Archer looked genuinely sickened at this development. "He had a wife? You're not fucking going there without me."
Kody scoffed. "Pretty sure we are, big man. You don't have medical clearance to leave the hospital, and we're not waiting on this."
"Fuck clearance," Archer barked, reaching for his IV drip as though he wanted to yank it straight out of his arm.
Alarmed I shot forward and slapped his hand away before he could complete the motion. "Don't you fucking dare, Archer D'Ath," I snarled. "You're not leaving this bed until a medical professional clears you."
His cool blue eyes met mine with a challenge shining clearly. "Or what?"
"Or I promise you'll regret it, Sunshine." I wasn't backing down on this subject. Not in a million years. Not when his wellbeing was at stake. "Don't fucking test me."
He held my gaze for a long moment. But I didn't flinch or soften, and he was the first to retreat.
"Fine," he growled, like a grouchy bear woken from hibernation too soon. "But you're staying here with me."
I scoffed. "Fat chance. You're not sidelining me on this just because you're sulking. James will stay here and look after you, right?" I turned to arch a brow at my newly discovered father, and he jerked a quick nod back.
"Okay, sorted," Kody announced, clapping his hands. "We'll call you later, Arch." He nudged James out of the way so he could open the door, and I dodged as Archer tried to grab my arm. He had his bad arm strapped up in a sling, though, so he wasn't quick enough.
"Kate!" he shouted as I headed for the door and Kody exited.
I just shot him a grin and blew a kiss. "Love you, Arch."
His face froze, then his scowl softened. "I love you too, Kate."
Steele gave me a nudge, and I hurried out of the room before Archer could reel me back in again. James pulled the door closed after us, and the three of us made our way out of the hospital in silence.
One question kept gnawing at my mind the whole way out to Steele's car, and it was knotting me up with anxiety.
Had she helped him? We could well be walking into the viper’s nest with a live snake lying in wait. God, I hoped not.
Please, please, please, let my uncle's wife just be a normal, clueless housewife. Please.
41
The universe, it seemed, wasn't playing fair. Or it had a seriously fucked up way of cutting me some breaks. But one thing we quickly realized on breaking into Dave's house was that he had no wife.
What we found instead was a thousand times worse.
The house itself seemed so innocent, just a normal suburban home in a nice neighborhood. But none of the pictures on the walls had Dave in them. They were all of a pretty blonde woman with her husband, who was very definitely not Dave.
At first, we thought Bree had been wrong. She'd given us the wrong address, or he'd moved since then. But then we found the heavily bolted door to the basement, and chills raced down my spine.
"I don't even want to know what we're going to find down there," I confessed to the boys in a whisper. They both had their guns at the ready, but I was unarmed. My plastered wrist made it too difficult to hold a gun in my right hand, and I wasn't competent enough with my left.
"Same," Kody agreed, grimacing.
Steele holstered his gun and went to work picking the locks on the door. There were seven of them total, and nothing good could come from a basement with seven locks on it. Everyone knew that.
"Just stay back, Hellcat," he murmured as the last lock clicked open. "Stay behind us, okay?"
I agreed quickly, not in any mood to throw myself at whatever monster lurked in the basement. In fact, I was surprised they hadn't made me wait in the car or something. Then again, maybe they were just smart enough to know I'd never actually do that and decided not to even try.
The boys exchanged a look, both adjusting their grips on their weapons, then Steele pulled the door open.
The first thing to hit us was the smell. Holy shit. The smell was enough to make us all gag and my eyes water. Something was seriously dead down there.
"Fuck me," Kody muttered in a strangled voice. "We should have left this for Archer to do."
I snorted a laugh, despite the situation, and Steele rolled his eyes.
"It's not that bad. Just block your nose." He still grimaced, though, and tried to flick the light on. Nothing happened, so he sighed and started down the stairs slowly with his phone light on. He kept his gun up and ready for anything jumping out of the darkness.
Kody followed him after a beat, and I took up the rear. As we descended into the darkness. I glanced down at the stairs and shuddered. They were the open kind, and I couldn't stop imagining a clawed hand reaching through and grabbing my ankles.
Steele reached the bottom step, using his mobile phone light to find another set of light switches. He flipped them all down, and this time the fluorescent tube lights lining the ceiling all flickered to life.
I'd never in my life wished for darkness more.
"Oh fuck," I breathed, bile rising in my throat and making me swallow heavily.
"This... is going to give me nightmares," Kody groaned, his face taking on an ashen pallor.
Steele made a gagging noise and covered his mouth with his hand, then turned to look at us in horror. "I think I might throw up," he admitted.
"Try not to," Kody replied with a grimace. "We really don't need to add to the smell."
The basement was huge. Several cages lined the wall under the stairs, like the type that would hold big dogs or feral animals. Lumpy shapes inside each cage suggested whatever Dave had kept in there hadn't been cared for in a while, though.
The worst part, the part that was going to be imprinted in my mind, was the serial-killer setup in front of us. A medical gurney sat in the middle, crusted with old blood and hanging with leather straps that he must have used to hold his victims in place. The work bench was scattered with dirty tools, a variety of both medical instruments and construction tools that he'd used to torture people. None of it was clean, but I guessed he hadn't been overly concerned about infection.
The entire wall above his workbench was plastered with images of me. Every available inch of wall space was covered in photographs, newspaper clippings, and information like my class schedules or my medical records... Literally my entire life was stuck to this sick fuck's wall.
To the side, there was a craft station set up, scattered with piles and piles of fabrics and a commercial-grade sewing machine. Somehow, I had a hard time imagining Dave sitting there and creating miniature doll clothes, though.
"Do we even want to open that freezer?" Kody asked, reluctantly pointing to the huge chest freezer against the wall.
Steele shuddered. "Fifty bucks says we find the guy who actually owns this house."
Kody snorted. "I'm not taking that bet; it's a sure fucking thing. Question is, will he be whole or cut up?"
"You two are fucked up," I whispered, brushing past them. I gripped the freezer lid. Then I paused, glancing around at the sheer volume of dried and still-sticky blood coating the floor around the makeshift operating table. "In pieces, I'll bet."