cry for about a minute before she realized she wasn’t alone. She wiped her face again, looking at me squarely. Without breaking the eye contact, she took the gun in her hand and placed it back in her black pants behind her back. She gave me a single nod.
“Thanks,” She said genuinely, nodding. “I’m sorry about…all of this. Tell Troian we won’t come after him.”
“I will.” I nodded back.
“I can’t guarantee that my family won’t though.”
Giving her a head tilt as my understating, I added, “Thank you for not killing me.”
Cheyenne snorted. “First time I’ve ever let someone go. Don’t forget that, if we ever happen to cross paths again.”
“I won’t.”
We stared at each other, my hands still hovering in the air. Something similar to a truce slithered between us, and I wished I could really help them. The Rhodes family clearly needed to be taken down a peg. Who the fuck had assassins in house? Thiswasn’t a fucking James Bond movie, this was real life. I only hoped that by using the rift between the twins and aiding in their severing from the family that I’d helped anyone who appeared on their shit list in the future.
Finally, Cheyenne gave me a single nod and then ran out of the office, storming across the confines of the warehouse until I heard a faint door slam. Only then did I relax and drop my hands. My heart was beating a mile a minute and I’d been so tense from the situation that I hadn’t realized how overwhelmed I was.
Tears cascaded down my face as I cried for the outcome I’d been lucky enough to be awarded. I was alive. Against the odds stacked against me, I’d survived. That didn’t mean it hadn’t taken its hold on my body. Sobs spilled out of me as I felt my body slack, resting my hands on my thighs as my body bent and begged to relax.
My mind cascaded back to when I’d first lost my parents. Back when Troian and I had been freshly eighteen and wondering what the fuck we were going to do now that our parents were gone. After Troian lost himself to any substance he could appropriately abuse, homelessness had loomed over me so heavy. I’d gotten through it, but living through this nightmare brought on by the Rhodes twins reminded me of how hopeless I used to be, how uncertain my future was. That same feeling was now throbbing in my veins and I needed to vet it. But I wasn’t safe just yet. I had to get out of this warehouse first.
