by Keta Kendric
The identity I didn’t want them to find was the real me and my association with the August Knights. I’d quickly grown to trust D as much as Aaron had, and he was the only one I wanted handling the task of hiding my true identity: Tyler Ansel Knox.
I took the older man’s hand as the sack of shit, Sorio, eyeballed me, sizing me up before letting his gaze travel around my house. Fernando and Alonso were the two who I’d dealt with previously, so they were the most relaxed. I was smiling and shaking asshole’s hand, but I was also taking in our four targets. Were their lives so important, that although armed, they still felt the need for extra protection?
I waved my hand towards my study where I’d removed the mock model of my house. Only a table of weapons remained for them to view.
As I led them towards my study, two guards moved into position, first and last, placing the four DG6 members between them. Once inside the room, the guards again took up positions at the windows and exits. Fernando, Alonso, Tomas, and Sorio approached the table and started to inspect the weapons. Their tension seemed to ease when the cold steel of the weapons was gripped in their eager hands.
“I’ll deliver the shipment myself as a show of not only my gratitude for your business but also as assurance that I’ll do what is necessary to earn your trust.”
Tomas and Fernando nodded. Sorio studied the gun in his hand with an unreadable expression on his face.
Alonso was the first to speak. “Thank you for seeing us. We weren’t sure you were going to be able to accommodate a request a day early for such a large order.”
“I’m a businessman. My goal is to provide what my client wants, whenever they want it.”
Fernando took a step closer and handed me a briefcase. “As soon as we receive the shipment and our people inspect it, the other eighty percent will be transferred.”
Easing a smile onto my face, I inclined my head when Fernando stepped back to the table. They’d handed me a million in cash like it was nothing. All I needed now was them standing in place at the table. The area surrounding the table was a key location, a kill zone, our snipers needed that would allow them to light those bastards up.
“Hey, don’t I know you?” one of the guards standing at the entrance said, pointing at me. His words drew Sorio and Alonso away from the weapons to focus on me. I ignored the man’s question, but he continued to scrutinize me. Attempting to release the knot of tension that had gathered in my neck, I tilted my head to the side. Stop looking at me, motherfucker.
The guard lifted a crooked finger and pointed it at me again, before reaching down and drawing his weapon. I kept my cool, but shit was flowing downhill fast, all because asshole face thought he recognized me. Tension saturated the room. Every man’s chest bobbed as gazes locked on me and more weapons emerged and pointed in my direction.
“You were in the woods in Texas. You were one of the people who attacked us when you came to rescue your buddy.”
Of all the motherfuckers that Sorio had chosen for his detail, he’d pick the one man who’d remembered me from a dimly-lit stretch of woods. My fucking cover was blown, and I had eight guns pointed at my head.
My gaze darted around at the mean faces glaring at me, studying their body language. The fact that I made no attempt to correct the guard made them even angrier. I scanned the room, weighing my options. My ass was toast unless I knew how to stop eight guns from making my head look like a big glob of overcooked oatmeal.
I viewed things in slow motion, my eyes catching every nuance of their body language. My breathing had slowed, but my heart was pumping like the pistons in a revved-up Bugatti. The moment Sorio’s finger slid around his trigger, I yelled my ass off. “I’ve been made! Phase two! Phase two!” The last sound to cross my ears was a series of loud pops before my body dropped.
Chapter Twelve
Aaron
The vision of one of the DG6 guards at the window taking a direct hit to the head before his body disappeared from my view was a welcomed sight.
The DG6 guards outside sprang into action, gathering near the Hummers. One made a foolish attempt to climb into one of the Hummers, but one of our snipers painted the side of the black SUV with splatters of chunky dark red dots.
Two attempted to re-enter the house. When they couldn’t get in the traditional way, they started shooting the door and discovered that they weren’t going to shoot their way through the bulletproof glass.
It didn’t take long for our snipers to light their asses up. One’s brains went flying into the door he’d tried to get into. His body fell and tumbled sideways over the side of the steps in a dramatic fashion. The other dove for cover behind the thick bushes that lined the house.
