Page 164 of Piece Us Together

“Heading to room two.”

I hear Keats ask, “Ash, still good in there?” as I sneak out of room one and draw my gun.

Ash sighs. “Give me a minute.”

I’m not entirely sure I want to know what he’s up to, as long as he’s safe.

“Breaching room two,” I whisper, my hand on the door.

I take a breath, then turn the knob and slip inside. The man has his back to me, but he picks up on my presence immediately. He turns with a, “What?”

I smash the butt of my gun against his nose.

He cries out. I flinch, knowing a man’s cry might be more suspicious here. Then again, they’ve got male victims here too, so maybe not.

It doesn’t matter. There’s no time to care.

I lunge forward, getting a hand around his throat, my gun against his temple as I force him to stumble back until he’s pressed to the wall. He struggles, kicking out and hitting me in the shin. I growl in frustration, squeezing his throat until I hear something crack. Anything he tries to say comes out as a wet wheeze. His hands scrabble at my wrist, trying to pry me off. The idiot doesn’t even try reaching for the hand with the gun, even when I start moving it toward his core.

The vic starts sobbing just after I pull the trigger, the silencer keeping the kill quiet as the life blinks out of the man’s eyes. One second he’s there, a fucking monster, a rapist. The next, he has a bullet in his heart.

“Room two clear.” I quietly guide his body to the floor and turn to the woman. I put my hand up as she quickly backs away from me, moving until the chain on her ankle is yanking in a way that must be painful.

I try to talk her through it. To tell her she’s safe and I’m not here to hurt her. I ask her if she wants to go home, but that just makes things worse.

I end up having to leave her sobbing furiously on her bed, not having the time to waste.

“—rough ride,” Travis says conversationally, but his tight voice gives away his anxiety, even if the use of the code word didn’t.

Fuck.

“Heading to room three,” I say right after. I can’t help but dart my eyes toward the door where Ash is still working on his first victim. Worry gnaws at me, but I know he’d kick my ass if he knew I was letting myself get distracted. We all have jobs to do. Until he says otherwise over the comms, he’s got it handled.

The third room is when shit really hits the fan.

It’s a guy this time. He’s bound to the wall instead of the bed, his back raw, lines seeping pink-tinged fluid. The man hurting him whips around. A cane is in his hand. He lurches, but not toward me.

His hand slams down on a device built into the top of the side table.

“Alarm!” I shout in warning, no longer needing to be quiet anyway.

He tries fighting me. I yank the cane out of his hand, snap it in half, and shove both ends into his gut. He doubles over with a choked, sobbing sound.

Wanting to preserve my bullets, I kick the bastard in the stomach, right between cane pieces, and follow him to the ground. He doesn’t have time to orient himself before I’ve pulled out my knife and jammed it into his throat. With a harsh yank to the left, the skin opens with a slick, sucking sound, blood spurting out to cover me in enough liquid to have me blending in on any 80s horror movie set.

I grab a fistful of the dead man’s shirt and yank until the cheap cotton tears. I use it to wipe my eyes clear before pushing to my feet. I turn to face the victim already trying to escape his chains. He freezes when I step toward him, his blue eyes wide, his dark hair messy. My heart tugs. Carter.

Except it’s not Carter. Of course it’s not.

It’s Aaron.

“I’ve got target one,” I announce, eyeing the cuffs around the young man’s wrists. I ignore anything the guys say in return,giving Aaron my focus. I put my hands up to show I’m not a threat, keeping my voice gentle. “My name is Maison. We’re here to help. Do you have any major injuries? Anything emergent?”

“Who are you?” he asks instead of answering. He’s sucking in heaving, wet breaths. His body is trembling hard enough to make his chains rattle. “Who are you?”

A monster.

A bad guy.

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