Highest Bidder Collection - Lauren Landish Page 0,258

door so slowly that it barely makes a sound. But every tiny noise forces my heart to jump in my chest. I know for a fact that he’ll have a gun near him. We all did growing up. That was the only way to ensure our safety. I can’t afford to wake him.

I can barely breathe as I stalk into his room, placing each step as silently as possible. My eyes had already adjusted to the darkness in the hallway and the faint light from his windows only adds to my ease of seeing in the dark.

The covers are loose around his hips. His body visible. An easy target. I get closer than I need to, just to get a better look at him as I steal the life from him.

There’s no bang to my gun. No sound other than the harsh breeze of the bullet whipping through the air. His body jolts once. As the bullet enters his head and then another. And then another. I waste three bullets on him, staring at his dead body without feeling as though it’s real. The last two were unnecessary, only a result of my anger. Each time I pull the trigger, I think of the look on her face as she stared down at the man who tried to kill her. The man she killed. I put the gun to his head, and pull the trigger again.

Looking down at my brother, even dead, he looks cruel. There was never any hope for him, no saving him.

My father’s next. It’s the only thought in my mind and the only thing that keeps me from putting a fifth bullet into his skull as I leave my brothers room. My father’s suite is at the other end of the hallway. I don’t hesitate to go to him next. My brothers death doesn’t faze me in the least. If anything, it gives me more strength to put my father into the ground next to him. That’s where they belong.

My heart stops when I walk into the room, not needing to pick the lock, it opened easily. My feet halting when the floor creaks beneath my weight. I’m unsteady as I count two bodies in the bed. One is my father, the closest to me. His breathing coming in heavy as he faintly snores in his sleep.

The other body is much smaller. A woman. And as the sound of my weight on the floorboards creaking through the night, she turns in her sleep. My heart beats erotically. My body heating and every tiny hair standing upright. I only planned on two deaths tonight. I don’t want an innocent life caught in the crossfires. There’s no way I can leave without seeing this through though. And leaving no witnesses.

I take one more step, pointing my gun at my father. I’m a few feet away, but all I need to do is put a bullet in his skull and I can leave. Leaving the woman unharmed. She doesn’t have to die.

My heart refuses to beat as the one last step I take is enough to wake the woman. She groans, stretching her arms and sitting up in the bed with a sleepy yawn, her eyes closed tight. Fuck! She rubs the sleep from her eyes as I take two steps forward.

The sound of my jeans scraping against one another filling the room and waking her further. The silencer points directly at my father’s head, I get one bullet off, before the woman screams. It’s all I need though; my father’s head jolts as the bullet leaves a neat hole just to the right of the center of his forehead.

I can’t think; I can’t breathe. My body heating to an unbearable degree. I don’t know how I can save her. As I try to think, she does something she should know not to do. She turns her back to me, grabbing the gun off the nightstand. She grips it with both hands, turning towards me, ready to shoot me.

And for a split second I consider letting her.

What good have I done the world? Killing my father and brother were the last good things I could ever do. The best things I’ve done with my life. I’ve lived with no purpose for years.

The sound of her pulling the cock back, the cold steel shaking in her trembling hands, loading the barrel of the gun with the bullet she intends to kill me with, triggers the memory of her, Lilly. Of