violence is on the horizon, I get dark inside. It’s a good feeling. I like killing bad men. I oughta feel fucking great during the hours before we hit Barry O’Meara’s house.
Except Shelby is so nervous that I can’t embrace the darkness. I gotta comfort her. Holding Shelby doesn’t allow the darkness to take hold. She’s so soft and warm. How am I supposed to enjoy her loving me and then get ugly inside for killing?
My mood is helped by the movie she puts on around eleven. The revenge flick with trippy fucking visuals leaves me wanting to kill monsters like Barry.
“He couldn’t save his wife,” Shelby says as we watch “Mandy.”
Nearby, Maverick sits crooked in a chair. I can’t tell if he’s napping or not. River went upstairs with Max and their baby. Shane left too. Taylor sits across from Maverick, watching the movie while texting someone.
Sighing, Shelby adds, “Revenge is all he had left.”
“Violet,” Taylor whispers, making me think that Maverick is asleep, “wasn’t yours to save, Shelby. You set in motion finding the man that took her.”
Shelby nods before pressing her face to my chest and crying quietly. She claims the hormones make her weepy, but I suspect she wants to be a hero like Kirk Johansson saving her mother.
I’m thinking about him later when I crawl through the fields behind Barry O’Meara’s one-story house. What did Kirk feel when he opened that box to find a young teenage girl looking back up at him? At that moment, she was his responsibility. I never had that burden with Lineke. She asked for her husband’s death. Not my help paying the bills or raising her kids. I never felt such a responsibility until Shelby. It’s my job to make her life better. That’s why I exist. I see the truth now.
Belly down on the cold ground, I wait for a signal from River. This stealth shit isn’t how I killed in the past. Instead, I’d walk up to a house, bust down the door, and kill whoever got in my way.
Of course, I didn’t care much if I died back then. I sure as fuck do now. Shelby is nearby in an SUV, waiting for Taylor to pull up to the front of the house. In her belly is my daughter. I ain’t dying today.
The back of the simple white house offers few windows and a single door. No fencing, no trees, no bushes. It’s barren, untouched. The front is tidier, meant to look appealing to people driving by. Back here, it’s obvious the guy doesn’t give a fuck.
“I see movement,” Maverick says through the comm in my ear. “A kitchen light came on.”
Ready to move, I hold my breath when I see in the distance the SUV turning onto the road. The vehicle disappears from view once it pulls in front of the house. As soon as we hear the engine revving, River begins the countdown.
I try to remember my job today. I’m not alone. There’s a team. They’ve got years of training together. I need to let them lead. My job is to bust shit up, watch their backs, and rip off the motherfucker’s head if I can.
River’s voice sounds so steady as he gives us the greenlight. My body is relieved to be off the cold ground. The brisk run toward the house warms my muscles and gets my heart pumping. The men around me are dressed all in black. I can’t tell them apart, but there’s no mistaking me as I reach the house.
I use every ounce of strength to slam the handheld battering ram into the back door. The thing crashes inward after the second blow. Maverick immediately throws in a flash grenade. River follows up with a smoke bomb.
The four of us move into the house with me bringing up the rear. I hear gunshots ahead of me. No idea who fired. The men don’t stop moving. Neither do I.
We enter a kitchen. Maverick pauses and yells at someone. I look down to find Violet Navarro crouched in a corner, staring at us with big eyes and mouth agape.
“Where is he?” Maverick demands, his face still hidden behind the mask.
Wearing a polka-dotted dress and heels, the young woman lifts her shaky finger toward a doorway.
“The basement?” I ask, and she nods.
“Is there anyone in there with him?” Maverick demands.
Violet shakes her head. Just then, River and Shane return, having cleared the rest of the house.
When I reach for the knob, my president