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A choked sob followed her monotone statement, growing louder in volume as the words hit home.
“There’s no need for tears, dear girl. You will be joining her soon. Jack, deal with this please.”
Making sure Addy was behind me, I glanced back at Maliki and he wordlessly moved up to stand by my side. Together we closed the distance to the bedroom, reaching it just a few seconds too late.
The man in overalls held an axe above his head, swinging it down a fraction before my finger pulled the trigger. There was a piercing scream cut short as the thick blade split apart Izzy’s face with a sickening crack.
A bullet found a home in Jack’s spine.
Izzy’s blood jetted across the pillow and sprayed up the floral wallpapered wall.
The man named Jack stumbled forward releasing an agonized groan. Everything thereafter happened in quick succession. Maliki took out the remaining two men with perfect headshots, leaving me to handle the women.
The one who looked my age attempted to run at us. Her movement caused the first bullet to shoot clean through her throat, the second lodged in her chest, dropping her to the floor.
Sue was even easier, she stood in place with a smile on her face as if she’d come to terms with her fate. She too received a headshot. Before her body could fully com
e to rest on the floor Maliki and I were at her side and searching for a key, leaving Addy to watch the hall.
“Around her neck,” Maliki stated, pulling at a leather makeshift necklace.
My eyes went to the small lifeless bundle that had fallen awkwardly beside her.
Leaving him on the floor didn’t seem right. I placed my gun in its holster and gently scooped the baby up. He was so small, so light. His eyes were closed and aside from him being stillborn he looked perfect, but he was so cold and so...dead.
Carrying him over to the bed, I sat him on the end so that I could pull Jack’s body off his mother. Understanding my intent without needing explanation, Maliki tore the key away from Sue and then came to help me. He grabbed the back of Jack’s neck and pulled him backward, dropping him to the floor. A sharp breath indicated he wasn’t dead yet.
Ignoring him, I gripped the handle of the ax and pulled, removing it from Izzy’s face on my second attempt.
Her nose, mouth, and forehead all had been cleaved clean through.
Empty eyes stared at me as a sudden rush of blood bubbled up and spilled from the split.
Knowing we were on a timetable, I pulled my Scythe out and cut the ropes that were binding her wrists, and then the ones keeping her legs spread. Her placenta was partially out of her, cored still attached, but it wouldn’t matter much if it remained.
I’d known since seeing a photograph of Izzy that the chances she was alive were slim to none. But I didn’t think I would be a few feet away when she departed. Had I been a second sooner I could have saved her, but saving wasn’t what I did. My specialty was killing and that’s what I was best at.
Still, it didn’t seem right to leave her or her baby to rot so openly—and they would rot. They’d decompose in this room with the same people who held them captive.
Once she was free I hurried across the room and grabbed each of the tattered curtain panels.
I placed one on top of Izzy’s face and the other over the baby once I laid him beside her. “Let’s get out of here,” I said to Maliki, who’d taken to watching me in silence.
“Did you get the key?” Addy asked as soon as we hit the hall.
“In hand,” Maliki answered, holding up the silver object in question.
We filed back out of the house in record timing and he handed it off to Addy. “Get that to Z, we’ll be right there.”
She looked to me and I nodded to reassure her I was okay. With a reluctant side-eye she hurried off, ducking beneath one of the sheets.
“What is it?” I asked Maliki once she vanished from sight.
“Help me get him down.” He gestured to Ace, making his way to the contraption he was being boiled in.
With no one to feed it the fire had died down significantly, but that didn’t make the metal container any less hot.
“What do you want me to do?”
