a child that young know what fear was. He had likely heard the commotion next door, but he was so used to the abuse and being punished for it that he knew to keep quiet.
“Careful. No eyes on the guard,” Lady D warned in my ear.
“None here either,” Lady E added.
“He never returned from the back of the house,” Lady A updated.
The damn guard was in the wind, and I prayed he hadn’t entered the house through the back door. Since Lady A had turned the alarm off, we wouldn’t have been alerted if he had.
I picked up the backpack Margo pointed out under her son’s crib. She jumped into the clothes she had stashed in his small dresser before she dressed him and handed him his binky that he popped into his mouth. Less than three minutes and we were on our way.
The unnerving silence that filled the space while we crept along the dim hall and made our way to the stairway had me rolling my shoulders to ease the thick tension pressing down on me. As soon as we cleared the stairs, the guard walked into the living room and stopped in his tracks at the sight of our group. In a dark uniform, he stood frozen and staring, his white skin glowing against the dim moonlight shining into the room.
He reached for the weapon at his side, but mine was already in my hand and aimed at his head. I would have preferred not to kill anyone, but understood that choosing this type of work had the possibility of always leading to death, including my own.
The guard glanced at the frightened mother gripping her child to her chest behind me. His hand eased away from his weapon before he raised them in surrender. He lifted his chin in the direction of the front door in a gesture that suggested we go.
It wasn’t until he turned and walked back into the kitchen that I understood that he recognized what was going on. He’d obviously been a witness to why I was there in the first place and despite his good deed tonight, he wasn’t a hero in my book. Knowing what was going on, he should have done more to help the victim. We got the hell out of there with the ladies keeping watchful eyes on our path back to the van.
After we’d climbed in and driven to safety, I began to process the danger I had just exposed myself to. I jerked off the mask and breathed myself back to a calm state of mind.
What would have happened if that guard had drawn his pistol?
9
Tywin
It had been a long, hard two weeks since I’d spent the night with Patrena. After the explosive experiences we’d shared, she was all I was able to fully focus on. When I was in her presence, I couldn’t keep my eyes off her and there was nothing I hadn’t noticed about her.
I loved the way her beautiful freckles appeared to dance on her cheeks when she smiled. The way her head tilted slightly to the right when she was thinking, made me smile. And the way she attempted but failed to control the jittery movements of her body when we were close, caused my hunger for her to intensify. I couldn’t curtail my amusement at the way she eye-fucked me when she thought I wasn’t paying attention. I hadn’t figured out that little dent she got over her right eye yet, but I would.
Thankfully, family drama on a massive level had kept me busy. Since the night at Patrena’s apartment, more turmoil had become stirred in the name of Vallin. Arjen had discovered that Khane had slept with Desiree, and he and Khane had commenced to beating the shit out of each other. After the way they had ripped Arjen’s study apart, I was surprised they hadn’t needed medical attention.
I had also discovered after the fact that Arjen had executed a guard from his security detail after requesting I sanitize his home security feeds. I knew my cousin well enough to know that if he had executed someone in his house, they had it coming and for a good reason.
Arjen and Khane’s fight had caused Desiree to run away. In her haste to get away from them, she was captured by a dangerous group called the Fallen Angels, carted off to Mexico, and placed in the hands of cartel king, Angel Ramirez.
To feed a massive gambling addiction, Desiree’s sorry ass