Page 121 of Reaper Flame

TWENTY-FIVE

The main building of the old country club was crumbling apart. Half of the roof was gone, and the window frames were empty or boarded with wooden planks. Plants crawled up the walls as nature tried to take it back. The vast gardens in front of the entrance would have been impressive once, but they now resembled an overgrown jungle.

To the right of the house, guards patrolled a separate sizable outbuilding. It was in better structural condition than the main house and made up of two parts: a long thin rectangular block, that may have been a pool house, with an adjoining section. Tin sheeting had replaced the windows, meaning we couldn’t get a look inside, but the heightened security signaled we were in the right location.

Our Jeep came to a halt and dust consumed the wheels in a cloud. Before we unclipped our seat belts, three guards ran over. The bastards pointed their gun barrels at our windows. I recognized their rat-like faces from my time in Blackthorne Towers. They needed a lesson on how to greet guests.

“What a charming welcoming committee, huh?” West muttered sarcastically.

I lowered the window. If they were going to shoot, the fuckers would have already tried taking out the tires. They also knew that Hiram wouldn’t be happy if anyone else hurt me. That was a job for him alone.

I summoned the Kitten. My voice oozed with the entitlement of a spoilt rich brat. “Hiram is expecting me.”

“He said there would be two of you,” one goon said, casting a shifty glare at the other figures in the car.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know who I am,” I warned. I flashed him my famous smile and watched him flinch at the sight of my sharp canines. “The Kitten can go wherever the fuck she likes, with whoever she wants. They are with me and, if you don’t lower your weapons, it won’t just be your jobs you’ll lose.”

They dubiously lowered their weapons. My name still meant something. They knew they were disposable. If they did something Hiram disapproved of, they’d be dead before my body was cold.

“You know it’s super hot when you talk like that, right?” Rocky murmured.

“Put your tongue back in your head, Red!” Vixen snapped. “This isn’t foreplay!”

I kept my face impassive. I couldn’t show emotion. Hiram would pounce and exploit it. I recalled a lesson he taught me.

“Let no one see what you’re thinking,”he’d said before he sent me on a job to extract sensitive information from a target.“Better still, feel nothing at all. If you feel nothing, you have nothing to hide and nothing to lose.”

I nodded at the Sevens. “Let’s move.”

As we got out of the car, the guys formed a human shield around me and Vixen. Hiram’s guards crowded around, frogmarching us to the outbuilding, hovering their fingers on triggers.

“I have orders to only let the Kitten inside,” the guard standing at the entrance said.

“They all come with me,” I said, planting my hands on my hips in a zero shit taking stance, “or I don’t come in at all.”

The guard floundered, clearly wrestling with what to do next. “Kitten, I...” He looked around at the other goons, who were also at a loss.

“You know what, this is getting old,” I hissed, pushing my way past Zander to face the guard myself. I leaned close and grabbed his tiny testicles with my fist. He yelped as I squeezed hard. “You’ve heard the stories. Why don’t you show me some respect, huh? I won’t ask again. Move.”

As I dropped my hold, he keeled over, clutching himself, and fell to the floor in a panting heap. We’d take each one of them out like bowling pins if we had to.

“Next time, I won’t be so polite,” I warned, stepping over him and opening the door for the others to pass through.

Despite the sun shining, the air in the building was heavy. It smelled damp, and the moisture made me want to clear my throat. Thin shreds of light shone through the cracks in the sheeting — enough to illuminate our path but not enough to see into the shadows at the other end of the narrow room.

“Careful!” West grabbed Vixen’s arm before she stumbled over a cracked floor tile. The same tiles from the photograph.

Plastic covering concealed a large pool in the center of the room, leaving thin walkways on either side. A door at the opposite end led out of the pool house to the second half of the building.

“Mieko?” Vixen called out. “Mieko?”

Her unnerving echo bounced back to us.

“Welcome,” Hiram’s voice answered from the darkness. He stepped out of the door opposite us with his arms outstretched. “I don’t remember sending you all an invitation.”

“We saved you the trouble,” I replied. My hands curled into fists at the smug grin he wore like a uniform. If I were closer, I’d tear it clean off his face and wear it as a fucking mask. “Why wait when we knew where to find you?”

“You never fail to impress me, Kitten.”

---