The Sinners of Saint Amos - Logan Fox Page 0,243

around the trigger, a distant wail catches both our attention.

Ambulance.

Police siren.

And that’s not the only thing I notice. Apollo is picking himself up off the floor.

When the Guardian looks back at me, I show him my teeth. “Think you can get out of here in time?” I ask him.

His eyes narrow. He straightens the gun. His lips part, a particularly malicious gleam in his eyes as he starts to speak.

And then Apollo hits him over the head with the chair he quietly took out from under the door handle. When Keith Malone crumples to the ground, my body sags as if it wants to follow.

But I grit my teeth, gather saliva, and spit it on his slack face. “That was rhetorical, you sick fuck.”

Chapter Forty-Four

Zach

At the top of the stairs, the hallway splits east to west. Rube and Cass head west, so Apollo and I take the east wing.

“Stay close,” I murmur to Apollo. “And be quiet.”

“You’re the one talking,” he whispers back.

I open the first door and we peek inside.

Crib.

Mobile with stuffed animals.

Gender-neutral geese dancing over the walls.

I start opening the closet doors to make sure no one’s hiding inside one waiting to leap out at us. But the closets are empty. As in, there’s not even a single diaper in sight.

This place creeps me the fuck out. It feels staged, like the owners moved out ages ago and the real estate agent set it up for an open house.

Who lived here? Where are they now?

“Next room,” I murmur, backing up with my weapon still pointed, just in case someone appears out of thin air.

A gunshot sounds.

I spin around and face a locked door.

Apollo’s not inside with me. Then I hear a key turning in the lock and my hair stands on end.

What the fuck?

“Apollo?” I run up and try the door handle.

Locked.

Christ. “Apollo!”

I know it wasn’t him that locked me inside, but now I’m shitting myself wondering what happened to him. I bang on the door a few times, but that’s not helping. I could shoot at the lock, but what are the chances of the bullet ricocheting and hitting me somewhere vital?

I start kicking the door, but it’s sturdy as fuck.

“Apollo! What’s the address?”

Rube.

“Reuben!” I yell. “Reuben, open up!”

But there’s no response. What the fuck is going on out there?

Screw this. I step back, raise my gun—

“Rube! Zach! Help!”

I pause. That’s Cass. But wasn’t he just with Rube? What the—

Thud.

Thud.

The sound’s coming from down the hall. Like someone’s banging on something. I turn on my heel, scan the room. My eyes latch onto the window.

With every distant thud, my heart climbs another inch up my throat.

I shove my gun into my belt and hurry over.

I don’t stop to think. I don’t even allow myself to give the ground more than a passing glance.

My sight is fixed on a nearby tree. From what I saw before I looked away, there’s a good yard of thin air between me and the closest bough.

But there’s a gunfight going on, and my brothers are involved. I don’t know who’s on the winning side, or if there even is a winning side.

I bundle myself up tight, and then push away from the window as hard as I can.

My stomach slams into the bough. A stray branch scratches my face. I fumble, manage to get an arm slung over the bough, and hold on until I have my bearings.

I work my way to the main trunk and climb down. I drop down the last few feet, already running for the patio doors.

Something deep and dark and rectangular draws my eye.

A grave.

A grave?

I race upstairs, my legs almost giving out when I see Rube on the floor. I fall down beside him, and start panting as I hike up his shirt with a shaking hand.

Gutshot. Surprisingly little blood. Does that mean the bullet’s still in there?

There’s a crash from inside the room, but Rube needs me more right now.

Except…I don’t have a fucking clue what to do.

A hand lands on my shoulder, trembling slightly. I look up into Apollo’s face.

“Cass needs you,” he says.

“But—”

“Go.” He falls to his knees beside Reuben and starts ripping off a piece of his shirt. I stand on unsteady legs and half walk, half stumble into the room.

It’s the one from the video.

But there’s blood here now.

And three dead bodies.

Four if you count—

“No! Trinity!” I rush forward, but then Cass is in front of me, driving me back. “No!” I try and shove him, but he somehow manages to