Page 6 of Ruthless Commander
The word stayed with me as I crossed the dirt road and stepped behind parked cars. I knew what they were, knew what they’d do to someone like Edon. Still, he hadn’t listened, he never did. Movement came from the corner of my eye. I slowed my steps as a wolf sniffed the rubbish bins at the entrance to the street, then stopped and lifted its head, the beast’s gaze fixed on me.
I kept moving, keeping my steps light, and slowed only when lights from inside the house flickered through the window. The music was loud…too loud, making the wolf lower its ears and trot away. I gripped the bat and stepped closer, moving underneath a steel carport, and sank into the shadows.
Which were fine by me.
I relaxed my grip, then tightened it once more and headed to a screen door at the side of the building. The heavy thump of the music muffled the howl of the hinges as I slipped inside. The tiny kitchen stank and was filthy. But I wasn’t there to critique the way they lived…only end it.
I moved quietly, slipping through a doorway into a hallway and headed further along the back of the house. Voices spilled out of a bedroom at the far end of the hall. Still, I stopped at the closed door to the first room, turned the handle, and slipped inside.
I blinked into the darkness, letting my eyes adjust to the gloom, to find the monstrous outline of a guy lying spread-eagled on top of the bed.Balla,it had to be. The man-mountain was more than their heavy, he also covered up the filth they left behind.
Young girls snatched from their families and used by Davol and his scum. It all ended here. I lifted the bat as a deep, thunderous snore came from the man. The closer I came, the more I realized he wasn’t alone…
I glanced toward the corner of the room to where a young girl cowered. Her eyes were wide, the whites stark in the gloom. I lifted my hand and pressed a finger to my lips, gave a shake to my head, and motioned she turn away.
She did.
Smart girl.
I gripped the end of the bat with one hand and clenched the other around the handle, pulled the bat up as far as I could, then drove the end into the bastard’s face. “This is for my brother.”
Thecrunchwas sickening.
Blood spurted in an instant, the warmth splashing over my hand. But I was ready, jumping on the bastard’s flabby chest without a sound and driving the length of the bat against his throat. My muscles roared, straining as I crushed his fucking neck.
Still he fought, his eyes bulging as he kicked and bucked. I took his blows, I took his fear. I took it all, driving the length of that bat against his throat until his hands fell to the mattress and he stopped moving. My lips slid back against my teeth as I pulled away, listening to the hiss of escaping air, then slowly climbed off the piece of shit.
A whimper slipped through the room. I jerked my gaze toward the sound, having forgotten the girl was there, and in an instant, I saw myself in her terrified eyes. I wore the face of a monster, compete with empty, unflinching eyes. I opened my mouth to say something, to justify my rage, but one glance at the cuffs around her wrists told me I didn’t need to.
I just reached out, patted down the bastard’s pockets until I found the keys and threw them her way. “Don’t leave until I’m done,” I said, leaving her to scurry forward and nod.
That cold, unforgiving well of rage moved inside me as I left her behind and headed for the door once more. I turned the handle and peered through the crack before easing the door open and slipping out into the hallway. But something had changed. Thethudof a drawer came from the kitchen. I backtracked, moving quickly, and stepped up beside one of the others as he busied himself carving slabs of ham with a large carving knife, then moved toward the end of the counter.
He never made it.
I grabbed the knife and, with bits of ham still clinging to the blade, I buried it into his neck. He stumbled to the side, his hand going straight for the blade still embedded as blood spurted, arcing outwards to splash across the counter. I didn’t know his name, didn’t know his face. Nor did I care.
He fell, slipping against the counter to crumple onto the floor, and that’s where he stayed. I left him behind, moving deeper into the house, finding one more of them sprawled out asleep on the sofa. I grabbed the gun from behind my back and reached for the cushion, pressing it over his face as I fired.
Boom.
The sound was swallowed by the thud of the music.
“Hey!”
I jerked my gaze at the sound as one of them shoved up from the floor and stumbled. His eyes widened as he took in the bloody mess behind me, then met my gaze. One second, that’s all it took for him to make the wrong goddamn move.
He lunged, driving his lanky body through the air toward me, hitting me hard. The gun slipped from my hold, but it didn’t matter. Reflexes kicked in, the rage consuming me as I attacked with savage ferocity. There weren’t enough medals they could award me to make up for what I’d become. Only a name…only a title.
Komandant.
I gripped his throat with one hand and unleashed my fist with the other, driving us both backwards to the floor. A scream ripped from him. One shattering blow from my elbow, and the sound ended a second before I drove my thumb into the socket of his eye and reached into his skull.
His body twitched, his arms flopping violently before they flopped no more.
I lifted my head, climbed from his body, and retrieved my gun from the floor, then made my way back along the hallway to where the voices slipped from the room at the end of the hall. The room where I knewhewould be.
My fingers slipped on the handle, slick with blood…and other things. I just clenched tighter, turned the handle, and entered.
