Page 21 of Dark Things (Payback Duet #1)

Rebelle

A s soon as we get home from school, I take the bottle of Indigo’s Hour from the bar cart and make my way into the stables. I need a moment to get my shit together before I explode and someone dies.

The past week has been one trip down memory lane after the other, and I can’t stand it.

I’m never this unraveled. I pride myself on my cold exterior and my polished merc persona.

It’s why so many people fear me. Nothing ever affects me like this anymore, except for the three fucking guys I hate more than anything in this world.

I take a big gulp from the bottle and walk through the stables until I find Rex and Peanut. I open up the stalls, and they both follow me out. I pass by Midnight and reach in to scratch his nose before making my way out of the open doors into the open pasture behind the barn.

Peanut catches up to me and nudges my shoulder before giving me a horsey huff to the side of my neck.

I pat his head and lead us further into the pasture before plopping down in a grassy area.

Both horses lose interest in me soon enough, and I’m trapped with my thoughts and a bottle of the best bourbon I’ve ever had.

“I could beat you in math in my sleep,” Staff taunts.

I pull my notebook back from him and scowl. “I don’t think so. Just because I don’t brag about my grades doesn’t mean you're smarter than me.”

He smiles and tickles my sides. “I never said I was smarter, just in math.”

I laugh until tears fall on my face, but when we stop I realize he’s leaning over me so we’re face to face. I look down at his lips and catch him doing the same.

“I’m going to kiss you,” he whispers. And before I can say anything about it his lips are on me. They’re softer than I thought. He growls and pulls me closer. I’ve only kissed Colter, but having Staff’s lips on mine feels natural. I could never choose between my guys.

He pulls away and sits up. My hand goes to my lips and I smile. “Let’s do that again.”

“You do that a lot?” a voice says from behind me.

I’m up and have my switchblade out of my pocket before the last syllable leaves his lips.

“Who the fuck are you?” I ask, keeping the guy in my line of sight while doing a quick sweep of the area. No one should be able to get on the land unless authorized.

He raises his eyebrow before a smile stretches across his face. “Know how to use that?” he asks.

“Why don’t you come closer and I’ll show you how I can make you bleed out faster than Peanut can gallop.”

He doesn’t move, but he clocks the shift of my weight and the bottle that’s still clutched in my grasp. I don’t want to waste it, but I will knock this fucker out with it if I have to.

“No need, Pitch. I’ve been briefed on who you are. I just wanted to see if the rumors were true. I’m Brett, the barn manager.”

He extends a hand, but I only glance at it before dismissing it completely, putting my knife back in my pocket.

I raise the bottle toward him and point my index finger in his direction. “You’d do well to remember the rumors came from somewhere, and they’re probably true.”

I take a seat back on the grass after I see the rustle of trees behind Brett. He hasn’t seemed to notice, so I wait until he’s caught onto his surprise.

“You don’t seem so bad. I’ve been expecting someone…else.”

The words roll off my back, I’m used to the assholes underestimating me. I enjoy the look of shock when they realize they’re fucked. But right now I need to know how a member of the house that isn’t supposed to be cloaked by our dark business is calling me by my call sign.

“Lots of people have those thoughts. My question is more important though. Want to explain to me how a barn manager has been briefed?”

He smirks but his attention is still on me, and that’s not going to work out well for him in about three seconds.

One.

Two.

Three.

Brett’s spine snaps straight, and he freezes. What I’m sure would’ve been a devastatingly long description about how he’s amazing and some sort of important member of Stan’s business, it doesn’t materialize. Sadly, he doesn’t say anything.

It’s my turn to smirk and hold up the bottle in cheers. “The first lesson is pretty important. If you can see in the pitch black, know you’ll be seeing a ghost very shortly.”

Haunt laughs and shoves Brett a little before standing to the right of me, gun still clutched in his grip. “That was very poetic, gioia mia . We should get that on a T-shirt.”

“It would be nice right? Maybe a postcard we can leave with our kills. Like a calling card. It would be epic. ”

I lay down on the grass and look up to the nearly cloudless sky. Brett doesn’t say anything, and I guess that’s a good choice. He’s already doing a shit job if he’s supposed to be here in any kind of professional capacity that isn’t mucking stalls.

“The lady asked you a question, Brett. Explain why you’re really here, and I won’t blow your head off with my SIG,” Haunt says.

Brett clears his throat, looking around. “I’m here to watch the property and keep Cat safe. It’s been my job since she started at Skyton.”

I can see the tension in Haunt’s posture and slip my hand to his calf, giving it a small squeeze. We need more information. Like what Brett has actually been doing the last week while we’ve been here.

Groaning, I stand up. My pity party has been ruined, and I don’t feel like cleaning up a dead body right now.

“Exactly how have you been keeping Cat safe?” Haunt’s growl shouldn’t be sexy, especially given the topic, but my black heart shudders in response.

