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“She’s not here. They-they took her away.”
My hand shoots out and my fingers wrap around his throat.
“Where the fuck is she?” This time, my calm and collected has left the fucking building and this fucker knows it.
“I don’t know. I don’t fucking know. I just guard the house, man.” I wish I could say that I plan to take pity on this man.
I do not.
With a roar that shakes the very foundations of this house, I slam the guy’s head against the wall, over and over again, until his skull is literally bashed in. Even then, I continue. Like I’m practicing some kind of destruction therapy, I take all of my frustrations out on this guy while the world around me goes to shit. Men running around, getting shot in the back, the front, the fucking skull. Meanwhile, I’m remodeling the house with this guy’s blood.
Red never goes out of style.
“Bear, man. We just did a sweep of the whole house and there’s no one here.” Sarge and Grinder are reloading their guns and securing them in their holsters.
“Yeah, what Sarge said. It’s a big fucking house too, and their decorator spent way too much time tripping on acid.”
That’s when I stop bashing this guy’s head in and let him drop to the floor.
“Where the fuck is she?” Speaking through my teeth because it feels like my jaw is locked into place, I kick my victim for good measure.
“No idea, but our intel was right. This is a house that belongs to The Firm.” I’m staring at Sarge as he talks but my mind is whirling with the possibility that I may never find her.
“I’m sorry, man. She said she was living here and we believe it. That room all the way on the third floor was like a prison cell.” Those words get my immediate attention.
“Where?”
“Here, I’ll take you.” Grinder sprints for the next floor up and I follow him, so close I almost slam into him when he stops at the entrance of a tiny bedroom.
I smell her scent. It’s light, barely there, but with every breath I take, that smell invades my bloodstream.
There's a bed, or a cot really, with a television that’s barely the size of a computer screen. The movies she so often spoke about are all there, on the dresser, piled up.Zoolander,Forrest Gump,Pitch Perfect.
“Maybe they hate this cold too. Headed somewhere else. Another house, maybe?” Grinder is speaking more to himself than to us, but I hate that he’s giving me hope. Problem is, how the fuck are we supposed to find out which one? The only reason we knew about this one was from Athena’s GPS.
“Maybe we should make them come to us?” I don’t know where I get this idea, but as soon as I speak the words, they ring true.
“How?” Psycho’s on board with whatever and I fucking love that about him.
“Burn this motherfucker down to the ground.” Before I leave the room, I grab the pack Bash is carrying on his back and pull it off. With one quick swipe of the arm, I’ve got all of Athena’smovies inside. There are less than ten but I have to shove them to make them fit.
“Guess we’re chillin’ by the fire and watching a movie, then, huh?” I think Grinder is disappointed the mission went to shit because he’s trying to make light of the situation, but it’s not shining through. In fact, his jokes are falling flat because he’s not feeling them either.
Without answering him, I walk out and search for the one thing I need.
I find it in the main suite. A huge fig-scented candle sits on a gothic-looking dresser that actually has fucking horns on the side. What the actual fuck? I grab the candle and rummage through the drawers trying to find a lighter.
“Here you go, brother.” Psycho is right there, the flame of his zippo burning bright. Tilting the candle, I light it up before taking it to the long, silky, blackout drapes, and watch as the fire catches. Instantly, the one side is lit.
“Get everyone out.” I’m not fucking around. I don’t want any of my men to get hurt or get caught in the flames.
“Right on.” Psycho turns and roars out the exact same command I just gave him. “All you fuckers outside, now!”
Jogging from room to room, I light up all the fucking flammable shit I can find. I don’t want them to have a single inch of this house still standing when they come back.
If… they come back.
By the time I’m done, half the house is burning bright. Wood works wonders in situations like these.