by K. L Hart
“Did he touch you?” I ask, all the shaking, sobbing little girl does is nod and I lose it. I stand up grabbing the gun from my waistband and click the safety off, foster Dad from hell is already in the hallway when I leave the room, I waste no time, I lift the gun and pull the trigger, shooting the cunt between the eyes and the sight of the fear in his eyes as he crumples to the floor makes me smile. I go back into the room to grab the little girl, I hear the screeching of tire's and look out of the window, how did they find me so fast! I watch as they run into the house and it takes them less than thirty seconds to storm the bedroom.
“Railey!” Rick looks mad and insanely relieved at the same time.
“What did you do?” Harv asks as he inspects me, the little girl before his eyes dart back to the dead guy bleeding out in the hallway.
“He was doing it again.” I whisper as I glance to the little girl who is now cowering under her covers.
“Oscar call the Playtons, get this cleaned up.” Rick demands as he stares at me our gazes locked. “You never run from us!” He growls as he steps closer.
“Why not, you would all be safer!” I snap back.
“I don’t care, you don’t run.” He rounds the bed and grabs my arms shaking me. “You will hurt us more than any psycho can if you leave us!” His voice is so low and dangerous it freaks me out a little but I know deep inside me that’s because he is telling the truth. “Promise me, you won't run!” He snaps desperately and I nod my head,
“I won't run.” He pulls me into a bruising hug and then starts to walk me out of the door. “The girl!” I say turning back to her,
“People are coming, they will take care of her, but we need to leave now!” I am hesitant to leave her and I stop walking, “I promise you will know her location, but if we don’t leave you may very well join Dad in prison.” I start walking but I don’t like it, I know it's for the best though.
“I need to know she is safe.”
“You will.” Rick drags me quicker now, we both step over the corpse and race down the stairs and we bolt to the cars, he joins me in the Ferrari as the others climb into the SUV. Rick taps an address into the GPS and I follow her instructions. It takes twenty minutes to reach the destination, A fuck off mansion surrounded in just land.
“Why are we here?” I ask as the gates open to let us in.
“Because we need help, and the council can help us.” Oh shit!
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Erick!” A guy only a few years older than us answers, rubbing his eyes of sleep. “What brings you here in the dead of night?”
“We have a problem!” Rick states and the guy opens the door further to let us in, Tyler, Oliver and Harv all follow in after me and Rick.
“Didn’t think you popped by for a coffee.” The guy drawls. He leads us down the hall and into a grand meeting room, he takes the seat at the head of the table and we all gather around, picking random chairs. “And who might you be?” He wiggles his eyebrows and I just raise mine.
“This is Railey, my twin sister and Rick’s girlfriend.”
“Another Knight? You’ve been keeping her hidden?” he asks, trying to figure this shit out, good luck dude!
“Not us,” Oliver grumbles but I don’t think he hears.
“I'm Flynn Playton!” He says proudly.
“Nice to meet you.” I say.
“So, what happened how can I help?”
“Railey killed a guy, we had to call in your clean-up crew.” Oliver states and I glare at him. “What!” he says when he notices my glare.
“Well, that seems solved, next problem.”
“The hits in town are getting worse and we may need back up sooner or later, especially as a new threat has emerged.” This piques Flynn's interest and mine, what new threat?
“Oh! And who may this be?”
“Railey and Tylers Mom was murdered years ago, we have reason to believe he is back and wants to finish what he started, I may need some of your men if he proves more competent than we first thought.”
“Consider it done.” Rick nods to Flynn and gets up.
“Give my thanks to the rest of the council, I'm sure you will see them before I do.” Rick says,
“Thats because I actually attend meetings.” He raises his eyebrow with a smirk.
“Eh, who needs to go when we have gossips like you.” Flynn comes over chuckling as he pats Rick on the back.
“You guys want to crash here?” Flynn asks and Rick shakes his head.
“Na man, got to get home.”
“Fair enough, next time you're in town, don’t come here unless its daylight!” He teases, we all say our goodbyes and we all head to the cars,
“Tyler, you're with me!” I shout as I get in my car and slam the door. Tyler gets in the passenger seat at the same time Rick opens my door,
“Why are you mad?”
“So, he is a threat now, now you deem so! Fuck you Rick!”
“Fucking explain it to her, I can't be assed with her mood swings anymore today!” Rick slams the door and storms to the SUV. I grip the steering wheel so hard the cuts on my torn-up knuckles reopen a bit and It hurts me enough to calm down enough to actually drive.
“You need to stop pushing us away, Rails.” Tyler says as he lights up a smoke and hands it too me, I open the window so I can flick the ash. I relish the nicotine hitting my lungs for a moment before starting the car and following the SUV home.
“I can't help it and it doesn’t help that Rick tells me the guy isn't back for me and he won't hurt me and in the next moment he is telling Flynn he's a threat and we need help to deal with him!”
“Yeah, but you are missing key information!”
