Page 81 of Shattered Vows

“Sir, it’s Darren, the head of security. There’s been a breach.”

I set the bottle of booze on my desk. “What do you mean there’s been a breach?”

But I don’t hear his next words. There’s a prick in my neck, then everything goes black.

When I come to, it takes me a few minutes to become aware of my surroundings and the fact that I’m in a chair and can’t move. I’m still groggy when I open my eyes. Whoever has me obviously dosed me with something to knock me out and I’m still under its effects because I can barely keep my eyes open.

My head lolls to the side as I drift off, and a set of shoes comes into view in front of me. I force myself to open my eyes and see who it is.

There are two of them. The men look like they could be twins, but one isn’t as big as the other, so maybe they’re brothers. Either way, they’re definitely related. I commit each face to memory because these motherfuckers will pay. If not today, one day soon.

They’re wearing the same groundskeeper outfits, which gives me some clue as to how they got onto the property, but not who these fuckers are.

My head lolls forward again, whatever drug they gave me is probably mixing with the alcohol I already had in my system.

“Why isn’t he waking up? He should be awake already,” one of the guys says.

“I dunno. Get the camera set up. We need to get this going and then split,” the other says.

Then I’m out again. I’m not sure how much time passes, but I’m awoken by a stinging slap across the face.

I grit my teeth, feeling a little less groggy now. When I raise my head, there’s a phone set up on a tripod in the corner of the room. What the fuck is this all about?

Another look around the room, and I know exactly where we are. We’re still on Midnight Manor property in an old caretaker’s shed. It used to store extra supplies when the crew had to do work far from the main house, back before special utility vehicles were used to move things around the grounds. It’s probably sat empty for a decade or more at this point. Which means no one will come upon us by chance.

“Should we get started?” the guy with the slightly bigger nose says.

The other one grins, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s.”

“Are you going to tell me what Dumb and Dumber are doing on my property?” I say.

The one closest to me backhands me, and I spit out the blood filling my mouth. “You’d be wise to keep your fucking mouth shut unless we tell you to open it.”

“Bet that’s what his dad used to say to his mom before she got offed,” the guy standing farther away says.

My jaw tics, and my hands fists at the mention of my mother.

“The more you piss us off, the more it’s going to hurt until we decide to put you out of your misery.” This asshole looks so smug. I can’t wait until I get my hands on him.

The other one says, “Wonder if that sweet thing of his has a good mouth. I can imagine it wrapped around my dick. Maybe when we’re done here, you and I should go track her down and find out, Louie.”

Louie whips his head toward the camera. “You said my name, asshole.”

These idiots clearly don’t understand who they’re fucking with. I was about to get myself out of here, but at the mention of Rapsody, I need to know what’s going on. I have to figure out who’s behind this and make sure there’s not a threat against her even after I off these two pieces of shit.

“What do you want?” I ask, wanting to get on with this so I can track down Rapsody and make sure with my own eyes that she’s safe.

“We were sent by a friend of yours to exact some justice. Seems you finally fucked with the wrong person,” Louie says with a sadistic smile.

“Jessie Wallace,” the other one says.

Fuck. The father of one of the men I killed in order to save Anabelle last year. This is about revenge.

“So you’re that old fuck’s errand boys? Figured he could afford someone better than you two idiots.”

That comment earns me another punch across the jaw. This one makes Louie shake out his hand.

“You think we don’t know how to make a man beg us to end his life? We’re mafioso, it’s what we do,” Louie says in anger, giving me another piece of his identity.

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