Page 4 of Silver Tears

We enter the house through the glass bi-fold doors and head inside. We’d studied the house layout and pinpointed the target's bedroom on the first floor, second door on the left. It didn’t sit right with me that there are kids in the house. We all agreed that we needed to do this as quietly as possible so as not to wake his poor children and scare them fucking senseless.

Archer beckons me forward and I move to the right of the bedroom door. I quietly grip the handle and turn it. We enter the bedroom, and I can make out two sleeping figures in the large king size bed. Poor fucker is about to shit his pants. Archer takes the right side; I take the left of the bed. I pull out the handgun and Arch nods at me. Simultaneously, we point our guns to our targets’ heads and we both cover their mouths to stop them making any noise. His wife’s eye jolt wide awake. My gloved hand muffles her scream.

“Quiet,” Archer warns. “You’re going to get out of bed and come down to the garage with us without making a sound. We have disabled all panic alarms and cameras, so nobody can come to your rescue. Understand?”

Our target nods his head and sitting up in bed gestures with his eyes for his wife to do as we say. Rafe holds the door open and waits for us all to pass before he closes it and follows us down to the basement garage.

“Tie her up,” Arch orders me, and with Rafe’s help, we are able to secure her hands on the small fold up chair behind her. The woman trembles and whimpers in fear. Once she is secure, I cover her mouth with duct tape. We move in on our target so that Arch can do his thing. We’re all sadistic fuckers, but Arch is the darkest of us all. Rafe and I both grew up in a stable home. Archer has experienced loss and tragedy, and he was brought up by Phil, who’s a cold fucker.

Archer grips the target's chin, forcing the guy to look at him. We’re all wearing balaclavas, but he knows full well who we are. “You’ve been disobeying orders, Mr Travis.”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” he replies, his chest heaving as he tries to steady his nerves.

Archer presses the gun deeper into his forehead and his wife whimpers in fear from behind us. “Now let’s not tell lies. You’ve been doing business with the Silvers. You know how the society feels about the Silvers. They're not part of our world. Doing business with them goes against the society you swore to serve.”

The target swallows nervously. “The society bleeds me dry. I need to earn a living.”

He has a point. He’s indebted to the society and as a result he has to make monthly payments in order for us to keep quiet about his secrets.

“Disobey the elders again and expect worse than tonight. Next time, it will be a bullet through that thick skull of yours, Mr Travis. Am I clear?” Archer growls.

The target nods, his shoulders slumping with relief.

“Now, I’ve been ordered to make sure you hurt when you wake tomorrow.” When you look in the mirror at your bruised face, you’ll remember how you brought this on yourself.” Archer clenches his fist as we force Travis to his knees. He delivers the first blow to the target’s jaw and blood spatters across the space. Archer’s fist is lethal. He's the person you want on your side in a fight; if he's your opponent, you're as good as dead.

Once Archer’s given him a good beating, we escort our battered target and his distraught wife back up the stairs to their bedroom. We force them back into bed and warn them to stay put for the next five minutes or we’ll be back to blow his wife brains out. That’s a lie, though. We’d never hurt his wife, but we let the fucker think we would.

* * *

Ten minutes later, we’re back at Rafe’s house to drop off his car before heading to the beach. Rafe has turned the security cameras back on at the target’s house. We can see the live footage of him holding his wife in his arms in their bed as she breaks down. The woman will probably have nightmares for a while.

My phone lights up, and I swear under my breath when I see its Tam.

“Again?” Rafe asks me, and I nod my head.

“I don’t know how I’m going to shake her. She’s persistent.”

“There’s one way to get her off your case,” Archer suggests. “You're unavailable if you have a girlfriend. Whilst you’re free and single, she’ll always have hope that she can catch you.”

I wince. A girlfriend.

“He’s got a point,” Rafe chips in from his seat in the rear of the car. “You need a steady girlfriend.”

“Fuck, man,” I exclaim. “One night of fun and look where it’s got me?” I grimace at the thought of having to stick to one girl.

“You never know, you might enjoy having a girl to call yours. Sex on tap whenever you want it. A warm body wrapped around you when you wake up each morning,” Rafe says. I don’t like the wistful smile that appears on his face when he’s talking. The fucker better not be thinking about my sister right now. As much as I’ve accepted that they're shagging, it doesn’t mean I want to know details.

We arrive at the beach and park up. I spot Little Red’s scarlet hair in amongst the crowd of revellers. Scanning the beach, I look for Tam. I need to avoid wherever she is. I catch sight of a cute girl with pink shoulder length hair, and I grin. Whoever the new girl is, she’s on my radar for tonight. The little sex-kitten lifts her face, and her eyes meet mine. My jaw falls open. Milly Silver! I didn’t recognise her with pink hair. Hells. She was sexy before, but with that hair she’s fucking perfect. My dick twitches in my pants. Yeah, we like the new hair colour. I smirk as she delivers me a frosty glare and turns and walks away as we get nearer. I’m not used to girls rejecting me, but this little minx has given me the cold shoulder from the word go. Her loss. There are plenty more options on offer tonight.

“Queens,” I say, placing an arm over the shoulders of my sister and Eliza. “Missed us?”

“We missed Archer and Rafe. You, not so much,” my twin says with an evil grin.

I pout and feign hurt, clutching at my chest. “I’m wounded, little sis.” She makes out I drive her mad, but deep down she loves me.

“We’re twins, remember,” she replies, glowering at me.

I wag my finger in the air. “I was born first, though, so you are my little sis.” She scowls deeper at me. I love reminding her of the fact that I came into this world first. I spot Milly and her brother, Silver, standing with a small group over by the beer kegs. “What’s she doing here?”

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