Page 20 of Hearts Etched in Glass (The Afton Adders #2)
All Along the Watchtower, Jimi Hendrix
The office is alive with more individuals than usual.
As I strut up the stairs behind Bobby, my hands mess with the lint in my pocket, as I raise an eyebrow at the commotion.
There is a gaggle of people huddled in the lobby, talking amongst themselves.
Bobby enters, one foot into the doorway, but something shoves him out of the office and back into the hall.
“Oi!” he shouts.
When he tries to open the conference room door again, something slams against it, causing it to violently shut and jar so no one may enter.
I look at Bobby as his eyebrows furrow and he begins pounding on the door with his fist. “What the fuck,” he mumbles under his breath, then walks over to the secretary.
“How long have they been in there?” he asks.
“Almost all morning sir,” she exclaims, picking her nails.
“Who is in there?” he asks with irritation.
She shifts in her seat nervously.
“Um. Sir. It is. It.” She can barely speak, but she doesn’t need to reply because the answer strides out in front of us.
The door opens, and a multitude of bodies exit the room.
Mr. Churchill and several of his staff leave alongside him.
Our halls fill with whispers and hushed speech, as I watch the bodies descend the stairs.
Winston, fucking, Churchill was in our bloody office .
Holy fucking shit. What has Kenneth kept from Bobby?
Once we enter the space, I see two of Kenneth’s signature knives jammed into the wooden door, and a hand snakes around Bobby’s throat.
“You fucking bellend! Why did you have to act like an idiotic wanker in front of Churchill?”
I quietly sit around the oval table, watching Kenneth scold Bobby.
“Would you let him go? He didn’t even know he was in here, due to your lack of communication,” I growl.
Kenneth unhands Bobby and takes a seat at the head of the table.
“Couldn’t let your brother know that the Winston Churchill was in our office?
” Bobby says with outstretched hands. “Was this your own doing, or does Everett know? Does anyone else know? Is that why the twins are off doing secret missions and I haven’t seen them because they are, ‘running trades’,” Bobby says, with two fingers motioning near his head.
“It was a need-to-know basis. Something separate from Afton business,” Kenneth dryly explains, as he unbuttons his suit jacket.
“What did you do in the war, Kenneth?” Bobby asks, irritation surrounding his words .
Kenneth doesn’t answer, just begins playing with the adder sticking out of his suit pocket.
It must be a new hatchling. I shake at the thought of touching the creature.
Though I may be an Adder, I still haven’t gathered the courage to use the snakes like the other men have, let alone feed them or touch them.
“You were not just an accountant in the war. Why would an accountant in the war, know Churchill?” Bobby blurts out in disbelief, waving at the conference room door.
“You’re annoying me,” Kenneth retorts, putting on his glasses, then picking up the newspaper beside him. “You need to calm down, we need to be ready for when the rat-bastard McKinleys show up.”
That resets Bobby. He stands, hands clenched beside his thighs.
“I need to speak to you about that.” Kenneth raises an eyebrow at Bobby’s words, finally looking towards him above the newspaper, his reading glasses at the tip of his nose. Bobby unveils the real reason the McKinleys may be in town, and discusses the tie between Ronald and Tilly .
Kenneth’s face burns with sudden heat as the words resonate. This information is more than a worry for him.
“When did you learn of this?” he snaps.
“Now. I brought Marcus to make sure the identity is the same Ronald.” I glance at Kenneth as he stands to tidy his suit jacket.
“Well, let’s get ready for war, because I’m fucking done,” he remarks. Bobby steps closer to him and sits in the chair beside the head of the table.
“I thought we couldn’t kill him,” Bobby mutters, as Kenneth lets out a small cackle.
“When we had our original meeting to sign the paperwork, your little stunt assisted me. In a small portion of the terms, it says that upon the death, accidentally dismemberment or incapacitation of the older, Mr. McKinley, all his business assets with us will transfer to me. Not his family. Not his sons. He signed the papers so quickly after you caused a ruckus. So, thank you.”
