Page 11 of Shredded Soul

Charon chuckled. “The same way I got out.”

Alastair looked baffled. “It’s been over a decade. Surely, they’ve closed that gap in their security.”

“I assure you they haven’t.”

“How do you know?” Alastair sounded genuinely puzzled.

Charon flashed him a bright smile. “Because I walked right out the front door.”

“Great.”

Charon laughed at Alastair’s tone. He knew Alastair didn’t believe they could simply stroll right in unaccosted. But Charon knew exactly how far pure cockiness could take a person. Today was no different. Still, he didn’t want Alastair fearing the worst. That would distract him when Charon needed Alastair’s focus.

He climbed behind the wheel of the waiting Jeep and met Alastair’s stare. “Don’t worry. I swear you’ll make it home to your sweet Reed.” Charon would never let anything happen to his only friend’s husband.

“I hope so. He’s been through enough.”

That was true. Alastair’s husband had once been on a very different side of the academy. He had been scooped from an orphanage the way most of them had been. Unfortunately, it was only because he had caught a leader’s eye in a very perverse way. He had been kept as a sexual slave known as a pet. The damage was every bit as deep.

Charon’s foot lifted from the gas as he headed down the partially hidden path to the compound. It was quiet. No one stood at the guard’s station. The field where the boys were trained was empty. It should have been filled with early morning drills. Charon glanced at his watch, making sure he hadn’t miscalculated the time difference in his head. No. The place was too quiet.

Alastair and Charon exchanged a glance, proving they had the same thought. It didn’t matter they had come from two different camps. They were all run the same.

“Maybe they’re on lockdown?”

Charon accepted that might be an option. It wasn’t uncommon for boys to attempt an escape. In those instances, they would lock down the building until the boy was made an example and executed. But this was different, and they knew it. Charon felt the unease crawling up his spine.

As they neared the building, Alastair pulled weapons from the backseat, preparing to roll out and use the tall grass as cover. Charon had drawn a rudimentary map for their attack. Alastair would sneak his way through a side door that was always unlocked. It was a leader’s office. If anyone was inside, he would take them out before meeting Charon inside. Charon planned to walk through the front door. It was bold and unexpected, giving him the drop on at least a couple of targets before anyone from the security room could warn them. Maybe it was reckless, but that was exactly why Charon expected the plan to work.

Charon slowed. In a matter of seconds, Alastair was gone, disappearing into the terrain. Charon barely spared time to park before sprinting for the door. It easily opened, disproving the theory of lockdown. The moment Charon stepped inside, he froze. Three men were already dead in the front hallway, leading to the mouth of the facility. With his attention focused on looking out for attackers, Charon bent and crab-walked while checking each body. They were still warm. It was a recent kill. He knew Alastair was good, but there was no way he had beaten Charon inside. The whole point of him coming through the front door was to ensure the office was empty, giving Alastair a free shot inside. If one of them lived, they stood a shot at success, but this was fucking weird.

Charon straightened and creeped down the hallway. When he reached the main room of the facility, he blinked. Alastair stood to his right, looking every bit as confused as Charon felt. In the center of the room, a dozen tattered-looking boys sat huddled. In a circle around them, all the leaders lay dead where they had obviously fallen. The boys shook, no doubt from shock.

Alastair headed his way. He lowered his voice. “What in the fuck is going on here?”

Charon made a helpless gesture. “I have no idea.” He focused on the boys. “What happened here?” No one answered. One boy didn’t fit in with the rest. His hair had been dyed hot pink, and he looked clean. He looked close to eighteen, and he held the smaller kids, comforting them. The boy stood out like a beacon from the rest. Hair dye wasn’t something done here. Pink hair meant free thinking. That wasn’t allowed.

Charon focused on him. “What’s your name?”

“Pink.” He didn’t sound scared.

Alastair turned his back to the boys and spoke closely to Charon’s ear. “Look at his collar. He was one of these guys’ pet.”

Charon’s heart twisted. He knew he had to treat this one as the adult. He focused on Pink again. “Who did this?”

He shrugged. “He had white hair.” Charon and Alastair exchanged a glance. Pink kept talking. “He moved so fast and silently, they didn’t stand a chance… thankfully.”

Charon focused on Alastair. “What do we do now? It seems Snow has already done our job.”

“We have to find a safe place for these boys. We can’t just leave them like this.”

He had been afraid of that. “What are we supposed to do with a dozen boys?”

Alastair shrugged. “I guess we’ll see if any of them have a place to go and then go from there.”

Charon sighed. It seemed he wouldn’t get home to Paine as quickly as he hoped. He prayed Paine didn’t disappear again while he was gone. They had already lost too much time. They deserved some peace.

A small part of Paine expected he would never see Charon again. He simply accepted the idea of losing him, whether it be to death or Charon simply disappearing. Paine never expected happiness. Hope had been lost to him years ago. The more days that passed, the more his acceptance grew. He had known Charon was too good to be true.

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