“Which is?”
“When you ran off on your murderous revenge plan, we fucking panicked, luckily, I have a tracker on this baby and we found you soon enough, we were catching up to you fast when we noticed we weren't the only ones. We would have stopped you before you got to the house but we had to stop him first.”
“Your joking?”
“Nope, Look at the side of SUV.” I can't see shit until the car turns the corner then I see the huge dent in the side of the car.
“Shit!”
“He got away but he stopped chasing you so,”
“I fucking hate all of this Ty, why can't anything be easy.”
“It will be, one day, when you know, you have killed every one and rampaged the shit out of America.”
“Oh, Ha fucking Ha.”
“What made you think it was a good idea to come here alone to enact your revenge anyway?” He raises an eyebrow,
“One because I need to take back something, anything, right now I'm falling apart, it's like all the years of dulling the nightmares, fighting back, making myself stronger were for nothing. And also, because Rick thought it was a bad idea and told me no.” I smile sheepishly and Ty howls in laughter, actual tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
“If that’s not the best reason in the world, I have no idea what is.” I smile too, I don’t think I need to train or hunt pieces of shit down, maybe all I need is to hang with my twin for a bit, he always pulls me out of my rabbit hole moods. Maybe I need him to be the one to save me from myself.
The next few days drag by as the boy's fuss over me, watching what I eat, making sure I don’t get sick again, and making sure I'm not mentally fucking unstable. I pick my keys of the side cabinet in the foyer and shout
“I'm going out!” I kid you not, the boys appear like magic!
“Where you going?” Tyler asks acting casual,
“Here and there, you know might run some errands.” I say swinging the car keys around my finger,
“It's not safe for you to be wandering around town on your own.” Oliver states,
“I won't be on my own, I'm going to pick up a friend.” They all glance between each other and hold back smiles. I shoot them all a dirty look.
“What friend?” Rick asks, cocking his head to the s
ide.
“Oh, for fuck sake! I'm going to the home, to see if Emma wants to do something, I am bored stuck here with you bunch of dickwads!” I finally say with a sigh.
“Take one of us with you.” Oliver says,
“Oh goodie, I get to choose my babysitter, how fucking fun!” I deadpan.
“It's just while everything is happening all at once, we promise to back off a bit when the threats to you and our town are dealt with.” Harv says with a pitying look. I throw my hands in the air in exasperation.
“Fine.” I throw the car keys to Tyler and he beams when he catches them and comes over to me.
“Twin time?” He asks.
“Twin time shopping with Emma.” I correct.
“Ugh, why couldn’t you be a boy!” He teases and I elbow him in the ribs.
“Come on, I need to get out of here for a bit.” I'm about to step out the door when I'm picked up and spun around so I'm against Ricks front.
“You weren't going to say goodbye?” He raises an eyebrow at me,
“Err, bye.” I say and then his lips crash on mine in a knee weaking kiss. He places me back down with a wink before walking off and as I stare at his rippling back muscles shown off with hit white tee and his ass covered in denim, I re-think going out at all. Maybe I should just go back to bed and have Rick do bad, bad things too my body. Clicking of fingers pulls me out of my dirty thoughts and I look at Ty who is grinning like a Cheshire cat,
“Mind out of the gutter, Rails, do you want to go out or not.”
“Yup, let's go.”
“Go find a seat, Ill order.” Tyler says and Emma, Jules and I go find us a booth.
“I fucking hate malls, and shopping!” Jules complains and Emma snickers,
“Why come then?” Emma asks,
“Because I actually like Railey, and I did kind of miss you a little bit.” She admits as she swings her head to look at me. I give her a small smile and she nods; she understands that I don’t know what it's like to have proper friends and it freaks me out a little. Maybe that’s what makes her a true friend? Tyler returns with our food and drinks and sits next to me and throws his arm behind me resting it on the back of the chair.
“Are you two...?” Emma asks,
“Eww, no!” we say in sync, now that is freaky.
“Did Ms. Ellie not tell you?” I ask and they shake their heads,
“Turns out, Rails here is my long-lost twin sister!” Ty says with pure pride and happiness on his face, I smile at him and then I see the unbelieving expressions on the girls faces.
“It's true! I was born Railey Knightingale, not that I knew that, obviously!”
“No fucking way!” Emma says.
“It's true, my name was never changed either so all my documentation is forged, that’s why I was signing papers with Ms. Ellie before we left, I had to get a real driver's license and shit apparently.”
“Shit so you're like a Knight now?” Jules asks,
“Damn right she is!” Tyler states.
“What's wrong Jules?” I ask as she frowns even harder than usual.
“We don’t like the Knights, they’re pricks!” She glowers at Tyler and he feigns mock hurt. “They bully people for no reason and turn the whole student body against people they don’t like, how can you just be one of them, especially after they did it too you!”
