Page 3 of Lies Beneath Secrets

“I haven’t seen your face,” she explains. “I wear glasses. I can’t see anything without them.” She tries to reason with him. King lets out a huff.

“Oh yeah?” He glances around the small apartment, eyes landing on the kitchen table where a pair of glasses sit. He gestures with the gun for me to grab them. I know damn well this won’t be over until he has his fun, so I oblige and grab the glasses. When I hand them over, he lets her hair go and slowly slides them onto her face. “Open them now, sweetheart. I want you to see the man who’s going to kill you.” He mocks and fuck, I’m done with his bullshit. He shoves her when she doesn’t do as he says. She stumbles back a little, then shakes her head. Again, he yells, and that’s all it takes for me.

Without even thinking, I step forward and hit the girl over the head hard enough for her to go down in a thud. Her face hits the floor, and those glasses that King put on her face split in half, one of the pieces flying off to the side from the impact. Shit, she’ll be hurting tomorrow. I look up at King, who scowls at me.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m not letting you kill her,” I snap and look down at her. “She’s a fucking kid.” I put my gun to my side, but I don’t put it away just yet, unsure if I’ll need it to defend myself from him. Something in me senses a shift in the air that doesn’t sit right. The way he grabbed her still makes me want to pull the trigger on him.

“Fucking softy,” King finally replies and puts his gun away. “Help me with his damn body.” He points over to a body on the tiled kitchen floor I hadn’t noticed. Too busy focused on the girl.

Gabe.

“I caught up with him. Found him hiding in here.” King bends down and picks something up from the floor. “He took this from Len.” He holds up a gun, then tucks it into his jeans. “Fucker tried to shoot me. But I was quicker.”

I don’t question King at all, but I do chance a questioning glance over at Knox. His expression is blank and unreadable. I go along with King and help pick up Gabe.

“I got the clean up,” Knox says as we carry Gabe out of the apartment.

There’s already a truck in the parking lot we put Gabe in. When I close the tailgate, King comes to my side. “You better fucking hope that girl doesn’t talk, or I’ll slit your throat, right after I make you watch her die.” I don’t respond to his threat. Instead, I walk away from him, toward where Knox and I left the truck. Knox won’t be too long with the cleanup, and I need to get the hell away from King.

CHAPTERTWO

Knox

Cleaning up after King should be something I’m used to. Asshole leaves a mess everywhere he goes. Tonight isn’t anything different. While he and Con carry Gabe’s lifeless body out of the apartment, I get to work. The woman Con hit over the head is out cold. I lift her up as gently as I can and bring her into her bedroom. Then I take out my little black box I keep my cigars in, popping open the inside compartment to reveal the syringe. A person would be surprised how many times it’s necessary to have along a sedative on jobs. Brushing her soft hair aside, I carefully inject the mild sedative. This should buy us a couple of hours to get everything done.

She’ll wake up tomorrow and think it was all just a bad dream.

Hopefully.

I get to work on the blood in the kitchen when something on the fridge catches my eye. A picture. Three women are smiling at the camera, one of them is the girl passed out in her room. The other two I guess are her sisters. Pulling it from the fridge, I’m surprised to see it’s not on with a magnet. Instead, a corner of it is tucked underneath the edge of the fridge handle. I take the picture in my hand and examine the women closer. They’re all smiling, but the girl on the end, her smile seems forced. I stare at it for a moment too long before flipping it over. Some numbers are scribbled on the back. My brows knit together, wondering what the meaning of those could be.

“Ready?” Pace is at the door. No doubt there to help clean up. Not knowing why, I pocket the picture.

“Yeah, let’s get this shit done and the hell out of here.”

CHAPTERTHREE

Con

“You pulling the shit you did last night damn near got you killed,” Knox says as we step out of the truck. Last night when I got back to the apartment, he was already outside with a black garbage bag, ready to leave.

“Maybe.” I shrug. “Fucker is completely insane.”

“Because he wanted to get rid of a witness?” Knox scoffs. “I’ve never known you to not handle business. But I get it.” He takes something out of his back pocket and hands it to me. It’s a picture of three women. All nearly identical. They’re all smiling as they stand in front of a large, gray rock, arms intertwined. My gaze lands on the woman wearing glasses. Her dark hair in the picture is much shorter than it was last night, but that’s her. I thought she was a child last night, she seemed so small, but looking at her in this photo, I realize she’s just short. Really short. The other women in the picture stand at least six inches or more taller than her. The smile on her face is bright, and I find myself wanting to rip them glasses off her face, so I can get a look at her eyes. They’re hidden by a slight glare in this picture. Knox snatches the photo out of my grip and tucks it back into his pocket. “I would have told King to fuck off too.”

“Maybe I’m just getting soft in my old age,” I laugh, knowing full well it will get him off the topic of why I didn’t want to let King kill some girl in cold blood.

“That’s fucking true. Which is why we’re here.” He pulls open the door to the small store.

“Still think this is a waste of time and money. This still works just fine.” I pull my phone from my jeans and flip it open, getting a laugh from Knox.

“When was the last time you were able to answer a call on that fucking thing?” He takes it from my hand and drops it onto the counter where a tall, blond woman meets us with a smile.

“I haven’t seen one of these in years.” She laughs and takes it from the countertop.

“I want everything from that phone onto something with a screen. One not too complicated, soGrampshere can still use it.” I shoot Knox a glare, then look over to the woman.

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