Bobby lets out a bellow of laughter. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Serious about what?” says whom I presume is Mr. McKinley, as he walks into the room with his son Ronald. His voice causes terror to race down my spine, as an horrible feeling settles in the depths of my gut.
No .
His voice .
He takes a glance me and narrows his eyes, but looks back at Kenneth and Bobby. “What is serious? Is it about our business?”
“Take a fucking seat,” Kenneth says, tone laced with vile malice.
“Excuse me?” Mr. McKinley shouts, but before another word can be muttered, Kenneth stands, reaching into his suit pocket and throwing an adder at Mr. McKinley.
My body begins to tremble at the recognition of Mr. McKinley being my dom.
His voice makes my stomach turn and acid rises to the back of my throat.
The snake shoots past Mr. McKinley’s shoulder and onto the ground safely.
Kenneth walks around the table to retrieve the snake.
It curls around his wrist, as Kenneth pets its head.
“You have been keeping things from us, Mr. McKinley and your son performed a grave sin by harming one of our masseuses,” Bobby explains, then Kenneth forces Mr. McKinley into the chair, as Bobby does the same to Ronald.
“So. You think you can play us for fools?” Kenneth remarks as the snake coiled around Kenneth’s wrist climbs up and atop Mr. McKinley’s head.
“No. No! What is this? An ambush? What did we do?”
Ronald stays quiet as his father pleads.
“Well, we saw what you did to our Jameson. How dare you lay a finger on her. How dare you try and force her to do anything she doesn’t want and disrespect her!
And disrespect our business.” Then I take it upon myself to smack the side of Ronald’s head as Kenneth looks at him with indifference.
“Maybe we should let the adders have their way with you?” I mention as Ronald holds his ear, whimpering.
“We also didn’t realize you had a connection to my Tilly. Thanks for your transparency,” Bobby sarcastically says.
“I don’t know what you are talking about, I don’t know a Tilly and as for that girl, Jameson, she asked me to. She wanted this roleplaying, kidnapping, sadistic scenario. ”
“This is not the proper place for that . We do not perform those type of services. And I hate when people lie to me, it is pathetic.” A furious tone seeps from Kenneth’s lips.
Mr. McKinley’s eyes flicker to me and I cannot help the sour face that stares back at him in challenge. Then the snake snaps in his face, but Kenneth pulls back before it may latch onto his hooked nose.
“How may we make things right?” Mr. McKinley begs, his hands laced together with pleading eyes, as Kenneth steps away from his shaking body.
Silence fills the room.
“I think we should strap dynamite to each of your chests and watch you explode,” Bobby offers, as Kenneth sits back at the head of the table, admiring his snake.
“Brother, rein it in. Just hold on with any crazy suggestions at the moment,” Kenneth says.
“We should all go hunting!” Ronald suggests, a suspicious smile adorns his face.
“You want to make amends by hunting? That just makes me want to hunt you .” The snake slithers across the table, before he crawls into a tight ball .
“We have private property, supplied with many animals, you can take whatever trophy you’d like. We may have a feast and even get your kill mounted for you as a sincere apology. How does that sound?” Mr. McKinley pleads with laced hands, the vein in his forehead pulsating.
“Fine. Now get out of my sight.” Kenneth waves them away as they scamper out of the room.
“Why wouldn’t you let me kill them, here and now?” The agitation spills into Bobby’s words as he slams a fist a top the table.
Kenneth rolls his eyes at Bobby. “You fucking imbecile. If we kill them in here, there are witnesses, they signed in and out of the office. We can slaughter them on their land.” Standing from his seat he walks over to the bookshelf and dials a number.
Bobby comes to sit beside me. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” My body is still frozen with shock but I muster up the courage deep within my soul.
“That’s him, Bobby. The father. His voice, he was my dom that left the bruises.” His face pales, then shadows stretch across his eyes as his beautiful smile turns into a frown.
“You’re positive?” I nod my head. “Then more fucking reason to skin the bastard alive. Bobby’s body vaults forward, towards the door, preparing to stalk after the McKinley family, but he is stopped by Kenneth’s declaration.
“I just got off the phone with Baba. Prepare for war.”