Page 5 of Slay Tricksters and Silent Skeletons
I was just turning the Jeep on when Niran appeared in front of it. Sighing, I rolled the window down, then angled out of the driver’s seat, and shut the door. Leaning my shoulder against thedoor, I crossed my arms over my chest and arched a brow at him. “What?” I drawled.
“Is that any way to speak to your superior?” he asked, his voice empty. I fucking hated it.
I scoffed. “Right. The superior who’s been avoiding me like I’m the fucking plague.” Rolling my eyes, I shifted, crossing my feet at the ankles. “What do you want, Niran?”
“Rico brought it to my attention that you’ll be taking Anurak out today. Do you need extra hands?”
“Oh, so now I’m not good at my fucking job?” I demanded, getting angry and feeling defensive as fuck. “What the fuck, Niran? When have I ever needed assistance when protecting Anurak? He’s never been unsafe with me.” I turned and yanked the door back open, sliding into the driver’s seat. “Go fuck yourself.”
He grunted, but instead of apologizing, he just turned and walked into the house, giving a quiet greeting to Anurak as he passed him. I clenched my jaw and flexed my fingers, willing my rage away. Rico would have my head if I frightened his boy just because I was pissed off with Niran.
Did Niran think me getting punched in the face was suddenly a sign I couldn’t take care of Anurak? Was he going to go to Rico and demand Anurak be given another soldier to protect him? Was I about to lose my fucking job?
If Niran stabbed me in the back like that, I was going to fuckingruinhim. I didn’t care how obsessed I was with the man. If he took away the one thing that gave me stability, I was going todestroyhim.
“Everything okay?” Anurak asked as he slid into the passenger seat.
I rolled my window up and hit the button to lift the garage door. “Everything is fine,” I lied. Everythingwasn’tfine, but my number one rule was to never let my foul moods touch the sweet boy I’d been entrusted to protect. “Let’s go blow some of your Papi’s money,” I teased, calling Rico by the name Anurak had given him.
Anurak laughed, but a blush stained his cheeks red anyway.
4
Niran
Iglanced at my watch, frowning when I realized it’d been several hours since Bento and Anurak left the house. With Anurak’s social anxiety, they would have been back way before now—birthday shopping or not. And a glance at my phone told me Bento hadn’t checked in with me since ten A.M., when he’d assured me everything was fine and they would head back home once Anurak was done shopping.
Quickly, I switched over from the paperwork I’d been drowning in and worked on pinging Bento’s phone and the SUV, since I had trackers on both. Both trackers were pinging at a shopping center, and both were showing at the exact same location. It wouldn’t have been all that weird except for the fact that Bento’s phone had been sitting in the same place for a good few minutes now, according to the tracker.
Surely, they hadn’t shopped so much that Bento was still loading bags into the vehicle, had they? That wasn’t usual for Anurak. The boy usually only spent what was necessary and not a pennymore. While Rico wouldn’t care if Anurak completely wiped out his bank account, Anurak just wasn’t that kind of boy.
Just as I picked up my phone to call Bento and do a check-in, my door opened. I looked up, ready to reprimand whoever had barged in without knocking, but the words died on my tongue when I saw it was Rico filling the doorway. His jaw was clenched, and he was white knuckling his phone.
Something was fuckingwrong.
“Have you heard from Bento?” he demanded.
“No,” I told him. “I just pinged his location and was just about to call him, actually. Have you heard something?”
Rico shook his head and shoved his fingers through his hair, looking stressed and worn out. “No. And Anurak isn’t answering his fucking phone. Location is showing he’s moving quickly through a shopping plaza. Where is Bento’s phone pinging?”
I glanced back at the screen, my jaw tightening when I saw Bento’s phone was still pinging with the SUV.
“At the car,” I snarled, pushing back from my chair. If he let Anurak get away from him, I was going to rip him a new fucking asshole. I might be obsessed with the man, but he had a job to do and precious cargo to protect atall fucking times. And we were all fucking dead if something happened to Rico’s boy. Rico would line all of us up and put bullets in each of our skulls like he was playing fucking target practice if he lost Anurak.
“Something is fucking wrong,” Rico snarled, reading my mind. “Round up some men. I’m getting Alfonzo, and we’re going to get my fucking boy.” He pointed a finger at me. “If Bento allowedhim and Anurak to get separated, he’s fucking dead, Niran, you hear me?”
I wasn’t sure I could let Rico kill Bento—not with the way I was attached to the man. But nonetheless, I nodded once, giving the illusion I’d allow it to happen. “Understood, sir.”
Rico spun on his heel, leaving my office and pulling his phone up to his ear. I rounded my desk and went in search of two of our soldiers. They were training, and after quick orders to get dressed and meet me in the garage in literally two fucking minutes, they were on the move and obeying my commands.
Rico climbed into the driver’s seat of his Audi R8, and Alfonzo dropped into the passenger seat. Just as my two men appeared, Rico backed out of the garage. I hurriedly climbed into my SUV, and as soon as the other two were inside, I backed out and quickly followed Rico while trying to call Bento.
He didn’t answer any of the phone calls I made on the way there, and I madea lotof them.
As soon as we got to where the SUV was parked, my jaw tightened. Hurriedly, I climbed out of my SUV, even before Rico climbed out of his car. As soon as Rico’s boots hit the ground, his phone rang. Quickly, he answered it, putting his phone on speaker, no doubt so we could hear the call.
“Perrito, where are you?” Rico barked.
