The Rise (The Kings and Gods #3)

Chapter 5

Hunter

She sits in the back of the cage, unmoving. Even after we took the little girl from her fighting and screaming, she hasn’t moved. I don’t know her connection to the girl and she isn’t willing to say.

We took the last shipment of girls Baron found out about, and this woman was with them. I’m not sure what to do with her. I’ve never had a woman come in with the kids. I don’t know if she was being held and sold or if she’s one of them. I just don’t fucking now.

“What are we doing with her?” Hoax asks when he comes to stand next to me. I didn’t know where else to put her, so I stuck her in the cage.

“I don’t know, Hoax,” I answer, running my hand over my face.

“Have you taken her picture? Run it?” I shake my head as he walks over, pulling his phone out. The girl watches him but still doesn’t speak. He pulls the cage door open and steps inside, kneeling in front of her and taking a picture. She doesn’t blink or try to run, which is a little strange. Why would she just sit there?

My phone rings, and I pull it out, seeing it’s Ry.

“Yeah?”

“You didn’t forget about dinner, did you?”

“No, but there’s a situation,” I tell him.

“What is it?”

“There’s a woman who came in with the kids,” I explain to him.

“What do you mean a woman? Who is she?”

“I don’t know, Ry. She hasn’t said a word since she’s they brought her in,” I reply.

“What the hell is she doing?” he asks as Hoax walks out and closes the cage door behind him.

“Sitting.”

“Sitting?”

“Yeah. Sitting in the corner of the cage. I didn’t know what to do with her,” I admit.

“You put her in the cage? What the fuck, Hunter?”

“Well, what the hell do you suggest? I’ve never had a woman come in with kids, Rylan!”

“Is she trying to run?”

“No.”

“Then let her ass out of the cage,” he laughs.

“What if she’s one of them?”

“Then why would she be there?”

“I don’t fucking know! I’m not letting her ass out of the cage.”

“Hunter. You can’t handle a woman in Chaos? You kill people for a living.”

“No shit. But not women unless I have to.”

“Then don’t kill her. You want us to come by?” he asks. Shit, I don’t know.

“Yeah. Come by on your way,” I tell him before hanging the phone up. I watch her as she watches me.

“They coming?” Hoax asks as he types on his phone.

“Yeah. Ry doesn’t think we should keep her in the cage.”

“What should we do with her then?”

“I don’t fucking know.”

“She isn’t pulling up on any of the lists,” he adds. That’s a good thing. She isn’t a missing person, but it’s also bad because we don’t know if anyone has reported her missing. She could have been taken. Maybe they’re trying their hand at adults now. Either way, I don’t like it. I run my hand through my hair as she stares at me with big brown eyes. She’s cute. Not bad looking at all.

“Do you need to use the bathroom?” I ask her. Hoax looks up at her, too, but she doesn’t move. “Hungry? Can you talk? Nod?” Still nothing. I sigh as I walk out of the room and into the main room with Hoax behind me.

“Think she’s mute?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she just doesn’t like talking.”

“Or they’ve hurt her,” he adds. There is that too.

“What are the fucking odds we get anything out of the assholes who had them?” We still have two of them to torture tonight. The kids are gone now, off to another location where they will get them back to their families, but we still have two of the men.

“Let’s chain them up and find out,” he says with a shrug. I nod in agreement, and he walks off toward the other room to get one and I walk back into the room we were just in. I walk over to the cage and open it, knowing she isn’t getting off the compound anyway. Not now the wall is finished and I put codes at the doors and gate.

“I’m going to leave this open for you. There’s a bathroom in there, and if you’re hungry, I’ll be out there,” I tell her, pointing toward the doors. I wait for a response but I don’t get one. She just watches me. I sigh when I hear the man yelling Hoax has ready.

“Don’t mind the noise. He isn’t a good guy,” I tell her when her eyes move to the door and back to me. When she still says nothing, I nod my head and stand, walking back out of the room to find one of the assholes chained up and ready.

“You stupid fucks!” he roars as I laugh.

“How are we the stupid ones?”

“You don’t know who you’re fucking with.”