After I climbed out of my foxhole, I dove right back in when a barrage of bullets pelted the ground and pinged against the camouflaged metal of the door. If those assholes thought they were keeping me in this damn hole, they were sadly mistaken.
Bending at the knees, I slung my rifle across my back before I snapped the cover off the large pipe that would take me into the crawl space under Ansel’s house.
The suffocating tightness inside the pitch-black pipe caused me to struggle for every breath as the weapon on my back clinked, hitting the top of the thick metal. The burning ache in my kneecaps and elbows as they dug into the dirty underbelly of the metal shot waves of pain straight to my brain.
Although I knew it was seconds, the closed-in confines had me thinking it was hours that I’d been crawling. The dark, suffocating tightness had my lungs burning as every breath echoed around me and moved over my exhausted body like shivering fingers. I seriously doubted I was breathing air. It was more like a mixture of dust and carbon dioxide.
The darkness was so thick that I didn’t know I’d made it to the end of the pipe until my head thumped into the rounded metal door. My anxious fingers reached through the darkness as my nails scraped metal, searching for the latch.
Finally, my fingers locked around the latch and sprang it free. Fresh air flooded my lungs and almost immediately renewed my strength. Each of our foxholes contained pipes that led to a different location under Ansel’s house. Although confined, I was able to stand in the tight space leading to a secret entrance into the house. I punched in a combination that would open another small door into Ansel’s study, the area where the bullets had started flying first.
I waited, listening for signs of movement before opening the door. Had Ansel been able to avoid the barrage of bullets that had been sprayed? I inched the door open, knowing it would lead to the inside of the small closet in Ansel’s study.
My head turned robotically at the sound of muffled gunshots. I pushed through the opening, being careful to remain quiet. The sound of the repeated clapping of weapons met me as soon as I stood. Bullet holes were what filled my view after I tipped over to the closet door and inched it open.
Where was Ansel and where the hell was the four? The condition of the study would have you believe the Taliban had been invited to this party. The bodies of the two DG6 guards who’d been posted at the window lay crumpled in bloody heaps. There was no sign of Ansel. Had he survived this shit? Maybe they had taken him as a hostage.
A quick glance from the cracked window showed two more dead DG6 guards stretched out on the lawn. The front gate was closed, and all the Hummers were in the same place. My main goal now was to find my cousin and kill any asshole I came across.
Following the sound of gunfire, I peeked into the wide open space of the living room. Two guards shot from the window, as Tomas stood there waiting for them to fight his battle. They were going to try to get Tomas to one of those armored vehicles. If they succeeded, it would be hell to get him out of one of those Hummers unless we had a tank.
Like a bat out of hell, I sprinted into the line of fire and fired off a shot that sent Tomas’ brains splattering against the wall behind him. Using the momentum I’d built, I tucked my body, dived, and rolled behind Ansel’s thick leather couch. Bullets pelted the c
ouch from two directions, sending chucks of wood, pieces of leather, and fibers raining over me. The angry shouts of the men blended with the unapologetic blast from their weapons. The couch would only protect me so long before I was forced to create an exit strategy.
Chapter Thirteen
Ansel
I was thankful that Aaron had strategically placed Galvin, Finn, and my grumpy-ass uncle out in the hills that partially surrounded my house. They were three of the best snipers we had on our team. They were in locations that sat at a distance and high enough on the hills that it allowed them to fire into the study as well as various other parts of the house and grounds.
Someone out there had put a bullet in Sorio, who’d been aiming for my fucking head. He hadn’t waited to hear me attempt to explain what was going on after the guard recognized me. The bullet had struck Sorio in the shoulder, sending his gun in one direction and his body in the other. Right before Sorio released the first shot, I yelled for backup, hit the small clicker I’d sewn into the inside of my shirt and braced myself for the short free-fall into the bed below in my playroom.
