I eyed Knox, not bothering to hide my disgust.
He laughed it off and held out his hand. “Remember your friends.”
So that’s how this was going to go? Takara and Poet were leverage. If he had them, he could get me to do almost anything. Everything about this man repulsed me. I didn’t know what his end game was, but right now there weren’t many other options presenting themselves.
I placed my hand in his and let him lead me. We passed by Tyson and went through the kitchen, which now smelled of bread and something else, and entered a dining room.
When Tyson swept by for a second time, he had Hannah draped over one shoulder. He sat her in a seat near the end of the dining table, positioning her like one would a marionet. Her head lolled to the side, her swollen and discolored lips slightly parted with a drizzle of drool sliding down them.
Had I missed something?
She looked as if she’d been drugged.
“You’ll look like that by the end of the night,” Knox whispered in my ear.
I jerked away from him and sat down in a random chair, taking note of the shotgun in the corner of the room. Surveying the table, I noted that they’d provided me with actual silverware. There was also a large pan of meat and beans, bread, and a pitcher of water.
Although the kind of meat these people would have access to was questionable.
It didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen before. I hadn’t eaten in nearly forty-eight hours, but I would starve before putting whatever that was in my mouth.
Knox sat to my immediate left and offered me his hand again. I didn’t understand what he wanted until Tyson did the same thing on my right. Jacob sat on the opposite side of the table with his mother and mimicked his brothers. All closed their eyes and bowed their heads, joining hands.
What the hell is happening?
Tammy stared at me with a stormy expression when I made no effort to take the initiative.
“In this house, we give thanks to the Lord.”
I laughed; I couldn’t help it. This was one of the most absurd things I’d ever seen. And people had the nerve to talk about my family? I begrudgingly took each hand that was offered.
That’s as far as I was going with this charade. The devil himself would walk through the front door before I fixed my lips to worship something other than what lurked below.
“Heavenly Father bless us and this bountiful feast we have received from thy goodness, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”
A small chorus echoed the end of her short sermon, excluding me and Hannah. With their bullshit grace out of the way, the dishes were passed around.
The sound of the front door colliding with a wall brought them all to a brief pause. Jacob jumped up, looking right at the gun. At the same time, I grabbed the steak knife they’d stupidly placed beside my plate. Knox tried to stop me, but he was too slow. I was already on my feet, pressing the jagged blade against Tyson’s throat with one hand fisting his shaggy hair.
“Sit back down,” I commanded Jacob before he could get could to the gun.
Multiple footsteps carried from the front hall, growing closer. I remained where I was. I wouldn’t have time to get to the other side of the room, and right now I had leverage.
Jacob wavered, obviously unsure what risk to take. I had no way of knowing who had just walked in, but I should have predicted it would be him.
It wasn’t the devil who showed up.
It was someone worse.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Timing is everything.
One look at Lilith and I knew I’d come later than I should have. We’d found this place the night before. It had looked just as deserted then as it was now, but you could never be too sure. We couldn’t rush in on some heroic bullshit until we knew what we’d be dealing with.
Amo popped the lock on the front doors and got us inside in less than five minutes.
That these dumb fucks didn’t have security was beyond my level of comprehension. Did they not know how despised they were? Most considered them bottom feeders who’d gotten lucky. Today was when that luck would run out.
“What the fuck is this?” a man with swept back hair sputtered.
“You don’t like the surprise?” Amo questioned jokingly.
His eyes went to the person who’d come in with us, and he clenched his fist, remaining silent.
Ah. I got it now.
Rumors could be surprisingly powerful.
We’d purposely spread enough around that our faction was more mysterious than most. No one knew my face yet. It’d just come out that Amo was doing my bidding on two different fronts.
There was also the Creed persona crafted for his own personal reasons, but it had still benefited me in the end.