Sniper (Devil's Shadow MC, Book 2)

by K. H. Kate

  "It's hard to find any pictures from the cartels in good quality. This will have to do. Now look at every one of them and tell me, which one we have to go after."

  Seth's eyes flash a dangerous blue. Like a storm. "You insensitive jerk! At least ask me before you go fuck up-"

  "No, it's ok." I'm quick to stop him. Eyes of different colors, emotions stare back at me. Blue, Grey, black, silver, brown...Dead, half-dead, angry, demons...

  "Him." It doesn't even hurt to point my demons out anymore. "And him."

  Seth and Carter both look at where I'm pointing. Two pictures of doom stare back at us. Seth stares at them, memorizing their faces before his fist shoves through the table. The briefcase slides down the table, the pictures messily flopping around it.

  "Son of a bitch!" He curses looking over my shoulder. "That fucked up-sick bastard! Desmond had to be with them. There's no fuckin’ point in ignoring the truth."

  "Dillon and Antonio. Poor souls." Carter doesn't sound angry. He's merely annoyed at what they did. Poor souls. Did they have any soul in the first place? "I will get everything ready. Just make sure Lethal doesn't know I'm going to be at the party."

  I must have missed some kind of secret there, as Seth snarls. "He wouldn't. I fuckin’ remember."

  "Very well then. Your tux came just an hour ago and I got your girl a dress from an old acquaintance of mine. So, you two better get ready soon.” He turns to Seth with a tight smile. “And you cuz, if you don't join the Devils in time, Lethal will start suspecting something."

  Seth doesn't bother to argue. He just takes my arm and drags us to our room. Truth to Carter's word, there's a dark red long gown with a slit down the side and a rich black tux ready for us.

  "You go first. I will get you in time." He doesn't want to leave me alone. But he knows me. Somehow even better than myself sometimes. So I nod gratefully. I need to be alone. To think. To plan. To destroy.

  So I walk into the shower and do my best to get rid of the smell of gunpowder. I don't think I can lie my way out if somehow I get caught by Grace. I wash away all the worry, all thoughts, all fear of seeing them so close to me. I remember just his story. About a lost girl and her monster.

  I blindly do the makeup. A little concealer to hide the horror of my nightmare, a red bright lipstick to match the equally bright smile, the small earnings which Seth must've left for me. My wet hair is no way to be tamed so I leave it over my shoulder in frilly curls. I blink back the guilt to see the red dress on me. Grace would've rocked this one. It fits me perfectly yet it shows the girl who is desperate for one night of sleep without nightmares.

  "You look beautiful, love." I let him have his moment. I let him believe his lie. But pain is beautiful, isn't it?

  "Thank you." He frowns at my somber reply. He looks dangerous wearing the dark tux. It suits him better than I thought. As if he wasn't going to a party. As if he was going to a war zone. And I loved it. I love him...

  "You're beautiful, Kitty. No matter what. Now-" He stops to bring a holster from the desk. I also see the gun I practiced with this whole week. "Put this on."

  The gun is cold to touch. I shrug it off, cold heart, and cold gun. Does it matter? He watches me, as I drag the dress up until I can patch the holster on my upper thigh. His eyes catch my every movement, every hesitant step I take, and every harsh breath seeing the fire in his gaze.

  "Let's take this show to the road." He yanks me to him and then...it's all him and his secrets. His dark promise to bring them all down. It's my new identity.

  And I fucking embrace it like it's my last breath.

  CHAPTER 30

  SNIPER

  It’s a masquerade ball alright.

  Everywhere every fucking person with masks of their own. Literally and figuratively. And between them the only two people who know what's going on in here. Who are going to start the second level of this revenge.

  Can't say, I can take the credit alone.

  In these three months, I've seen my Kitty change from a lost little girl to a fearsome woman. I've seen her in bad and good. Dead and alive. And every time she has managed to throw me off my guard successfully.

  Like right now, she's dancing with Carter, yet I know her eyes seek mine every second. They glow like a burning star. They promise a long death when her gaze strays for a moment. Looking over my shoulder I'm not surprised.