The assholes up there were probably wondering where I’d gone. The muffled sound of gunfire caused me to scramble to get back into the fight. I reached blindly under the bed and pulled out an AR-15. I slapped in a magazine and grabbed two extras. Before I exited the room, my gaze swept over the shelves of sex toys that hid the door to the safe room where we’d stashed Megan and Regina.
I prayed that Megan would keep her little ass put. She had a way of stumbling into the craziest types of situations, and this one was certified the craziest as we were engaged in an active war with known cartel members.
Easing from the room, I shut the door quietly behind me and tiptoed up the stairs that would lead into my kitchen. Gunfire erupted, splintering the wood of the door as it slipped from my hand and creaked noisily open. I tucked my body behind the doorframe, listening for a chance to engage. The heavy thump of footsteps softened, the person retreating into their hiding place.
Motherfucker better hide. I ran from the doorway, dashed over the short expanse, and dived between the area of the stove and sink in my kitchen. The momentum of my movement was still in play, but it didn’t stop me from preparing my weapon to shoot. My gaze locked on a flash of black scampering away like a wild rabbit. The targets couldn’t get out of my house unless they went through a window, in which case they’d end up dead. So, they were still inside, hiding.
The hard taps of gunfire came from my living room, so I ran in that direction. A quick glimpse at the situation revealed a blood-spattered wall and two guards who hadn’t spotted me because they were busy aiming at my couch, letting off round after round.
I checked my rear before stepping into the doorway and letting the gun spray bullets over their bodies as I gifted them a one-way ticket straight to hell. Their bodies had barely dropped when none other than Aaron emerged from behind the couch.
“Thanks, man. How the fuck did you get out of that study?”
“You’re welcome. Trapdoor,” I answered as I took in Tomas splayed out on the floor with a hole pierced through the center of his forehead. And then there were three.
Aaron shook his head and made a circular motion with his hand before angling his head towards areas we needed to search. We split the living area in half, sweeping and peeking into the dining room, den, and halls.
As I walked towards Aaron to meet at the stairs, his frozen gaze over my shoulder sent a chill inching up my back, alerting me that death lurked behind me. Before I’d fully turned to shoot the asshole behind me, Aaron’s knife swished past me, landing in Fernando’s gun arm. His weapon fell to the floor with a loud thud. I raised my weapon, preparing to blow the man’s brains out, but Aaron stopped me.
“I got him,” he said, his voice as cold as an Arctic glacier. I shrugged and stepped aside to allow Aaron to pass. Who was I to get in the way of a man and a fresh kill?
Fernando must have known death was approaching him. His eyes widened to twice their normal size, and he was either too afraid or too stunned to run. Aaron calmly placed his hand over the man’s mouth as he snatched the knife from his limp arm. Fernando attempted to fight, but it was too late.
A deep frown creased my face when Aaron sent the knife plunging into the man’s belly. Fernando’s muffled, throat-scratching groans filled up the living room. Next thing I knew, the ripping sound of the knife sliding through the man’s flesh and abdominal muscles sounded. Aaron pressed his forearm forcefully over the man’s face, muzzling his anguished cries as he used his strength and body weight to keep the man in place. Fernando’s quivering body thumped against the wall as his bladder released right before a bundle of his internal organs spilled onto the floor with a noisy splat.
The man stopped fighting Aaron with his good hand and clawed at his protruding organs, attempting to put them back inside his body. I choked back the vile odor that assaulted my nasal passages. My fucking cousin was a damn lunatic who disemboweled people like a twisted butcher. Aaron could say what he wanted, but those damn bullet fragments in his brain had made him meaner.
He stepped away from the man, letting him slide to the floor as his internal organs dangled from his belly. His bloody intestines continued to slither out like a bunch of wild red snakes. A hissing sound escaped the man, some punctured organ releasing air.
My enlarged eyes tightened, lids thinning as I took in the gruesome sight. The fact that Aaron had released someone’s internal organs and hadn’t gotten a drop on his clothes or boots froze me in place. “Really?” I asked him.