“I agree! They are massive pricks and they are brats that hate being told no and they think they are better than most people, but that’s because they haven't had the life we have had, they do more for you than you think. I love them, all of them and they are my family now. But they won't change me, I'll change them!” I wiggle my eyebrows to Jules and with a very quick very tiny smile she accepts my words. Emma nods her head to Ty and I look at him, he has a stunned look on his face as he stares at me with glassy eyes.
“What, you didn’t know you were a brat?” I ask, he shakes his head slowly then pulls me in to a hug so tight I can barely breathe.
“You love us? Even me?” he asks and I nod slowly,
“Especially you. You’re my twin brother and you’re the one I liked before the rest.” Ty squeezes me even tighter and I do the same back to him, eventually he lets go, and goes back to his cocky self.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Fuck! Get down!” Tyler shouts as bullets start flying into people in the town center, we skidded in the car when Ty saw something off, and he was very right! We all are now in the footwells of the car, ducking for cover. I grab my phone very awkwardly out of my pocket and call Rick.
“Miss me already?” He answers after the first ring.
“Not quite, you best get the others and some guns!”
“Where are you, what's happening? Where's Tyler!” He growls,
“Hiding in the car, we were driving through town, mad people shooting the place up, Tylers here!”
“We are coming, stay hidden until we get there!”
“Weren't planning on moving an inch.” I say, grinning to Ty who grins back. I hang up the phone.
“What's the plan?” Tyler asks and I shrug,
“Get out of the car, kick some ass, commodore some guns?” I suggest, a grin spreads across his face and we both get out of the car, keeping low and quiet.
“Stay in the car and stay down.” Tyler whispers to the girls in the back before clicking his door shut. Ty comes to my side, keeping low and looking around, I point to a guy who's walking around on his own not far from us his semi-automatic in his hands.
“He looks easy enough.” I whisper and Ty nods his agreement, we slowly make our way towards him, keeping flush to cars and other things in the street in hopes we are not seen. When we are close enough, I pounce on the guys back my arms going around his neck and squeezing, Ty grabs the gun off him and punch him in the temple before jumping off, he wobbles a little from the punch to the head so Ty uses the opportunity and shoots him in the head. Ty throws the gun to me and I catch it like I'm in an action movie, which just makes me giddy with excitement. Tyler searches the corpse for any more weapons and finds a knife and a small hand gun.
“Let's take the rest out!” He says as he straightens. We keep as unseen as we possibly can taking men out one at a time, gun shots still fill the air around us and we have to be quicker than this. When we get back around to the main street where the majority of the shooters are, we have both got more than three guns each plus knives and whatever else Tyler found on the other shooters.
“Theres no way to do this stealthily!” I whisper and Ty’s face scrunches up in thought.
“Then we do this the Knight’s way, we storm in and destroy them!” We both look forward and walk towards the men, spraying bullets at them with no mercy, they start dropping like flies, a few shoots back but miss completely, they couldn’t be assassins just lackies paid to terrorize! We keep walking and shooting, they keep dropping. One manages to hit me and I stumble as the pain radiates from my thigh, I manage to stay up right but decide not to try and walk, I put most of my weight on my right leg to ease the pain a bit. I take in a breath and grit my teeth as I pull up the gun and shoot the last few men in my sight. When the last one drops, Tyler checks to make sure they are all dead, he finds one that isn't and pulls him up.
“Who sent you?” He growls in his face, the man shakes in pure terror and shakes his head,
“Who Fucking...” Tylers words are cut off when the blood of the man he is holding up sprays across his face. Rick stomps towards me his face showing how very angry he is.
“Now you show up, after we did all the hard work!” I raise an eyebrow but Rick is not impressed.
“I told you too stay in the fucking car!” He booms, I take a step back forgetting about my leg and I stumble biting my lip to stop from crying out with the pain. He stops in his tracks and looks at my leg, his gaze finds the wounded area that is covered in blood and his fists ball at his sides. “Your fucking hurt!”
“It's not a big deal Rick. Calm the fuck down!” I sa
y getting annoyed with him, He turns to Tyler who has dropped the body and is wiping blood of his face with his shirt.
“You let her get hurt!” Rick booms and I snap.
“Fuck off Rick, it's not his fault!” He spins back around to face me pure rage in his eyes. “If you want me to be a Knight then I will but I will do everything you do! If it was you here instead of me you wouldn’t have hesitated to leave the car and protect the town. You wouldn’t give a shit about a little bullet in your thigh, so stop treating me like I'm fucking fragile, I'm not! I'm just like any of you!”
“You want to be just like us then fine! You fucking deal with this mess and you dig the bullet out of your leg yourself!” He shouts before storming back to his car and speeding away.
“Well shit!” Ty says as he comes to me and puts my arm over his shoulder to help me walk. We turn to the car and Harv is already there checking on the girls, Oliver is pacing, talking on the phone.
“When did they get here?” I ask and Tyler chuckles,
“While Rick was shouting.”