Page 20 of Adored By Them
As soon as Uriel frees him, Kellen pretends to fall—or maybe he really does fall.I can’t tell.Uriel shouts in outrage as Kellen slams into the desk and several of those black, unlit candles and religious statues topple over.
While Uriel is distracted by the new mess, Kellen kicks his leg out and nudges the utility knife toward me.Kellen groans as the utility knife slides over the floor.
I think the groan was to cover the sound.Kellen’s pretty smart.
The knife hits the front leg of my chair.I lift my foot and plant it on top of the knife, hiding it from view as much as I can.The cold metal presses into my sole.
“You idiot!”Uriel grasps Kellen by the shoulders and lifts him.“You’re ruining everything.”
He hits Kellen in the side, again and again.Kellen’s pain-filled groans fill my ears.
“Stop, please!”I can’t bear to watch, but I can’t keep quiet.“Just take him to the bathroom!”
Uriel chuckles and drags Kellen from the room.I listen hard, hoping to hear Kellen say something.Anything.But he’s silent.
A couple minutes go by.
Uriel brings Kellen back.A flat, blank smile is on Uriel’s face.
Kellen’s eyes are closed.
“Is he dead?Is hedead?”I ask.
Uriel doesn’t answer me.
But when he sets Kellen back on that gaudy chair, he doesn’t tie Kellen’s hands.
8
Edmund
There’s nothing more pathetic than a sack of shit blubbering while he’s dangling from a crime lord’s garage ceiling.
“Please, please, man.Please don’t kill me.”Caleb’s voice is an earnest whine.
Sergey Aseyev shakes his head and mutters something in Russian.“He’s disgusting.”
“Agreed.”I look away from the guy who used to be my second-closest friend.“What are you going to do with him?We brought him to you.He’s yours.”
Sergey brushes a piece of lint from the hem of his polo shirt.“No.I will leave it up to you.Happy to make him disappear if that’s what you want.”
I realize that as angry as I am, that’s all I want—I want Caleb Morraine to disappear.But I don’t want him to disappear in Sergey’s sense of the word; I don’t want to kill him.I simply don’t want him in my life anymore.
“You’d do whatever with him that I recommend?”I ask.
Sergey’s smile is humorless.“Well, I’m certainly not going to hire him.But if you want me to set him free, I’ll set him free.”
Caleb continues crying.
“Shut up.”Troy nudges him with the crowbar he took back from Sergey.
I hold out my hand for the crowbar.Troy passes it over.
I lightly press the end of the crowbar to Caleb’s forehead, then his chest, then his stomach.I pull it back like I’m going to swing, but I don’t swing.He whimpers.
“If you’re free, you leave San Esteban.Forever.”I stare hard, making sure he can see how deadly serious I am.“The Laytons want nothing to do with you ever again.You never come back.Not even to see your mother.If you know what’s good for her, you’ll convince her to go with you because I doubt my father will want her hanging around after he hears what you did.”
“It was a mistake,” Caleb sobs.