“I was assigned this post after a mission went bad in Romania. Call sign, Texas. Security code, 2254.”

I laugh, and soon Haunt is following along. “Your team was the fuckup we had to clean up after? What should have been an in and out kill order for a fucking sunflower farmer.”

Brett’s face is as red as a tomato. He looks like he’s going to go nuclear. “If the intel hadn’t been a fucking disaster we would have known that behind his sunflowers was an arsenal of machine guns. I lost three of my best guys in that fight.”

It sobers me up enough to pour a little of my bourbon into the dirt. “To fallen soldiers or whatever the fuck they call killers-for-hire these days.”

Brett isn’t going to be my friend, but that’s the normal around these guys. Haunt’s been the only one who’s gotten my darkness and revealed in it.

“Listen, why don’t we go into the barn, have a drink and talk this shit out, yeah? I mean, if we’re going to be working together, we should be communicating instead of trading insults, as much fun as that is,” Haunt says, breaking the tension.

Our barn manager nods and marches toward the back doors. Once he’s out of earshot, Haunt turns to me. “What was that? You didn’t need to be a dick.”

“But it’s so much fun when they’re all cocky, and then I swoop in and make sure they know that my dick is bigger than theirs.”

He kisses my head before pulling me behind him back into the barn. The horses stick their heads out, but I don’t stop to show them love. We need to get back to the matter of Brett and his lack of competence.

An office door swings open and Brett disappears through it. I take my blade out just in case Brett is super stupid. But when we clear the doorway, he’s sitting at his desk with a laptop open. He taps something on the keys and swings the screen around so we can see.

“This is the security feed for the property. You’ll see there is a guard at the driveway gate, Steve.

Then there are two teams of two guards on the north and south of the property.

The west is this building and the east is covered through thick wooded areas.

It’s been three years and we’ve never had a breach. ”

I flip through the cameras, taking note of where they’re located. I see the other guards and then freeze on one frame that’s on the western side. I cock my head before turning back to Brett.

“It does us no good if you’re a liar, Brett. I assume you’re used to the hands off approach, which is why you didn’t introduce yourself until today, but going forward it’s a team effort. And by team, I mean you and your guys are under our command.”

Haunt stands behind me, arms crossed over his chest, T-shirt straining from the effort. All it would take is one move and stitches would be popping.

“My boss is Stan. He didn’t authorize you to take command. This is my post.”

I slide the screen back around to him before slamming the Indigo’s Hour on the desk. Using my finger, I lean over the screen and point to the corner.

“You forgot to mention the sniper in the perch behind where we were just talking. Thank goodness Haunt was there to make sure our chat continued. I don’t like to be made a fool of, Brett.

I like it less when people try to kill me around my fucking horses.

Do you know how traumatic it would be for them if my brains were splattered on the grass? Lots of horse therapy, Brett. Lots.”

His jaw ticks before he looks between the two of us and grabs a file folder out of the desk. Haunt still has his gun in his hand, but it still makes me tense up for a moment. He throws it towards me and says, “Nothing personal.”

I flip open the folder and start to read, the usual bullshit that seems to follow Haunt and I around. Stan is constantly testing us, setting us up even with our own people. Says it builds a solid merc. I’m pretty sure none of the other teams suffer through this bullshit. It’s reserved only for us.

“Usual write up. Nothing different except this part here. He was willing to let Rex or Peanut die,” I growl and turn to Haunt.

He’s a statue frozen in time. The only thing he hates more than harm coming to me and Cat is harm coming to the horses. He’s a big animal lover.

I breathe out and turn to Brett. “You have a choice here, since this was technically not your fault or your fight. We'll keep you on and you do the job you’re paid for with some tweaks, or I kill you and you don’t have to suffer anymore from Stan's games. Take the deal, Brett. We could use the extra bodies.”

His eyes move back and forth between us and I see the moment he’s decided that we’re the bigger threat. It’s really the only choice.

“You have a deal, Pitch. But I want guarantees for my guys too. They’re on a need to know and this mission wasn’t a need to know, copy.”

“Sure, Military Ken, I copy. Your guy is alive, by the way; he’s just hanging from his perch taking a nap. Haunt’s much better than me about not pushing the envelope,” I say with a perfect villainous grin slapped on my face.

“I’ll leave it up to you boys to work out rotations and better protection protocols. I’m too tipsy to get into detail. Just give me the cliff notes in the morning,” I say to Haunt, before giving him a kiss on the cheek and a pat on his bicep.

Turning to leave I give Brett a sarcastic bow and slip out of the door, going back to the pasture with the last of my Indigo’s.

I need to get these boys out of my head, and the only way to do that besides killing them all is to drink myself into oblivion.

Because there’s nothing worse than being torn between your past and your future.