Page 79 of Dirty Behavior

I hated that fucking scent. The air was a mix of dead fish and chemicals, it flipped my stomach upside down.

Sesto tapped my back and nodded. “Through here, come on.” Cutting into the bushes and brush, his feet snapped twigs like small bones.

“In there?”

“Yup, lets go.”

“Why do we have to climb through a fucking forest to get there?”

“We want to go unnoticed, right?”

“Well, yeah, but isn't there another way?” A thin branched flipped back as Sesto let it go, slapping against my cheek. “This isn't exactly easy. How long have you been doing this?”

“Not long enough, because he's still breathing.”

His dark body scrunched and ducked, shoulders bobbing and weaving around wooden limbs. I stayed close on his heels, trying like to hell to avoid the quick scratch of tree nails.

“We'll cut through here and come out right behind the building. There's a door on the side we can jimmy open to get in.”

“You really have been busy, huh?”

“Like a fucking night stalker.” Holding up his hand, he stopped me. Turning over his shoulder, Sesto held his finger to his lips and nodded forward.

I could see the yard right over his shoulder, two black silhouettes stalked the roof, each one holding a gun. The men were pacing back and forth, but I couldn't tell which way they faced and where their eyes were set.

“What now? How the hell do we get past them?” Whispering to my brother, I rested my hands on my knees to stay hidden behind the thick tree line.

Sesto glanced back at me, his smile bold and bright. Reaching into his waist, he pulled out his gun. “I've been ready for this.” His fingers spun on the muzzle, twisting fast and fierce.

“When did you get a silencer?”

He didn't answer, he just kept smiling like a fucking schoolboy about to show his best friend the nudie magazine he stole from his old man. “Just watch.”

Lifting the cool metal to his eye, Sesto lined up and cocked the trigger. “Bye bye,” he said, whispering under his breath.

His finger slowly slinked to the pin, clicking off the safety. I swear I saw his mouth arch up to his fucking eyeballs. I don't think I'd ever seen him with a grin that huge and that sincere in my life.

I heard the click of the trigger first, followed by a loud thud that rattled my ribs. “I thought that was supposed to silence the sound?” Rubbing the back of my ear with my knuckle, Sesto started laughing.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You watch too many movies. It only makes it so they don't know where it came from, it doesn't make it sound like a kitten jumping on a fucking pile of towels.”

“Looks like we're spotted.”

“Look again, Dante.” Sesto yanked my shoulder forward and guided my head in the direction of the man he took out.

The other guy had run over and was frantically turning in fast circles. He had no clue where the shot came from.

“Your turn.” Holding out the gun, Sesto kept his face on the wild man doing fouettés on his toes like a damn ballerina.

The heavy metal was hot in my hand and damp from Sesto's excited sweaty palms. “My pleasure,” I said, lining up the shot.

Pop!

The second guard went down, his body falling limp and lifeless over the ledge of the roof. And I won't lie, my smile was just as big as Sesto's.

“Nice, let's go.” Kicking his head to the fence, he stayed low and crept to the thin metal rungs like a feral animal. Curling his fingers through the holes, Sesto pulled back a small opening.

I had never seen this side of him before. He was so smooth and silent, creeping like a snake in the grass. I liked it.

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