Page 47 of Veiled Vengeance

I step out into the hallway and nod to each of the bedrooms. “I’m going to grab the girls in each room. If anyone comes up the stairs, you shoot.”

“Got it,” Dahlia confirms.

Kicking in the first door, I find the woman from earlier lying in a pool of her own blood. Her eyes are open but lifeless.

Fuck!

I find the same scene in the remaining two bedrooms.

Now I wish I would have taken my time with them. I wish I would have made it hurt more. But this moment isn’t for “should have” and “could have;” I have four lives depending on me to get them out of here.

“Stay close!”

I take a few steps down the staircase and peek down to assess the situation. Asher and Spencer are having a shoot-out with two men at the back of the house, in the kitchen, and Zane and Hayes are just outside the front door in a standoff with a few men hiding behind furniture in the living room.

Drawing the fire of the men in the living room, I aim my gun at them and fire off three shots. Two of them pop up from the backside of the couch to shoot at me, but Zane and Hayes get each of them before the men can get a shot off at me. The last man stands from behind an armchair. He raises his handsin retreat, but I don’t give a fuck. I empty my Glock into thependejo.

If he wanted mercy, he chose the wrong business to be in.

Zane and Hayes advance forward and around the backside of the kitchen, shooting the remaining two in the back.

“Clear!” Asher announces.

“Clear!” Zane replies.

I shout out the final response. “Clear!”

We finish our descent down the stairs, shielding the dead bodies from the kids’ view, and find Asher, Spencer, Hayes, and Zane in the kitchen.

“We need to move n—” Zane chokes on his words as he spies the two bonus children.

“Guys, this is Noah and Margaret.” I give my friends big eyes, indicating they need to tread lightly.

Spencer is the first to step up. “Hi, Margaret and Noah. My name is Spencer. What do you say we get out of here and get some ice cream?”

Margaret jumps up and down. “Oh yes! Please, please, please!”

Zane’s face turns soft as he kneels in front of Margaret. “Anything you want, Sweetheart.”

CHAPTER 19

SPENCER

We’re even more cramped than we were before, but none of us mind.

Margaret sits in Zane’s lap and talks his ear off. He shows her games on his computers and teaches her how to play Snake and Minesweeper. Noah sits with Hayes but hovers over Margaret. August refuses to leave Dahlia and requests that they sit near his friends.

I wish my brain would focus on the good. I wish I could just be happy that these kids are safe now, but my mind wanders.

What happened to them in that house?

What did Anthony do to them?

How often were they allowed to see their moms?

Rio’s hand reaches from the front seat and lands on my knee. “Hey. Don’t stew on it, Mama. We got them out of there. They’re safe now. That’s all that matters.”

Fuck these men and their ability to always read my mind.

---