The Revenge by Tijan

Josh frowned. “Is she hiding?”

I looked at Derek. “Did you check the feeds?”

He already had his computer up and was typing. “Pulling it up now.” He clicked. Clicked. He frowned. Clicked some more, and his eyes lifted. “There’s a secret door behind the living room couch.”

We were in the living room.

As one person, we turned.

The couch was behind us.

Jasper and Josh moved to the couch, lifting it clear from the wall.

Derek put his computer down. All of our guns were raised again, and he approached the wall.

Jasper moved in from the right.

Josh from the left.

A small hatch was in the wall, and Derek took point right in front of Josh. He grabbed the latch and opened it, hurling himself and the small door to the side. Josh rounded, his gun drawn. Jasper bent down, sweeping the bottom. Josh the top. Neither saw anything. Both went inside.

Derek looked at me.

I looked at him, then nodded to the computer. “Pull the active feeds. I want to see if that’s a tunnel, if she’s coming out somewhere else.”

He holstered his gun, nodding at the same time, and hurried to the computer.

We waited. A minute passed. Two. Three.

There were no shouts.

The guys checked the perimeter and all radioed in. Everything was cleared out there, so that meant she wasn’t out there somewhere. She was inside the house—or hell, she was in a tunnel for all I knew.

Josh’s voice came over the radio. “Got her.”

Derek stopped what he was doing, going to his own radio. “Where?”

“There’s a back room. I think we’re under the basement. Her grandfather had a whole system down here.”

“Is she unharmed?”

A slight laugh from Josh. “Oh yeah. She’s feisty, some cursing, but she’s good to go. She’d been drinking, so I think she got lost in the tunnels. She trapped herself.”

Over the radio, we heard a feminine voice, “Fuck you! Fuck who’s out there. Is that Kash? Tell him to fuck himself!”

There were scuffling sounds next.

A thud.

Josh came back on the radio, his voice sounding strained. “Jasper needs a hand. We’ll be out momentarily.”

“Guys outside want to know your orders. They switched channels,” Derek said.

I nodded, rubbing a hand over my face. I was exhausted and I hadn’t even dealt with this girl yet. “Tell them to set the detonators. This is going to be a message to him.”

Derek’s eyebrows dipped before smoothing out. “Can I say something?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s the message of burning down this house? You already eliminated the owner, and he was one of your grandfather’s biggest assets.”

“The message is that he can’t hide anything from me. I will find it, and I will destroy it. It’s cat and mouse right now, but I’ve become the cat. He just doesn’t know it. Me burning this house down, and the five others we’re going to do by the end of this trip, is me letting him know. He’s now the mouse. I want him scared and I want him doing what she did, messing up and trapping himself.”

Josh and Jasper arrived back, stepping out from the small door, and in their hands was a struggling old lover.

I greeted her. “Hello, Victoria.”

The guys hadn’t lied. Her eyes were dilated, her hair a mess. She was wearing a robe over a nightgown. Her feet were bare and she reeked of booze.

“You mother fucker fuckerrr. I’m gonna—I’m gonna—aghrdd.” She tried again, twisting around. “Im gont hurd youph. Yood aholed!”

I had to take stock for a beat, because the last time I saw Victoria, she’d been furious, but she hadn’t been this Victoria. She was skin and bones.

“Boss.” Jasper lifted her arm, shoving her robe’s sleeve up.

Her veins were black and blue. Track marks.

I frowned, shooting an order out to Josh. “Go. Search the house. I want all the drug paraphernalia collected.”

“What? Noooph. Im nod a drgge. I’m nod.”

“Vic.”

The nickname silenced her. She stopped struggling against Jasper’s lone hold. He was behind her, one foot between hers so she couldn’t kick back, and he had a firm grip on both her arms, keeping them slightly behind her.

Her eyes were wide, but damn, she was gone. Anything I said to her would be wasted. So instead of issuing the threats and the ultimatums that I wanted to, I remembered she was someone I used to care about.

I never loved her, but I cared for her.

I stepped close, sliding my hand under a strand of hair that was hanging over her face, and I moved it back. I tucked it behind her ear and I let her feel a gentle slide of my hand down her cheek, a slight cupping of her chin, before I angled her head to see me better.

“You’re going to get clean.” The words were firm and without reproach from me.

She took note and her eyes widened. Defiance started to fill, but I shook my head.

I let go and stepped back. “I’m not asking, Vic.”

“You took away my grandfather,” she whispered.

“But not you, Victoria.”

Her eyes closed first.

Her shoulders fell.

The fight left her body.

It could’ve all been an act. It probably was, because she had the signs of a full drug addict. I wasn’t going to give her an option.