Page 66 of The Player
“I’m not okay with it,” Adam barked. “You need to tell us what’s going on, now. Shit needs dealing with, and we don’t ignore shit like that,” he said, nodding at my ear.
Adam didn’t wait for me to respond, he just stomped away, walking over to the bar to pick up his mobile phone, then he charged back over to where I stood.
“I’m really not fucking happy about this,” he seethed. “Something’s happened and we work as team. You know that. Hurt one, hurt all.” He glared at me. “But I’ll give you a day to think about it. One day. And tomorrow, we go hunting.”
“We can hunt today, if you’ll trust me to take you somewhere, no questions asked.” I shrugged.
“That goes without saying,” Adam replied, his jaw ticking and his glare proving that he was firm in his offer to help me.
“Hear, hear,” Colton added with a smirk. “I’ll go and start the car.” But Adam grabbed his arm to stop him.
“We’ve got your back,” Adam said. “We’ll always stand by your side, no matter what. We’d start a war if you asked us to, there’s no question about that. But right now”—he started to tap on his phone—“someone needs to come and stitch that up properly before you get fucking tetanus or gangrene or something.” He glanced at my ear, then carried on typing. “Once its stitched and you’ve been checked over, we’re out of here.”
Adam was the guy who’d take a bullet for any one of us. He’d probably whine about our poor driving skills when we took him to the hospital afterwards, but he’d take that bullet, no question.
“It’s done,” he announced sharply, pocketing his phone. “The doc will be here in an hour.”
We had a few discreet people on our payroll that we used for medical emergencies. I didn’t feel like I needed it, but I nodded in agreement.
“Glad that’s sorted,” Colton replied. “And when we find out who hurt you, we’ll give those fuckers exactly what they deserve… the deaf penalty.”
And just like that, he was back to being the twisted joker that didn’t give a fuck what he said.
“Or we could just play it by ear.” He shrugged. “I would make a joke about Bryony chewing your ear off, but even I know where to draw the line.” Colton smirked, and I couldn’t help but smile too.
“I can’t wait to hear about where you’ve been,” Colton said. “And who we’re killing. When you’re ready to spill it, I’m all ears.”
“Will you just fucking stop,” Adam snapped as Tyler burst into the room, shouting, “Hey! You all need to come and see this. Now. This is some fucking twisted shit.”
There was nothing like the announcement of twisted shit to get our attention and make us follow to see what he was on about. We knew it’d be worth our time.
Adam shooed Tyson away, and he trotted over to the bar, where Jake was refilling the fridges, and lay down on the cool tiles to watch him. We all followed Tyler through the door to the narrow hallway that led to the chapel.
Seconds later, when we got to the chapel, we saw Devon standing across the room at the open doorway to the side of the building. The doorway that led to the car park where I’d been jumped weeks ago. He was staring at a black backpack on the floor by his feet, and when he heard us approaching, he said, “This is fucked up and fucking intriguing, I can’t lie. I kind of love it and hate it at the same time.” He didn’t take his eyes off the backpack the whole time he spoke.
Whatever was in there, it’d captured his full attention.
“Someone left that backpack on the step for us,” Tyler chipped in. “No note. Nothing. Just that.” He nodded to the bag in question, then turned to me, “Nice to see you bothered to join us again. You owe me about twenty shifts.”
“Speak louder, he can’t hear you,” Colton muttered as he pushed past us to get to the backpack and see whatever it was that had Devon so enthralled. He peered in, then drew his face back, grimacing, “Fuck me. As gifts go, that one’s really shitty.”
“What the fuck is it?” Adam asked as we headed over.
I stopped when the backpack was at my feet, and as I glanced down, I felt a shot of adrenaline rush through my veins, sickness and fury swirling inside when I saw what was in there.
A pile of bloody, severed hands.
“Fucking hell.” Adam stepped back; we all did. “Have you checked the CCTV?” He turned to stare at Tyler.
Tyler started to tap on his phone, scouring our CCTV, then he turned it around to show Adam what had been caught on there.
“Dark clothing,” he said as we watched a dark figure walk up to our back door, drop the backpack on the step and walk away. “Hood pulled up. Nothing that stands out. Except this.” Tyler clicked to freeze the video showing an angle taken from the other side of the car park. And there, staring back at me from under the hood, was a skull mask.
Cold shivers ran down my spine.
I knew exactly who it was that’d left the hands. I also had a pretty good idea whose hands they’d be.
“I think they were left for me,” I announced, and they all turned to stare at me, waiting for me to elaborate.
