Page 144 of Stand: Part One

“Not quite,” he stated then waved his hand at the other guards. “There’s still one more matter to rectify.” Two of the men came forward with baseball bats dragging behind them, stopping just behind Clive and Owen.

“What are you doing?” I asked, panic spiking.

“I was hoping your dog would be here tonight, but my men can’t seem to find her. I thought her loss would have been sufficient payback, but since she’s not here…I had to improvise.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. “What?”

“You cost me my greatest treasure,” Matt growled, pure malice on his tongue, hate in his eyes, and pointed at my bodyguards. “And now they’re going to pay for it.”

My heart dropped as Clive and Owen looked back at me with nothing but solidarity and obvious understanding. They knew they were dead the second Matt walked into the room. He couldn’t let them live with everything they just heard, even if it was deliberate. And Darren wouldn’t have let them live simply for tonight’s failure to protect me from harm.

“I thought that bullet I took was payback.”

“Hardly,” Matt answered bitterly.

My mouth went dry. While Clive and Owen weren’t exactly my favorite people in the world, I had become fond of our banter and the routine we’d created over the years. And now all of that was about to come to a very violent end.

Both of them gave me a slight nod, implying their acceptance. They knew the risks of assuming the roles as my protectors, and they accepted anyway. I figured they would bite the dust on duty at some point. I just didn’t think I’d have to witness it like this. Nodding back, I signaled my silent goodbye to them, finding it to be harder than I wanted to admit.

With the snap of Matt’s fingers, the two guards lifted their bats and swung. I sat like a statue, bound to my chair, and watched as Matt’s goons beat my bodyguards to death with their baseball bats. For once, I had never been more grateful for the darkness.

The sound of wood beating against muscle and bone was far too distinct for my liking, my stomach souring with each swing. After all the training I’d endured, I could hide it well enough on the outside, but the inside never settled when I witnessed torture.

It took about two minutes before their bodies finally went limp, blood coating both of them, the bats, and the guards. When they were finished, they stepped away from what was left of my barely recognizable bodyguards and dropped one of the bloody bats near Smith’s body.

“Satisfied?” I muttered to Matt, not taking my eyes off my dead guards. I wanted to savor this rage for later—when I eventually killed this motherfucker.

Matt moved in front of me, glaring down with a raging fire in his eyes. “Not until I get Kayla back. And believe me when I say I will.”

I met his gaze head-on. “Is that what you think is going to happen? That you’re going to win Kayla back after what you’ve done to her?”

“It’s cute you think I give a shit about what Kayla wants,” Matt answered as he walked to the side of my chair.

“I’ll make sure she fucking knows that,” I growled up at him.

Matt chuckled as he gripped the arms of my chair. “Believe me, Jaden, she already does.” And then he yanked the chair up and shoved me over until I crashed sideways into the carpet, the impact making my damn bones rattle and my pelvis throb.

“What the hell!”

Matt then took the gun with the silencer and placed it on the floor near my hand, just barely within reach.

“Smith is your cover story,” he said pointedly, leaning over me. “I don’t care what you tell Darren. He has plenty of enemies, pick one. But remember what I told you. Third day at noon. Don’t fuck it up.”

I damn near hissed at him. “I’ll see you there, asshole.”

A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as he stood. “For your sake, I hope not.”

And with that, he and his men walked out of my sight, leaving me alone with the mutilated bodies of my former bodyguards. My hip was aching from the pressure of my own body weight on my side, the dull throb growing into something sharp and unbearable.

Rocking back and forth in the chair as best I could, I managed to shift my weight back far enough so that the chair fell over until I was lying on my back.

I stared up at the ceiling, the smell of blood and death lingering in the air while my skin burned from the pull of the rope on my arms. My mind raced with anxiety as I contemplated everything that had just happened, everything I’d just learned. But I didn’t have time to process it all. Instead, I needed to take that information and do what I always did best.

Fucking plot.

35

Shadows