Page 5 of Behind the Shadows
1
KIP
“What’s up, motherfucker?” I slapped one of my best friends, Hal, aka Dope, on the back before I settled onto the loveseat in the basement of his house, or as his friends referred to it, his dungeon.
Dope leaned over and turned down the music, “Liquor Talkin’” by Don Louis. He shoved his hand through his red hair and rolled his computer chair back. “Locating the next family.” He raised a light eyebrow. “And of course the son of a bitch that deserves a long, torturous death. Some monsters don’t deserve redemption,” Dope muttered.
I gave him a look but didn’t argue. Absolution was a fantasy for those who still believed they could be forgiven. I wasn’t one of them. I used to believe in saving people. Now I made sure the predators were put down before they hurt others.
But sometimes I wondered if I was simply cleaning up a mess I’d helped create.
There were nights I couldn’t sleep. Ghosts I couldn’t forget.
And one I couldn’t quite remember—only the sound of her screaming.
I leaned back, stretching my legs in front of me. “What do you have so far? Death is getting restless.”
Death, a notorious serial killer and childhood friend of ours, had killed multiple people in the Portland area and across the country, leaving a trail of victims and attracting unwanted attention from the authorities. Once Safe Horizon, an underground operation that helped women and children leave horrible, warped living situations, had been established, Dope and I realized Death would get caught soon if left to his own devices. We took it upon ourselves to protect him. We gave the police misinformation, planted evidence, cleaned crime scenes, and fed him sick fucks to murder. It was all planned so we could manage and sidestep the authorities. It was our job to cover his tracks and point him toward the bastards who sold kids and beat their wives. Most of those vile pieces of shit were identified when we found the right families to help.
Not only did Death get what he needed, but the men who hurt and tortured women and children were punished for their crimes. We used the society to feed a serial killer his victims.It was fucked up and twisted, but no one had a clue how alike Death and I really were. I fed on the aftermath and cleaned up the murder scenes, but lately it had turned into more. The beast inside me had awakened with an insatiable hunger, consuming my every thought and toying with my emotions. As hard as I tried to keep the memories buried in the back of my mind, they continued to emerge through the cracks and crevices, haunting me with reminders of my past and taunting me with uncertainty about my future.
A part of me was driven by selfish motives. By doing good deeds, I wished I could somehow redeem myself for the sins of my past. But deep down, I knew it was too late for me. My humanity had been stripped away over the years, and once it was gone there was nothing to put back into that empty space.Still, working with these vulnerable individuals and seeing the glimmer of hope in their gazes was the only thing that kept me going, an anchor in the blackest corners of my soul.
“Sorry, what did you ask?” Dope gave me a lopsided grin. It was the same one he gave his friends when he knew he’d been caught not paying attention.
“I asked what you have so far. Death is getting irritable. He needs his next victim.”
He rubbed his palms together, nearly giddy. “As always, I’ve got his back. We need to hop over to Ohio and help a mom of three. She’s tried to leave her husband, Collin, twice, and he’s made her pay for it.” Dope folded his arms across his chest, his expression twisted with fury. “The bastard is trading guns for girls to sell. He’s in deep, so we have to watch our asses on this one. He’s connected with a shit ton of powerful men.”
“Understood. At least we can put an end to Collin. If someone else comes after us, then Death will have another victim. We can keep feeding his dark side.” Grinning, I laced my fingers behind my head.
Dope’s hands flew over the keyboard, then he said, “Is Riley going to cover the bar at Velvet Vortex while you’re gone?”
“We need more people than her. I’ll work on changing the schedule. It’s a little more difficult covering the bar and restaurant since Bass left.”
Sebastian, who we called Bass, my other best friend and business partner, had moved to New York with his wife, Ella, for a while, but after serious shit went down, they’d returned to Portland. Even though Bass loved to cover the bar and chat up the customers, his situation had changed, and he ran the club behind the scenes the majority of the time.
“It’s not only Collin’s enemies we have to watch for. We’ve made enemies while working at Safe Horizon, and not to mention the other crazy motherfucker that’s now in our lives.”Dope pretended to play a flute and raised his brows at me. We hated mentioning the sick fuck’s name, so we skirted around it as often as possible.
He didn’t need to mention who he was talking about. I would never forget the cold, knowing stare that shot straight through me when I first came face-to-face with the Pied Piper—a notorious serial killer and one of the most dangerous men I’d ever met. He’d taken an interest in Sebastian’s family, and now we were all looking over our shoulders.
Dope cracked his knuckles before he rolled his chair forward and returned to his computer. Multiple screens covered his workspace, so he could work as fast as his brain moved, unless he was super stoned.
“Want some?” Dope reached for the rolled joint tucked behind his ear and stuck it between his lips.
“I’m good, man.” Weed wasn’t my friend. It opened some fucked-up shit in my head that I preferred to leave alone. Lately, memories were surfacing without my permission, and the last fucking thing I needed was to open the door and invite them in.
“You seem distracted again. What gives?” Dope’s fingers tapped a few keys on the keyboard. “There it is,” he mumbled while he shook his head, then grabbed his lighter and lit up.
“Nothing for you to be concerned about.” I had to mask my thoughts better. Absentmindedly, I rubbed my arm where the faint scars of my heroin days still taunted me.
Dope didn’t miss my movements. He blew out the smoke and asked, “How long have you been clean now?”
“Fucking years, man. It’s in my rearview mirror. Don’t sweat it.”
“Easy to say, but you’re coming apart at the seams, dude. Either tell me what the fuck is eating you alive, or I’m going to keep asking.”
I stood, not in the mood to deal with his meddling questions. It was none of his fucking business. Smoothing my navy polo shirt, I tipped my chin at him. “Gotta go. I’ll make sure Velvet Vortex is covered, but I need to know when we’re taking care of Collin’s family.”
