“Stay behind me,” she mouthed, and because she had the gun, I reluctantly agreed.
The men were still talking about how they both wanted to fuck me—rape me, because there was no way in hell I would ever let either of them touch me willingly. Mom released my hand and got down on all fours, crawling into the living room. Of course, I followed behind her, crawling as stealthily as possible considering I was a freaking giant.
Murphy and his guest, who I recognized as Royce Campbell as soon as I saw the side of his face, were sitting on the couch. Knowing it was the dirty DA who was talking about me only made me want to puke.
Using sign language—something she’d taught both Max and me when we were younger so we could communicate when speaking wasn’t possible—Mom told me she was going to put the gun to Campbell’s head, then instructed me to either slit Murphy’s throat or put the knife to it. I was going with the latter for the moment.
Lifting her hand, she counted down from three, and then everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. She jumped up, putting the gun right at Campbell’s temple. Before Murphy could even react, I grabbed his hair in one hand and had the butcher knife pressed flush against his throat with the other. If he so much as swallowed hard, he would get a smooth shave.
“What the fuck is this?” Campbell bellowed, yet he didn’t move. “How did you two get in here?”
“I have my ways,” Mom said, her voice sounding bored even though I could see the fire burning in her green eyes. “I only came to show my respect for Murphy here and got a bonus in the process.”
“You—” He didn’t get to finish whatever he was saying because she moved the gun from his temple to his mouth, shoving it in, making him whine in pain when I heard a few teeth actually crack.
“I’ll do the talking, motherfucker,” she seethed before turning her gaze on Murphy. “Hi, Deputy. How the hell have you been?”
“Mrs. R-Reid,” he stuttered.
“Now, you tell me, Murphy. Was it really necessary to treat my daughter so roughly last night? You left physical proof you weren’t playing fair.” She shook her head in disappointment. “I wouldn’t even be here if you had arrested her without bruising her. But that scrape on her cheek, man, that’s going to cost you even more.”
“I-I’m sorry, Mrs. Reid. Really…I was… I was only doing my job, ma’am. She put up a…a fight. I had…” He swallowed roughly, and the sound of the blade of my knife scraping over his throat filled the room. “Please don’t kill me.”
She laughed, the sound making the deputy actually tremble and goose bumps to rise on my arms. “I won’t kill you if you tell me everything Santino has planned. Deal?” He tried to nod, but my blade didn’t give him much room. “Good boy.”
The laugh stopped cold when she looked back at Campbell. “You, on the other hand… Oh, I’m going to kill you. And Murphy’s going to help me do it. That way, if he walks away from this, he can’t rat me out without telling on himself in the proces
s.”
???
There was blood on my shirt that wasn’t my own. It had a strong metallic scent to it that made me want to gag, but I stopped myself before I could every time.
Murphy stood over Campbell’s dead body, his face covered in more blood splatter than my shirt. With the knife I’d brought from the kitchen, he’d slit his boss’s throat while Mom held a gun pointed at his heart. He hadn’t even flinched as he’d done it, but Campbell had begged like the pussy he was.
“Now,” Mom said as she stood over the DA’s lifeless body, the gun still pointed unwaveringly at the deputy. “About Santino.”
Face white as death, Murphy started talking in a voice several octaves higher than normal in his anxiety. “They’re supposed to hit your house at two o’clock. I don’t know how many will be with them, but I know they are planning to take your daughter and then kill the rest of you. Santino wants Lexa for himself before he sells her.”
“Sells me?” I repeated, equal parts pissed and scared of what could have happened if we hadn’t gotten a heads-up like this.
“Santino’s into human trafficking,” Mom informed me. “He’s probably the top dealer right now.”
A shudder went down my spine, and I seriously couldn’t stop the images that filled my head.
“He’s not going to touch you,” she vowed when she noticed my reaction. “I can promise you that, sweetheart.”
Headlights flashed through the living room window as a vehicle pulled into the driveway, followed by two more. Mom muttered a curse and quickly put the gun back in her ankle holster before walking casually to the front door just as a pounding fist knocked.
“Raven!” Dad shouted.
Murphy seemed to cower even more at the sound of my dad’s voice, but that was nothing compared to his reaction to Ben when he pushed through my dad and two of my uncles. Murphy seemed to shrink, trying to make himself as small as possible.
“Lexa,” Ben breathed my name when he saw me, his face relaxing somewhat. “Are you hurt?”
Before I could even answer, he was in front of me, his hands skimming over me to check for injuries. When he touched the still-wet blood on my shirt, his brown eyes became black in a heartbeat. “Are. You. Hurt?” he gritted out.
“No, of course not,” I rushed to assure him.