Page 48 of Damaged

Killing the lights, Wrath waited until his eyes adjusted and then eased open the door.

The landing on the stairs was empty and Wrath quickly made his way down the hall and paused.

“Where is Jeff’s room?” He figured that guy was the bigger threat than the woman.

Rebel pointed down the hall. “The second door.”

“And the woman?” Wrath said, keeping his voice almost inaudible.

“Downstairs room,” Rebel whispered.

Wrath handed Rebel back his knife. “Stay here,” he whispered and walked to Jeff’s door. When he tried the handle, it turned, and he quickly entered, shutting the door behind him.

Rebel stood staring at the door Wrath had disappeared through. The hope that Wrath would help him save his mother turned to fear when the man left his sight.

He stood clutching the knife. He’d killed with the blade in his hands and if he had to, he would kill Jeff if it happened to be him who came back out of that room instead of Wrath. He wouldneed to be on the run for the rest of his life if he did that, and he would never be able to see his mother again because the cops would be all over her place.

“What have I told you about coming out of your room at night?” Mrs. Jackson said from behind him.

Shit. She’d come up the stairs and he hadn’t heard her. Pasting on a smile, he palmed the knife, so it stayed hidden somewhat and turned around. She held her trusty revolver in her hand. It was some kind of vintage weapon she told many a story about using. It wasn’t pointed at him because she knew he would never attack her for fear over his mother.

He could kill her right here and now by shoving his knife in her neck. She would never see it coming.

But what if it was Jeff instead of Wrath who came out of Jeff’s room? The odd thing was that there had been no sounds from Jeff’s room after Wrath had entered. Had Jeff gotten the jump on Wrath the minute he’d entered?

“Where’s Rick?”

It took Rebel a moment to realize that she was talking about Wrath.

“He’s in the bathroom.”

“Your bathroom?”

Rebel nodded.

“Get back to bed. You’ve got two jobs tomorrow.” She gestured to his closed bedroom door.

Rebel made the decision and hoped like hell that he wasn’t sending his mother to an early grave.

“Okay,” he whispered and swung his arm up and around.

The knife punctured her neck. Blood sprayed him and her. Her eyes widened and the gun toppled to the floor with a thud just before she collapsed on the stained carpet.

Wrath came out of Jeff’s room and closed the door. He found Rebel standing frozen over Mrs. Jackson’s body. Gently, he approached and took the knife from the boy’s hand and dropped it to the floor. “It’s okay, they’re all dead.”

Rebel nodded, sucked in a harsh breath, and stood panting as if he’d been running. Wrath cupped a hand at the back of Rebel’s neck with one hand and pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

Savage answered on the first ring even though it was the middle of the night.

“What do you need?” The man’s voice sounded like he’d been woken from sleep.

“I need cleaners. Do the full sweep for prints and I mean full.” Wrath told Savage the address and pulled Rebel down the stairs.

“Did you retrieve Rebel?”

“I did,” Wrath assured his boss. He wondered why Savage was so set on bringing Rebel in, but then he remembered that Savage seemed set on finding all of Solomon and Tanis’ boys.

“Good. I’ll have a team there in twenty minutes to clean the place. You get Rebel to Dave’s for now.”

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