Page 13 of Sloth

“You’reso grumpy.” I patted his chest and left the closet space. “You know, we couldjust wait for them to come here. I have enough that could hold them off.”

“Yeah,until a new wave hits.” Arlo went into the closet, grabbed what he needed andre-joined me.

“So,what are we doing to do? Fight them off just the two of us?” I was good buteven I knew that we didn’t stand a chance. Especially with Dante’s people. Thefucker deserved what he got but by me killing him, it sent a ripple through hisfamily, and I was going to pay for it.

“Imade a call.” Arlo checked his phone. “Help is on the way.”

Great.That meant that once everything was done, I was going to get lectured by peopleclosest to my father.

BeforeI could dwell on that any longer, another explosion sounded. It jarred throughme, pulled a string of curse words from Arlo, and forced him to the door.

“Thatwas closer.” His phone dinged. “They’re here.”

Withboth of us packing heat, we headed back into my closet. No one knew of all thenooks and crannies that my father had built into this house. His father beforehim had set up a whole bunch of secret passages. Only my father, Arlo, and I knewof these spots in this house.

Placingmy hands against the wall, I pushed until a lock clicked free. Arlo helped memove the slab of wood out of the way so we could slip through and enter thepassageway. I had used this space often throughout my life. It was one of theways I was able to slip free without my dad’s bodyguards catching me.

Thesecret hallway was something out of a horror movie. The house was old, and mydad left it that way. It was his way of remembering his father, his greatgrandfather and the rest of the men before him who had owned this place. It hadbeen in our family for generations, and it was one of the reasons why I neverwanted to leave.

Arlodidn’t understand that, even though he said he did. He had insisted I move inwith him for the past few years. While I did have a lot of my stuff at hisplace and technically, I could come and go as I pleased, I didn’t consider hisplace my own.

“Ihaven’t been in this hallway in quite a long time,” Arlo said from behind me.

“Icome here often and will grab a book and read.” I liked the smell of thedampness in the air. The walls were made of brick. There were cobwebs in thecorners and there were mice and rats every now and again in the shadows. Icould have paid to have them cleaned but I enjoyed the atmosphere. It wasalmost like it was gothic in a way.

Thecloser we got to the end of the hallway, the louder the footsteps sounded onthe other side of the walls. I could hear the men who set off the explosions. Itmade my blood burn through me knowing that these men were going to die. Peoplehad asked my dad often if he wished he had a son. He told them he didn’t needone when he had me. Sure, I was a female and I had the parts of a female but Iwas savage. I had no issues killing someone. No regrets when it came to someonewho deserved it. The men I had killed over the years put Arlo’s number to shame.He just didn’t know it or if he did, he never said anything. It wasn’t that Iliked killing. I just did it for the victims who couldn’t.

Whenwe reached the end of the hallway, I placed my hands against the wall andgently pushed. Slipping the slab of wood to the left, it opened a few inches,and I could see out into the hallway. It led to the alcove that was at thefront of the house.

Deepvoices sounded.

Theywere muffled but I could partially make out what they were saying. From what Icould tell, it was two men, maybe three.

“Dantewould want us to make her suffer.”

“Howdo we know that it was Ginny?”

“Becausewe do.”

“No,you’re assuming.”

“Ijust follow orders.”

“Yeah,so do I. We can’t assume that it was her who did this. Dante had a lot ofenemies.”

“Youknow it was her. Jack said so.”

“Jackis unstable, and he was also paid off.”

“Exactly.We can’t trust him.”

“Hesaw her.”

“Hewas also high, so he could have seen anything.”

“Wecan’t take any chances. She should have died years ago anyway.”

“Youknow we couldn’t have done that. Dante wanted her.”

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