The picture perfect scenery is quickly disturbed by two men storming out of a house, holding shotguns in their hands. A smile pulls at my lips. I’ve got to give it to them, they have some balls, heading toward us. Two men with two guns versus four armored Humvees with five armed men and guards.
Either these two are really fucking brave or really fucking stupid. I’m guessing it’s the latter. My suspicion of their lack of intelligence is quickly confirmed as they both take shots at the first Humvee. Four shots are fired, with two double barrel shotguns, which means these idiots just shot all their ammo at an armored car.
Stupid fucks.
The Humvees come to a direct stop, and I’m sure we will have run-ins with more idiots. I take my gun into my hand as we pile out of the car and head toward the stupid fucks. One runs away while the other tries to reload his gun with shaking hands. All color drains from his face the moment he realizes we’re going to get to him before he can put the new round in the chamber.
“Look, I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, but this is a peaceful settlement,” the guy tries to explain, dropping the gun and holding up his hands in surrender. He knows how this is going to go, and most likely doesn’t want to die. Well…too little too late.
“Peaceful, my ass,” I spit out, grabbing him by the shirt. My fist lands in his face a second later and he almost passes out, from the hit alone, but I shake him so he stays awake.
“Where is Joseph Tanner?” I scream into his face. He shakes his head a little, his eyes wide in fear. I raise my fist to punch him again and that’s all it takes for him to crack.
“Okay, I’ll tell you,” he begs, throwing up his hands in defeat. Pussy.
“They’re having a meeting down in that building…” He points to a building off in the distance, his hand shaking. “That one right next to the church. He’ll be in there.”
“Who all is having a meeting?” Xander asks coolly, saddling up beside me.
“The council, they decide everything around here. I don’t know what today's meeting is about but I know Joseph is one of them, he’ll be in there…” I shove him to the ground, about to kick the shit out of him, but Xander is quicker.
He pulls out a knife, kneels on the guy’s chest and slits his throat, ear to ear, before the fucker can even scream. Then he gets up and wipes his knife on his shirt like nothing ever happened. I’ve seen death, a lot of it, mostly at my own hands, but I’ve never seen anything as crazy as that. Xander gives me a grin before he starts to head toward the building we were told to go too.
I shake my head, grinning back at him. Sick bastard…
Adrenaline courses through my veins. I want this fucker dead already.
We all follow his lead. Ivan, Hero, Damon, and myself go with Xander through the front door, while the rest of the men surround the outside of the building. We walk through a set of double doors into an open conference looking room.
In that room sits seven men. Seven sadistic fucks. Seven men who most likely had everything to do with Sophie and Elyse being hurt. Seven men who will pay with their lives today.
Every head in the room snaps toward the door when we walk in.
“Who are—?” one of them starts, but Xander cuts him off.
“Shut the fuck up! We’re asking the questions here. You only speak if we speak to you. We aren’t here to have a nice fucking conversation.”
“How dare y—” Bang. A shot echoes through the room, followed by a loud cry from the man who just spoke. The man who’s now sporting a bullet hole in his kneecap.
“Did I not make myself clear?” Xander snarls, and I have to admit, even I’m kind of worried about this guy’s mental state. The guy starts to cry, legit fucking cry, and all the other men in the room take that shot as a warning: you talk out of turn you get shot.
“Him,” Hero announces with a monotone voice as he points to the head of the table at a man looking at us with shock and anger in his eyes. “That’s their father.”
I lift my eyes to the front of the table and it only takes me a moment to spot Sophie’s dad. I know who he is as soon as I see him, not only because I’ve seen him before, but because of the way he is staring at me as if he knows exactly who I am, and why I am here.
“Certainly we can discuss this as god fearing men?” The douchebag announces standing at the head of the table like he’s about to read a sermon or something. Obviously he’s never met men like us before.
Xander laughs, “I’m not god fearing. I know I’m going to hell, so I’ll have no fucking problem putting a bullet between your eyes. Now are you Joseph or do I need to kill a few more men to find out who is who?”
He holds up his hands palms first. “Yes, I’m Joseph, and there is no need for violence. We will not hurt you.”
I snort on his remark. What a fucking prick. An image of Sophie’s bruised and battered body fills my mind. Won’t hurt us. The urge to smash my fist into his face until he stops breathing is so overwhelming I damn near charge to the front of the room and grab him by the throat. I know I can’t hold on much longer.
“Maybe you won’t hurt us, but it doesn’t stop you from hurting helpless fucking women that can’t fight you,” I growl, taking a determined step forward.
“Soon, brother,” Ivan whispers beside me, placing his hand on my forearm as if that would stop me from lurching forward and throttling the son of a bitch.
I glance over at Hero who looks just as much on edge as I am. No one knows what Elyse and Sophie have been through quite like us. We’ve seen the fear, watched them struggle, and I’m sure Hero want’s Elyse to be as free of these monsters as much as I want Sophie to be.
“Since you are so open to cooperating with us, why don’t you tell us who exactly is trying to kidnap and sell Sophie?” All the men in the room look between each other, some of them look shocked while others seem ashamed that their sins have been exposed.
Joseph opens his mouth, and it looks like he’s about to start talking when Xander holds up his finger. “Before you say a word, I want to remind you of how important it is for you to not say anything besides the truth. If anything else comes out of your mouth, if you lie to me, or any of my men, you’ll wish for death to find you. Do you understand me?”
All the blood drains from his ugly face and I can see him trying to swallow down his fear from across the room. He looks so scared and I wouldn't be surprised if he started to piss himself.
“Look…” He sighs, “I’ll tell you everything I know...these men, Dante’s crew, they just want Sophie back.” He swallows, and I so badly want to crush his windpipe. “They’re not going to stop, she was promised to them and they want the money they can make off of selling her, or at the very least get her back. That’s it. Just let them have her and everything can go back to normal.”
Anger spirals out of control inside of me. Normal. It can go back to normal if I just hand over Sophie...hand her over, give her to these vile monsters. I’m seething, boiling… something inside me snaps, and all I see is Sophie’s body on the floor covered in bruises. My sweet Sophie battered by this man in front of me. There is no one in this room who can stop me now. I shrug Ivan’s hand off like nothing. I hear nothing, and feel nothing in that moment. I’m across the room in a millisecond, my hands wrapped around his slimy neck.