Bane has reached the two of them by now, and though the immediate threat is gone, I don’t let Risa sit up yet in case there are any more hovering nearby in the trees, using Kayla as a decoy. “You said that to us once before, do you remember?” he asks, as easily as if they were discussing the weather.
I wrap my arms around Risa, hugging her while keeping her pinned in the awkward angle. Her racing heart is starting to slow back to a normal rate, as if the sound of Bane and Stryker toying with their prey is a comfort, convincing her through their confidence that she’s safe.
Stryker increases the pressure, slowly crushing her throat with a sickening sound. “We didn’t care that you were wanted for arson, so long as you appreciated the mercy we extended you. But the second you thought about hurting her, you sealed your own fate, so I don’t even feel bad.”
A moment later there’s a crack as he snaps her spine. The next instant, Bane drives his pocket knife into her heart, ensuring there’s no way that she’ll be able to heal. We can survive a hell of a lot, and a broken neck in itself isn’t necessarily a death sentence. We’re never that careless when it comes to kills, but with someone that tried to kill our mate? The desire to drag it out is an impulse both of them are clearly struggling with before wisely moving on to sweep the surrounding area.
Only after they return from ensuring no one is out there with a rifle do I finally let Risa sit up again. Rubbing at her stiff neck from the awkward position, she watches Bane tuck Kayla’s gun into his pocket, looking uneasy as she rolls her window down the rest of the way. “You don’t need to walk right into a trap, let’s just turn around.”
He strides over to her window, resting an arm on the door so he can lean in and kiss her. “No loose ends, gorgeous, or they’ll come back to bite us in the ass later. I’m not about to force you to spend the rest of your life on the run, always looking over your shoulder.”
Well aware that arguing is futile, she sighs in resignation. “Promise you won’t get cocky and make a stupid mistake?”
Stryker climbs in the backseat from the opposite side, stretching over me to steal a kiss of his own from her. “Do we look like the sort of men that go into anything half-cocked?” He winks. “I’m an all-cocked guy; all the cocks, all in, and all of the vengeance on behalf of my sweet angel. But I do promise that there is absolutely nothing that will keep us from coming back to you. Deal?”
“Do you even have a plan?” she demands, worrying unnecessarily, doubting our abilities far too much.
“Of course we do,” Bane declares with a feral smirk. “If we want to be able to buy our next house without getting flagged, we need a scapegoat to explain all of this away.”
Her eyes flit down to Kayla’s corpse as she riddles it out. “You’re going to burn it all to the ground.”
Chapter 13
Risa
––––––––
“Quit moving, you bigbaby,” Bane scolds, pushing Stryker onto his back and pinning him in place on the hotel bed. Rooting around in the wound, Bane finally manages to get the bullet fragment out of his shoulder, Stryker cursing up a storm. Rising on his knees, Bane holds the bloodied piece of metal up triumphantly before sliding to his feet.
Stryker slaps his palm over his shoulder, sitting up with a scowl. “Much longer, it would’ve healed around it. Still can’t believe you forced me to wait,eleven godsdamned hours!”
Bane heads to the bathroom to flush the evidence, washing his hands before returning. “Had to get all of our ducks in a row first and didn’t want to sabotage our story, you know that.” Tossing himself on the bed closest to the door, he grins. “Couldn’t pass up the insurance pay out by becoming suspects, and if anyone knew you caught a bullet, it’d make it look like we were there when Kayla went crazy after catching her boyfriend cheating on her. Such a tragic shame, really.”
Crossing the short distance to the sliding glass door that leads to the third floor balcony, I sigh. The way everything played out is still hard to accept as my new reality; likely never staying in one place for long, solving everything with murder. “Does this happen often? You guys jumping at any chance to throw yourselves into situations that could get you killed?”
Mason strips off his shirt, shoving Bane to the other side of their bed so he can pull back the blanket, the sleeping arrangements decided by games of rock, paper, scissors. “Mildly frequently, yeah.”
