Page 9 of Slay Tricksters and Silent Skeletons
What a fucking cliché.
“Nice of you to show up,” I rasped just as the knife bit into my skin and warm liquid trickled down my neck.
Niran’s eyes showed nothing, but his lips quirked in amusement. “You’ve been mine since the moment Rico brought you home,” he told me, his eyes cold and calculating as he took in the cooler, the dead carcasses, and the men filling the icy room. “No one gets to fucking take you from me.”
And just like that, he fired off the first shot, taking down a guard just over my shoulder, the bullet whizzing past my ear as loud as a fucking siren.
8
Niran
It was nice to see that option two was what we had to work with—that they were down on their means and dumb as fuck. Turning off their security feed on the way to their location had been as simple as hacking into their Wi-Fi system and turning it off, which meant we’d infiltrated the building with absolutely no fucking problem because no one was aware we were even there.
I was almost disappointed by the lack of challenges. I would’ve hoped someone who had the balls to try to kidnap Rico’s husband would at least be a bit smarter and have more resources, but they were just as dumb as a box of rocks.
It was silent when we walked inside the packaging plant, and Alfonzo and I took the lead, covering each room before we allowed Rico inside. While the man could definitely hold his own, he had us now so he didn’t have to. And honestly, even if I wasn’t his personal guard, I’d still do it just so I wouldn’t have tohear more of Anurak’s crying if something happened to hisPapi. I’d had enough of that boy’s tears to last me a lifetime.
As we moved deeper into the warehouse, voices began to reach us, though they were faint. Alfonzo and I split up to come at them from both sides. Rico went with Alfonzo, along with one of the guards I’d brought with us, and the other two came with me. I followed the sound of voices, coming to an open door that led into a meat freezer. And standing in the middle of a circle of about twelve men wasmyman.
Bento was outnumbered, his lips and fingertips were blue, and he had bruises forming on his face. He was clearly on the verge of hypothermia, if he wasn’t already there. My jaw tightened at the sight of him.
I was going to slaughter every mother fucker standing there for touching my man. For daring to try to take him from me.No onegot to touch him butme.
“Rico owes me, and you fucked up my whole plan of kidnapping his husband to get what I want from him—” an older man was saying. He looked suspiciously like Rico, but I wasn’t focusing on that at the moment. My goal was to get Bento out alive. And since it seemed like he and the young man next to him were the brains of the bullshit operation—even if the brains weren’t all that much—I intended to take out the ten other men in the room while leaving those two alive for questioning.
And torture. Because their deaths wouldnotbe quick. Not after what they’d done tomyBento.
Bento abruptly laughed at the man, but it was cold and menacing. Pride swept down my spine for him. He wasn’t layingdown and taking the shit they doled out to him. He was standing his ground, even if it meant his death.
And if there was one thing I knew Bento would always do, it was run his mouth. He wasexcellentat doing that. I’d never been able to get that one trait out of him, no matter how hard I tried. But right then, I was glad I hadn’t. No doubt, Bento thought he was alone in this, and it was clear he wasn’t going down without speaking his mind.
Bento’s loud clapping filled the air, and his grin was damn near maniacal. “You really fucking think you’ll get what you want from Rico by kidnappingme?” His laughter grew in volume. “You really are fucking stupid, huh? He must’ve gotten all his smarts from his ma considering he definitely didn’t get them from you. News flash, dumbass. I’m nothing more than a street rat that Rico rescued. He couldn’t give two fucks about whether I live or die.”
Bento was so much more than that. Though he didn’t realize it, Rico looked at Bento as a son in some ways. Rico didn’t just rescue anyone, yet he’d brought Bento home and demanded he be treated with decency. He wanted him comfortable, and he ordered me to mold him into a respectable man.
Rico didn’t care about many people, and he certainly didn’t go out of his way to help them. Bento had no idea how incredibly fucking lucky he was.
“He’ll come looking,” the older man growled, his face coloring with anger at Bento’s audacity to call him a dumbass.
Bento shrugged. “To get revenge for the hell you put his husband through, probably. But to rescue me? Nah. He’s not coming for that.” I shook my head. The moment Rico had gotten his handson Anurak, he’d ordered me to find Bento. I was going to find him regardless, but Rico wasn’t letting Bento die. Not after all the work he’d put into keeping Bento around.
Bento threw his arms out to the side, and my gut dropped. Was hewelcomingthem to fucking shoot him? He’d lost his fucking mind. “So come on. Put an end to it, old fuck. Rico’s not coming for me.”
I’d had enough of letting Bento have his fun. They werenotputting a single fucking bullet in him under my watch.
“Even if he didn’t, I fucking always will,” I said, stepping up to the entrance of the cooler as I announced my presence. The cold air bit at my skin, but I ignored it.
Bento’s gaze swung to me in surprise, his arms dropping to his sides with a smack. He didn’t have a second to move more than that before the young man who was clearly in cahoots with the older one grabbed Bento and pressed a knife to his throat, pinning Bento to the front of his body as protection.
Smart move. I’d give him credit for that. But putting my man in danger?—
I watched a trickle of blood run down Bento’s neck and ground my teeth together. Scratch that. For spilling a single drop of my man’s blood, he was dying fucking regardless. And I was going to spill as much blood from his worthless body just for that single drop he’d made Bento lose.
Everything of Bento belonged tome, and this mother fucker was carelessly wasting it.
“Nice of you to show up,” Bento rasped, not seeming alarmed in the slightest, even though he was between my target, a knife was at his neck, and I had an automatic rifle aimed in their direction.
My lips quirked in amusement. It was rare I let my stoic mask fall in front of him, but I couldn’t fucking help it. Even in the face of death, Bento had a smart-ass mouth. That trait was both endearing and annoying.