  Ceaser and Lethal are sitting together on the far end of the ballroom. Our original plan was to make Ceaser give up Xavier, by giving up some of our land he was wanting for years. However, my little plan for him is totally different than Lethal's. We plan to take more than his empire, we want to take his blood. Right now all that matters is... Eye for an eye.

  For outsiders, they are just having a friendly conversation but I know the fucking truth. Lethal's fists are clenched together so hard that I'm afraid he will lose his shit. I'm surprised he has lasted even an hour without trying to pummel the asshole to the ground.

  "Don't glare. You will give us away." I hear a small voice say. My glare vanishes the moment I turn back. In an emerald dress, she looks ready to kill. But I know the lost look in those dark eyes. She's still worried, still the same old Grace who came to us for revenge. Still thinking over what her sister is doing.

  When the person in question is just a foot away, probably thinking about the same thing.

  As Kitty asked, I made sure no one can recognize her. With her red dress, Carter somehow managed to get a matching red wig and a pair of blue contacts. So there's no way any Devil can even say that Kitty is here among us. Hell, she even called Grace before leaving the safe house, making up some excuses that she will be having a sleepover at her dance partner's house and she had nothing to worry about.

  Suffice to say, it was something only Gwen Knight would say, not Kitty. So Grace didn't suspect anything just like Lethal.

  "I'm not glaring, just makin’ sure everything is goin’ smoothly." I murmur, leaning back to give her some space. I don't think she believes my lie. She only laughs quietly.

  "If you say so. But seriously, keep on guard but don't do something that gives us away." Her voice is relaxed but the underlining warning is clear as day. Does she know? I try to read her face but come up blank just like every other time.

  That damned Knight blessing...

  So I agree with a mocking nod. "I will make sure of that VP."

  I can see a ghost of a smile behind her mask, before she stutters away to break Reaper from a lip lock. After that, I kind of went on autopilot. Talking to other brothers when needed, laughing with the women like it was just a normal outing from the club. Only when I notice the blur of red fleeing from the scene, that I get a fucking hold of the world.

  "Where are you going?" A voice stops me dead in my steps that I didn't even register running from the party. Fuck!

  I don't have to glance over. I know who the fuck this voice belongs to. The only good thing right now I can think is even Carter isn't somewhere between the dancing bodies so he must have followed her just like I was going to.

  So instead of moving forward, I turn back to look in the eyes of a dead man. "Ceaser. Thanks for having us."

  My smile is strained and my pulse is throbbing to reach back, only to slam down my fists on his ugly face over and over until he's choking on his own blood. But I can't. It's not my game to play.

  I can feel his eyes narrow. "Lethal didn't exactly bother to introduce his club members. How rude of him. However, I'm generous enough to meet everyone who came here tonight. So who would you be?"

  Your messenger of death. The words are on the tip of my tongue but somehow I manage not to say them aloud and fuck up. But the curiosity to know how far I can poke him until he snaps, is wondering worthy too. So I end up doing both.

  I take a minute to answer. Sweat him a bit. Making him wonder who the fuck I might be. Only when I see him looking at one of his lap dogs that I answer with a satisfied smirk. "I'm Sniper. The club secretary and also I handle shooting
ranges."

  "Oh, really?" He glances around the people, his jaw set in irritation. "You, any good?"

  If he was going to insult me, he had to do a little better than that. I think he knows too when a mocking chuckle leaves from my lips, that almost sounds like a snarl. "You want me to prove that by shootin’ your head off?"

  Some will say I was being reckless. A little foolish even. But fuck, if he can think of getting away thinking he has the right to destroy lives.

  Consequences be damned.

  He smiles. "You got fire in you, young man. Tell you what, if any day you'd like to give up your patch from the Devils-"

  "I don't." I cut him off successfully. "We have a code of brotherhood too. And being who you are...I think you'd understand that just fine."

  He shoots me a wry look but others have already caught his attention. "I hope the next time we meet, we can talk more. More important things like money."

