Page 38 of Hiding In the Dark (The Righteous 4)
“I’m gonna crush your fuckin’ skull,” the man growled out, his voice thick with some form of a European accent.
Kes grinned at the man, the humor not reaching his eyes as he waved the man forward with the hand that didn’t hold a hidden knife. Kes kept the knife behind him until the man was a stride away. Like a cobra strike, he struck with his free hand and caught the man in the throat, the movement only driving the large man back a step—but the hit did its job of effectively blocking off the man’s windpipe. Eyes wide, the guy grabbed at his throat, and Kes swung his large blade, cutting off a finger and slicing a gaping line like a smiley face in the man’s throat. Changing his grip on the knife, he struck again, slamming the long blade up through his jaw and into his brain. Kes’s muscles flexed as the man went slack. He watched the knife pull free from the gaping mouth and gave him a push in the chest. He had the sudden urge to yell ‘timber’ as the guy fell like a loud tree crashing in the woods.
Jogging around the guy, forgetting him already, he hurried up the stairs just as the guys outside stopped firing.
Reaching the top landing, he looked out to see them still distracted and approaching the undamaged vehicle. He put the knife away and reloaded before dashing to the first door at the top of the stairs. He flung it open, and the man inside, wearing nothing more than a white tank and black socks, jumped off the bed and the girl he’d been fucking. The girl let out a small scream as the man fell back onto the bed with a bullet in his head, narrowly missing the girl.
“Stay in here until I say it’s all clear,” he whispered.
She furiously nodded her head, but he needed to move faster just in case she got any bright ideas.
The next two rooms were empty, but the last one had a group of girls huddled in the corner and a man with a gun guarding them. The guard was quick with the gun but a terrible shot, as the bullets thudded harmlessly in the wall beside Kes. The sounds from the shots were a problem. He didn’t want the men outside to storm in. The more people inside, the harder it was to defend himself.
“Baby Doll, alarm on,” he spat out as he shook his head in disgust at the man with the shitty aim. He fired as a loud blaring started outside. It was loud enough to wake the dead. Kes’s aim, unlike the guard’s, was true. The two bullets sailed through his eye sockets and blew the back of the former gunman’s head off.
The cluster of girls squealed and scurried over the bed as blood and the dead body fell toward them. His eyes roamed over the small group, all not much older than Zumi, and repeated the same thing he’d ordered the other girl to do before sprinting back the way he’d come. Peeking out the window as he jogged down the stairs, he could only see two of the three men that had been on the front lawn. He was not a fan of hide-and-seek, but he hated using the vision tech. It seemed like cheating to him.
By his count, he still had six shots left with each gun. He bolted through the open front door onto the covered porch and opened fire on the guy pulling on the passenger door handle while yelling for it to be opened. The man crumpled to the ground, his hand still gripping the handle.
Thumping vibrated up his legs from the floorboards as a man he couldn’t see began running around the wrap-around porch straight for him. Making a last-second judgment call, he flipped the gun in his hold and jumped in the air as he slammed the butt on the man’s nose. Blood splattered across the man’s face with the powerful impact as a massive cut opened up across his nose and cheek.
Spinning out of the way of the guy’s momentum, Kes drove him to the ground face-first as he yelled. Kes’s boot was pressed firmly into the middle of his back, and a bullet quickly found a new home in the back of his head.
Jumping down the rotting stairs, he let out an evil little laugh as the last guy shook, trying to reload his automatic weapon.
“This would be a good time to run,” Kes said, the corner of his mouth lifting as malice burned in his chest. Dropping the gun, the man ran for the trees. Yanking two throwing knives free, he let them sail and caught the guy in the back. His spine arched as his feet stopped working, and he fell forward to land flat on his face in a prickly bush. Kes snorted and then sobered as the sound of a yell and the bang from a bullet coming for him rang out. He jerked to the side as the bullet barely missed him, hitting Baby Doll instead. Kes grabbed the guns in his leg holsters, his mind once more reviewing the layout of the farmhouse. The fucker had to have been holed up in the basement or a secret magic trunk because he’d cleared what were supposed to be the only two active floors. The basement was unfinished, a dirt floor with a low ceiling. Who did this guy piss off to end up in the basement?
The man was as wide as the fucking door frame. He had to duck to get through, but he didn’t raise his gun like Kes expected. Instead, he tossed it to the side.
“Come on, fight me like a man,” Beefcake said.
He put the guns in his leg holsters and nodded, waving the guy forward and taking a fighting stance. When Beefcake reached the bottom step, Kes grabbed his guns and opened fire until his clips ran dry. The guy stared down at the holes in his chest and then up into his eyes before he comically fell forward like a cartoon character.
“I’m not that fucking stupid, but thanks for coming out,” Kes said, putting his guns away into their holsters. Kes turned and walked to the passenger side of the Hummer. The guy he’d shot still had his hand wrapped around the handle from falling to his knees facing the door like he was praying. The fucker better not have gotten blood on his ride. Getting a grip on the piece of trash, he pulled him off the door, throwing him onto the driveway. “Baby Doll, code word Ashley.”
“Codeword received, lockdown disengaged.” The doors clicked as they unlocked, and he opened the door to see Zumi sitting like a statue, eyes wide and as white as a ghost. “So Kid, you still think you want to be a part of this?”
“Fuck yeah, I do,” she mumbled and then slowly turned in her seat to face him.
Kes shook his head, not able to comprehend this kid. “You kinda worry me, Zumi.”
“You were all like the pow, pow, and then knife and more pow.” She used her hands to demonstrate as she hopped out of the truck and stared at the man he’d just tossed aside.
“Okay, enough of that. Let’s get something straight. This may seem like fun and games, but these men are dead, so don’t be crass. For better or worse, they are never going home. Keep in mind that they may be assholes, but they still have people that love them, and every time you take a life, a little more of your soul darkens. Don’t ever take that lightly, Kid. It should never become nonchalant to take a life. Do you understand?”
Zumi crossed her arms, looked around, and then slightly nodded her head. “Yeah, I’m sorry. Still, you seem to enjoy it.”
He stared into her overly-keen eyes and sighed. “Kid, my soul died a long time ago. What’s left of it finds comfort in helping others in the only way I know how, but you don’t want to be broken like me.” He rolled out his shoulders and cracked his neck, the noise loud in the silence.
“Okay, come on. Let’s go and finish the job.” He’d closed Baby Doll’s door and taken a step toward the front door when Zumi pulled on his jacket.
“Kes, if something ever happened to me, like if men like this had me.” She looked up at the weathered whitewashed walls and the peeling paint on the shutters. “Would you come save me?”
He pulled Zumi into his side, his arm wrapping around her small shoulders. “I’ll always come for you, Kid. Always.”
Kes made sure Zumi had a full belly and was asleep in his tent before he took off for Ashley’s. He hadn’t been near her for a couple of days, and it felt like a lifetime since he’d been able to smell her body wash or watch her as she did her nightly routine so he could pretend even for a moment that he was worthy.
His phone vibrated, and he pulled it out and took a look at the message from the unknown sender.