He shrugged and glanced up the stairs like he hadn’t just done some horror-movie type shit.
We climbed the stairs as sporadic gunfire reminded us of the fight outside. As soon as we crested the stairs, I cut a right and Aaron went left. Everything appeared to be normal until bullets started flying, coming from Megan’s room at the far end of the hall.
A bullet missed my face by an inch, but the next came hissing through the air at an inescapable speed and caught me in my shoulder. The force of the impact twisted me in a full circle before I was able to straighten myself out and take cover inside Regina’s room.
Closing my eyes for a second, I sucked in a breath and swallowed the pain. I peeled my shirt back and glanced at my wound. Blood seeped from the hole, thick and dark, as my left arm blazed in searing pain. The pain captured my arm, rendering it useless, and the blood continued to flow. I ripped off a piece of the bed sheet, stuffing it inside my shirt to help staunch the bleeding. I’d not worn a Kevlar vest, to keep my cover with our four targets.
Our team was dangerous enough to fight in hell, but the radio silence was a matter that concerned me. The thud of gunfire had never ceased outside, but the silence let me know that I’d lost communication with our men.
As soon as my arm started to twitch back to life, letting me know that I hadn’t permanently lost the use of it, I inched the door open and prepared to trade shots with the bastard who’d shot me. I slapped a new magazine in my weapon and aimed it down the hall, preparing to turn Megan’s room into a sheet of target paper.
I carried and fired the weapon with my one good arm, letting off burst after burst that shook my body with intense force. Each blast also kept the shooter hiding and allowed me to step out into the hall and closer to the target. After only three steps closer, my target stumbled out into the hall after he’d thrown out his weapon. “I give up,” he shouted. Dumb fuck!
Unfortunately, it was one of the guards and not one of our targets. He’d been shot in his torso region as he clamped his hand around his wound. The crisp white shirt he wore under his black jacket had been painted red. His weak legs wobbled under his weight, and he let his body slide down the wall into a sitting position.
The ache in my shoulder reminded me that this was the asshole that had shot me. I took a knee in front of the man. “You should have kept shooting,” I told him, shaking my head. The man’s eyes filled with fe
ar when his gaze locked on mine, just realizing that he’d surrendered for nothing.
“Let me help you,” I offered. A sinister smirk bent my lips as I planted my knees on the man’s thighs to keep him in place. My good hand rushed forward and clamped tight around the man’s neck. His fist pounded against my locked arm. His fingers clawed, raked, and scratched uselessly at my arm that was dead locked around his throat. He jerked mercilessly as his feet thumped against the floor and he bucked under me.
Both his hands were wrapped around my arm, but I didn’t feel them. His horror-filled gaze was locked on mine. My eyes were nothing more than black orbs of pure death. My mind had descended into that dark place I embraced whenever I killed someone.
I felt none of the emotions I should have; no remorse, regret, or sorrow for taking another life. Instead, the thrill of seeing this asshole die filled my psyche. I enjoyed seeing the man’s life seep from him, fading with each breath I failed to let him take.
Peering at his ghost-white reflection, I squeezed tighter. Red branches of blood vessels sprouted in his bulging eyes as they frantically darted left and right in a desperate search for help. His tongue fell limp past his lips as his eyes started to flutter. He stopped fighting the inevitable. He stopped fighting me. He’d accepted the great fires of hell as his forever.
Chapter Fourteen
Aaron
There was only a large entertainment room off the hall. Being careful not to stand directly in front of the door, I stood off to the side, before I turned with a quick hard kick, slamming my foot below the knob.
The door went flying inward, and I expected bullets to come flying at me, but none came. The room was clean as far as I could tell. Where were the rest of the assholes we needed to kill? I crept over to the window to survey the scene below since we’d lost radio contact again. The muzzle flashes from our snipers in the hills flashed like hidden gems. I couldn’t see any of our crew on the ground, but they had the DG6 guards pinned down, stuck on this compound with us. The sound of gunfire on Ansel’s wing prompted me to scramble for the exit.