  He thought he had me with that one. Money was the answer to everything in his world anyway. So I let the fucker believe whatever he was thinking to invest in me. After all, a dead man can only go so far before he truly knows that he's done for...

  ***

  I find her in one of the guestrooms after searching for half an hour. She has her mask in her hands, and the contacts thrown over somewhere.

  "Thank God. Where were you?" she asks the moment I'm near her. I'm ready to give her a full report on the bastard, until I catch a hint of lingering smoke on her skin.

  Cigarettes? No, she didn't use my type of distraction.

  So what?

  "What happened?"

  Without hearing her, I know she has used another method of distraction. Her nose flares as if to warn me. Don't judge me. You know how it feels. You know me, Seth. And her face shows the revelation of just how much she enjoyed it.

  "How many?" I grunt.

  She looks away sighing. "Two. I saw Desmond turning toward the hallway earlier, so I thought of following him. But two of Ceaser’s men got to me first. Before Carter can do something, the gun was in my hand and-"

  And she shot them without a fear.

  Had loved it too...

  Another grunt leaves my lips. But they are of appreciation. She is taking this better than I'd like to think after all.

  "Where's Carter now?" Only then I notice that she's alone. My cousin can't be that stupid to leave her alone in a room without any protection. Is he?

  Her fingers curl into a fist. "We got some leads. One of the maids was whispering to another about a man probably newly taken into the attic. So he went there to check things out."

  Fuck! He's going to end up getting himself killed or I'd end up killing him...

  "I told him to go." She whispers as if sensing what's running through my mind. "I can handle myself, Seth. I'm not a broken toy."

  I can't disagree with that. Broken toys don't have the power to put a human back together. They don't have the power to lead a fucker like me to insanity. They can't claim a killer like me. They can't love the darkness inside me.

  "And did you find something?" she asks me before I can convey how much she wasn't a toy.

  "Ceaser wanted me in." Right now I can laugh at it with her. The fucker is so dense, so hungry for a lap dog that he forgot to check for the crocodiles. "I may or may not have politely told him to fuck himself."

  She inhales deeply, tucking her now red hair over her ears. "I saw the other two men. They were flirting with a girl near the bar. She was so uncomfortable stuck with those two. I wanted to help, you know. But the moment I took a step...their smirk flashed over and it felt like my body was burning all over again. The memories, I couldn't get a hold on and all I wanted was to grip the gun tightly in my hand and aim at their head until they are dead. But I couldn't. What if...what if I freak out like this later? What if I can't take them out-"

  "Then I will take them out. I will end them for you." How cute. She doesn't trust me enough to help her through.

  "That you will. I know that very well. But when will I get my hands on them? Desmond disappeared again, those two must still be flirting-"

  My phone vibrates.

  "No, he didn't." I can begin to feel the blood rush through me. The words glare at me. Taunting me to finish everything tonight.

  She inches closer and peers over my shoulder to see what I’ve got. "What did he send you?"

  I don't let her see the words. That's for another day. Instead, I show her the pictures. At first, there's no emotion in them but then there's a flame that burns in those dark eyes. Two identical cars stare back at her. But I know the flashy car isn't of her concern, the pictures of the men looking in mid-scream is.

  Still shocked she asks quietly. "H-How did you-"

  "Carter had a woman lure those two out." Hearing me, her lips twitch into an almost taunting smile. Trust these two to think with their dicks. "The moment they were out of the party, he struck them both with a rod. They didn't die if you are worried, only unconscious. We're takin’ them to Carter's home."

  "And Desmond?"

  And Desmond? My eyes cut to her wondering if I should tell her or not. I know she'll stop me if she knew what I was planning to do with that bastard. I can tell her though. Maybe she'll even join me. But-

  "I know where he will be." That's all I give her. I don't want her to regret becoming this person. What if she is still hoping to be just Gwen somewhere deep inside her mind? What if I repulse her once she has seen me, there punishing them? So I don't answer. I've said too many lies by now anyway.

  One more wasn't going to hurt any less...

