Page 58 of Vice

We’re counting on that, though. Letting Madelyn think she’s the predator. And normally, maybe she might be. But not when I’m the apex predator in the room.

She goes back to whatever she was doing. But we’ve done what we need to. We’ve planted the seed that we’ve seen something that we shouldn’t have. If it were up to me, I’d go with what my instincts know to be true, wait for her to close up shop, and ambush her.

But that would open us up to suspicion we don’t need. Because even a disconnected small town like this would be able to easily notice the odd coincidence of a newcomers coming into town and their beloved diner manager disappearing. That’s if we have to disappear her.

Regardless, we have to wait for her to come to us. She probably plans to track us down to Wyan’s little shack in the woods, murder us, and then bury the bodies somewhere in the woods or dissolve them and make it seem like we suddenly left town to head back to the big city and dragged Wyan with us. No one in town would care or ever suspect her.

If I’m right about the way an enforcer like her works, she’s not going to risk us getting out of town before she makes a move. And that can be at any time for a big shot city boy and his wife.

Madelyn proves me right when we get the alert from the discreet monitoring system Wyan has set up that someone’s coming.

They’re skilled, for certain, but not as skilled as us. So Dele doesn’t even bother to change out her pajamas as she grabs both her guns, and I only put on a shirt before I grab my own. There’s no one living close enough to hear, but I still make sure the silencer is attached just as Dele does with her own firearms.

Wyan, on the other hand, is dressed and ready to move.

“The two of you could be a little less nonchalant about all this,” he says.

Dele shrugs. “I don’t wanna mess up my good clothes on something like this.”

I chuckle.

Wyan glares at us both but says nothing because we’ve got intruders to kill and one to interrogate.

There’s no way Madelyn knew who we actually were. Or at least me. All it would have taken was a google search. But a search would also require a person to think to search for me. Because why in the world would Adrian Blake care about a poor Appalachian town to come here? And if so, if Madelyn is working for Pray, she would have just assumed our mutual boss sent me for some reason.

Regardless, it’s clear she knows nothing. Because she’s only bothered to bring three men with her, presumably to help her hide the bodies she thinks she’s going to be left with.

“You know, seems like a waste for all three of us to take them out when one of us will work,” Dele says, probably having made the same observation I have.

“Or we could take them together for efficiency’s sake. Also, let’s not get too cocky, hm?” Wyan asks.

Dele and I exchange a look.

“You wanna take this one or should I?” I ask.

“You’re going to need your strength to convince her to take us where we want to go or tell us what we need to know. I’ll do it.”

With that, she goes to the kitchen window, crawls out of it, and then I hear her silent steps on the roof. If I were any less trained and didn’t see her crawl out the window, I’d assume it was just an animal or something.

It’s about a minute and a half before I hear her steps just a little louder running across the roof, landing outside on the ground, and the sound of a body part hitting another along with a painful groan.

Next, I hear Dele’s footsteps coming to the front door. She pushes it open and throws a live body into the living room at me and Wyan’s feet. She doesn’t even look ruffled as she walks in behind it and closes the door behind her.

“Who the fuck is training and teaching these new people? I could have done that in my sleep and not remembered when I got up the next morning,” she says.

Madelyn tries to get to her feet and stab me in the face with a knife. Dele’s right. It’s nothing to stop her. To grab her wrist and twist it painfully and bring her to her knees. For fuck’s sake, I taught Dele how to get out of that when she was fourteen. The training and scouting of people to defend, enforce, and protect my business is definitely something I’m going to have to evaluate when Dele and I take over. But, for now, it’s a boon.

When the woman has dropped the knife, I let go of her wrist and immediately strike her across the face with the butt of my gun.

“You, Madelyn, are going to answer some questions for us.”

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