We follow Chase into the bedroom that supposedly belonged to Mr. Bissonette’s first mistress, a woman his wife took a liking to and let live in their house while she got an education. She was rumored to have hung herself in this very room and if things were different, I might see the morbid irony in that.
They aren’t, and I don’t.
“Here,” Chase says as he reaches for the rope, pulling down the more modern ladder that leads to another pitch black space. “I’ll secure it, you two go up.”
I look at Markus, reading his expression loud and clear.Put the gun in your pants and get your knife ready.
At least that’s what I’m assuming since that’s what I was planning to do.
Then I’m climbing.
My shoulder is screaming at me, my heart is pounding, but I’ve come this far and there’s no fucking way I’m leaving here without my family.
I hear another thump and drag as I get closer to the top and that’s when I see the orangish glow from what has to be candlelight.
Barely poking my head up enough to see, I scan my immediate surroundings, turning slowly until I find the source of the light. When I do, my stomach pitches and I barely fight the way I instinctively want to rush in.
Norm and Pete are in the far corner, bound and gagged, propped against the wall and each other, neither of them conscious. They look rough, I can tell from here that they put up a fight and seeing them this way, it hurts my heart.
A hooded figure dressed all in black walks across the room, coming from the shadows to move across my line of sight. Hood, mask, he looks exactly the way Leo described him and…
Leo.
He throws her onto the floor, our girl alive, breathing and relatively unscathed. Her hands are bound behind her back and she’s been gagged but aside from a nasty bleeding bump on her forehead, she looks ok.
Terrified and crying, but ok.
I blow out a breath then look down at Mark, giving him a quick nod before he does the same, then I’m moving.
Clearly the ladder and quickly and quietly as possible, making room for Markus to do the same and just as I pull my gun and cock it, the fucking floor creaks under my feet.
“Stop right there,” the man in the hood says as he grabs Leonor, yanking her to her feet and using her as a human shield. “Don’t take another fucking step.”
His voice is distorted, he’s obviously using one of those modifiers so it can’t be recognized, and as Leo’s eyes go wide and a few tears slip down her cheeks, I raise my hands.
“I’m not moving,” I glance back at Mark, who’s doing the same, realizing Chase is still hidden.Good.“Nobody’s moving.”
“Drop the guns.”
Keeping my hands raised, I reach over and let the clip fall to the ground, hoping that’s good enough because I have one in the chamber I can use when the time is right.
“Everything is cool, man.” I take one step but freeze when he jerks Leonor’s arms further behind her back, only now seeing the blood smudged all over her arms. “No one needs to get hurt.” I hear Chase come up the rest of the way and hope like hell this guy stays focused on me and Mark. “Tell us what you want and?—”
“Don’t you fucking get it?” He spits. “Thisis what I want. Leonor Allan at my mercy, the four of you sick fucks dead.” He looks behind him and laughs before shoving Leo to the side to clear the way. “I was going to wait, I wanted to make sure you saw how we took care of Pierre but the bitch wouldn’t stop screaming.”
Justine.
My stomach rolls as I gag, barely able to comprehend what I’m looking at because what I’m looking at is a nightmare.
Justine is lying on her back, arms spread and legs pointed toward us. Her mouth is open, her eyes are wide. But she’s not moving.
No, our girl’s mother, the only mother she’s ever had, has a goddamn Bowie knife shoved through her neck, inserted just below her left ear and protruding all the way through so the tip is visible under the right.
Justine is dead, and this sick son of bitch not only killed her the same way he killed Pierre, he did it right in front of Leonor.
“I saved her eyes, though. Figured once the rest of your bullshit band comes to I could show you what I do with them. Then I could make you watch as I slowly do the same to the rest of them and just before the sweet Leonor watches me kill you, I’ll make sure you watch what happens whenfreakshow faggotsdecide to reproduce.”
The bastard in the hood chuckles and my girl’s eyes go wide as I frown, a thump coming from behind me that causes me to turn just in time to see Chase standing over Markus, who’s knocked out on the ground.