  CHAPTER 31

  GWEN

  I've seen fear before. Felt it. Embraced it. Hated it.

  And, it’s terrifying. It's soul consuming. It's something I shouldn't stare at and feel anything other than disgust. I shouldn't have a faint smile on my face. I should be terrified. But the rush that I now feel to see fear...It's beyond beautiful.

  "What do you say, Kitty?" My stomach drops hearing his voice so close that I can actually feel his heat as if they were my own. "Should we kill them instantly or drag it on?"

  What do I want?

  I...I want to sleep. I want to be free. I want my life back. I want...I want a gun.

  "Kitty?" His hands on my shoulder feel like a warning. As if he's in my head again. As if I can hear the words clearly- Speak your mind now, Kitty! I don't have all day to entertain your guests.

  "I want a gun." The two similar pairs of fearful eyes stare back at me in surprise. I think one even whimpers. "Can I use it for practice?"

  For the first time, Carter has thrown us into this old basement, Seth turns me around. He jerks his chin towards the gun over by the table, his eyebrow raised. His blue eyes darken, darker than my own demons. "What do you need practice for? Your aim is good. Better than a newbie even."

  Oh, did I give the wrong impression?

  It certainly seems so as he wonders stepping back from me. "Did I fail to teach you, Gwen?"

  Gwen?

  The flinch doesn't register at first. But when it does even I'm concerned. When have I become so familiar with being Kitty that even my own name brings an unwanted flinch?

  "They are waitin’ to receive their present, Gwen and I'd hate for you to disappoint." They are not disappointed watching us glare down at each other. They are terrified. They are trying to untie the ropes.

  My shoulder tenses when he moves again. This time towards the gun. He picks up the small object, admiring its strength before giving it back to me.

  "Here."

  A voice too cold to be mine rings out. "I want to practice on them. Don't for a second forget that I want this too."

  Lost in thought I don't notice the gun wrapped around my hands tightly. I don't pay it to the fact that it's now aiming at their heads. I don't even acknowledge the slight jerk of my arm and the scream that leaves from...who it was again? Dillon or Antonio? I try to watch as they look at the small pool of blood near their thigh with
widened eyes.

  But the satisfaction doesn't come. That liberating feeling of being the one with the gun...it doesn't sooth my mind. I'm tense as hell as I pull the trigger and shoot. Again and again. More screams, more croak voices asking to stop reaches my ears and yet...The memories don't go away. That hideous smile and the pathetic whimper of a helpless girl doesn't leave my mind until I hear a heavy footstep walking away.

  "Drag it out, it is then." Seth sighs, taking another weapon in his hands. It's shiny and small. Far better looking than the one in my hand. For a second, I ponder over if I want it to be my chosen weapon or not. Maybe I can choose both?

  I don't notice his gaze drawn towards me too. He lets me admire the weapon shamelessly and then his lips tug into a full born smile. "Do you want to play around with it?"

  "Can I?" I'm quick to answer. Curious and eager to learn. Apparently, my numb state is slipping and the cracks are showing. Mom would be proud though. At least I didn't lose one Knight Traits. Gwen Knight...always a quick learner.

  "Come here." He takes my hands just like he did before but instead of the gun now I have a small shiny knife in my possession. He walks me to the bloody mess of two people who used to terrorize me for nights after nights. Anticipation never felt this good as he forces me to bend forward so that we can watch our prey together.

  "Now what?" I sound too excited. Too desperate.

  "It's goin’ to be sloppy." He warns beforehand.

  "Oh?" I watch mesmerized as together we touch Dillon’s arm first with the knife. If I thought he'd drive that knife in one go, I'm mistaken. He takes his time making Dillon gasp. Antonio watches as we draw invisible lines over the taut skin.

  Then suddenly it breaks the skin and blood sips from the open wound making the demon in my sleep jerk his arm violently from us to get rid of the pain. Dillon cries. Actual tears running from his eyes as we make more jogged lines. Every cut that we make is a reminder, for every night I woke up screaming. But no matter how many lines we make it’s never enough. It can’t wash away what happened.