Page 76 of Hiding In the Dark (The Righteous 4)
Before he could say any more, Ashley stirred beside him. Yawning, she pushed herself up and rubbed at her eyes. “Hey, you’re awake. Did I miss anything?” she asked. Cupping her face, Kes kissed her forehead and then the tip of her nose.
“No, I just woke up. Has there been any news about Zumi?” he asked, afraid of the answer.
“Last I heard, she was still in surgery. No one has come by since to announce her status. Trev has been keeping me posted while you two sleeping beauties rested,” Arek said through a yawn.
Kes searched Ashley’s face and couldn’t understand how he’d managed to get so lucky as to have a second chance with such a woman. “Can I ask you something?”
“If you’re going to ask her to have sex in here, let me know so I can leave and warn the nurses to stay away,” Arek piped up, and Kes shot the guy a glare that rolled off him like water off a duck’s back.
“Ignore him. What do you want to ask?” Ashley asked, bringing his attention back to her.
“Why did you forgive me? After all the shit I did, why did you decide to go to prom with me?”
“You mean other than the fact I was hopelessly in love with you?” She blushed, and while he would normally ravish her for saying that, he was too worried about Zumi, and he needed to know what exactly it was that he did to get her to give him a chance. It was gnawing at him.
“There were a lot of reasons, Kes. There wasn’t just one thing you did the rest of the year, it was all the little things that proved you’d changed. I guess it basically all came down to you redeeming yourself.” Kes leaned in and gave her lips a soft kiss before standing. “Where are you going?”
He didn’t know if she’d understand, but this was something he had to do. “I’m going to go redeem myself.”
“Not without me, you’re not. You don’t get to have all the fun,” Arek said, jumping to his feet.
Ashley grabbed his arm and stood. He stared into her eyes and never wanted to let her go, but he had to do this. Her hand tightened on his forearm, her normally sweet features transforming into a look that would scare the most hardened criminal.
“Make sure none of them are left breathing. What they did to her—,” Ashley paused and shook her head. “I’ll look after her until you get back.”
Grabbing her face, he crashed his lips to hers. There was nothing she could’ve said that meant more. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
He turned to face Arek, who already looked like he was ready to eat bones for dinner. “You ready to party?”
Arek scoffed at the question. “That’s like asking me if I love sex, man. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Shadows of death danced around him like a ritual in his mind as he stomped out of the hospital. Those demons would get their taste of blood tonight.
Kes had stealth mode on as he rolled up to the end of the driveway that led to the rundown country home. The pieces of shit he was after were hiding inside and apparently shitting their pants, which they should be. He’d known that Vance would warn them, but at the time, it had been more important to find Zumi. Vance thought he was safe hiding in his fallback location, but he’d taken it upon himself to mark off every spot these guys owned or frequented.
In the end, he’d killed Vance and found out where the men that hurt Zumi were hiding. To be fair, he did warn Vance that if Zumi were hurt, he’d come back for him. Kes glanced at Arek as he hummed a song they all used to sing around the fire from time to time. He’d remember Vance’s screams for the rest of his days. The image of him tied to his desk as Arek ripped his bowels out inch by inch was a sight you just don’t forget.
He peered around and then stared at the map Baby Doll had across the screen. The place was spectacularly off the beaten path, with only a smattering of farms around for miles. It was smart on their part to get out of the city limits, but too bad for them that there wasn’t a place on this rock to hide that he wouldn’t find them. A shiver of anticipation spread throughout his body. He seriously couldn’t have dreamed up a better place to kill these fuckers.
They’d started with the trafficker’s houses that he’d already been planning on slowly hitting over the next few months. He’d forgotten how fun it was to kill shit with Arek. He’d left the burning down of the five houses to ash for Arek to do. That much fire was too much for his brain to handle, but he did find it amusing to picture the cops’ faces when they found the dead men left inside. They’d had a jam-packed night running from one end of the city to the other, but they weren’t done yet.
Wolf had a meltdown when Kes called and said how many kids needed to be picked up. That was a dilemma for Wolf to figure out. His goal was to kill off as many of the parasites as he could before the sun was up. He wanted to get back to the hospital as soon as he could. Every second he was out here, the worse he felt about leaving Zumi’s side. He picked up his cell to see if there was any news, but no messages had been received from Ashley or Trev.
“Any word?” Arek asked.
“No, but I’m going to assume no news is good news.” He put his phone away and looked over at Arek. “How do you do it? How do you handle being a dad? I mean, Zumi isn’t even my kid and this feeling….” His hand hovered over his chest as he tried to explain what it was like and yet found no words.
Arek looked at him and shook his head. “Renee, she keeps me sane. I’m fucking terrified twenty-five out of twenty-four hours in the motherfucking day, but I wouldn’t change a single moment. Between J.J. and Levi, I have my hands full, and yet I’ve never felt more whole than when I am curled up on the couch with my two boys.”
“I wanted to ask you, wasn’t Scooter’s real name ‘Levi’?” Kes looked over at Arek, and a ghost of a smile played across his features.
“He saved my life. Scooter was a hero that no one will ever remember because the mission was classified, so it’s like his life and sacrifice of death never fucking happened.” Arek’s stare locked with his own, and he knew what he was thinking, what he was feeling. “My son deserved to have a hero’s name, and I couldn’t think of anyone better to name him after”
“Damn, that is the most beautiful fucking thing. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“I have the odd moment. It’s how I keep Renee from running for the hills, because I punched way above my weight class landing her.”