“Losers. Assholes. Child predators,” I tell him as I walk closer to him.

“Killers,” he retorts. Hoax and I laugh this time.

“You may be out there in the world, but inside these walls? This is our domain. We’re the Gods! We’re the ones who choose when life ends and how!” I watch him glance around as if trying to memorize the place. He isn’t getting out of here alive, but if he wants the memory for when he rots in hell, then he’s welcome to it.

“They’ll find you. They’re already hunting you,” the asshole says as I nod my head.

“Are they? Let me tell you why I don’t care, okay? This building, this place has been here for over a hundred years. A hundred! And this operation has been going at least that long. Maybe this place was used for other purposes back then but now? It’s our domain. It’s where Gods rise and others fall. Do you know why it’s called a secret society? Because no one knows,” I explain with a laugh. He tries to spit at me, but Hoax tugs on the chains, pulling it tighter around his neck. That shuts him up.

“Who are these people you’re talking about?” Hoax asks him. He doesn’t respond. “Who’s the woman?” Now the asshole laughs. He knows who she is. Hoax and I share a look before he moves to the table and tosses me a knife. I don’t waste time. I stab his shoulder and listen as he howls in pain. I do this a few times when Hoax nods to something behind me.

I look over my shoulder and see the woman standing in the doorway, a blank look on her face. Is she watching me torture him?

“You can come out,” I tell her. Her eyes move to mine and then back to the man before she steps out and comes toward us. She doesn’t say shit, just watches him, and it makes me wonder if they know each other.

“I’m going to assume you know each other,” Hoax says as he presses his fingers into the stab wound on the man’s shoulder. He screams again, and she doesn’t even flinch. Interesting.

I step back a little and watch her watch this guy. He’s in too much pain to keep his eyes on her and keeps clenching them shut. I step back up and ask once more.

“Who are they?” The man laughs, and this time, I bring the knife down into his other shoulder. He screams, and I see her huff out a breath. She holds her hand out to me and I’m not entirely sure I should let her have the knife. Then again, Hoax and I could handle her if we had to. I move my eyes to meet his, and he nods before I drag them back to her.

I lean down so we’re at eye level before I speak to her.

“I’m not sure what you’re doing, but if you try to fuck with us, we will kill you.” She nods her head as I place the handle of the knife in her palm. I step back and watch her as she adjusts her grip. The man pries his eyes open to see her standing in front of him now with the knife.

“Wha-what the fuck are you doing?” he asks, looking her in the eye now. She tilts her head to the side and studies him for a long minute. She seems to be debating it. She raises the knife, and the man yells again. “What the fuck? You can’t do this! They’ll find out!” She brings the knife down into his chest, seemingly knowing exactly where to hit to kill the bastard quickly. That wasn’t very nice of her to do when I don’t know the answers to the questions I’ve asked. She pulls the knife from his chest as he looks at her.

“You’re go-” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence because she stabs him again and again and again. I glance at Hoax, and he just stands there wide-eyed, not believing what’s happening here. When she doesn’t stop and starts manically screaming, I step in behind her and wrap my arms around her, grabbing the knife in one hand and holding onto her with the other. She releases the knife but still fights, trying to get back to him. I toss the knife and drag her backward, making sure to keep a hold of her.

“This the girl?” I hear Rylan asks as he walks toward us. She finally calms but I don’t let her go.

“Yeah, this is her.”

“And she stabbed the fucker to death,” he muses.

“You saw that?” He nods. “Don’t know where that came from, but it was hot as fuck.”

“So she came out of the cage,” Ry adds when Silas walks up next to him. He looks at the girl and then the dead guy before looking back at her.

“Well, whatever he did, he isn’t doing again.”

“No shit. I didn’t get answers either,” I add.

“You still have one more?” Silas asks as I nod. “Ask him then, and keep the little killer away from him,” he chuckles.

“Why don’t we just hang here tonight? I’ll have the girls go pick up food,” Ry suggests, looking between all of us.

“Fine by me. Doesn’t look like I’m going out tonight anyway,” I reply, nodding toward the girl in my arms.

“Let me go tell them,” Ry says before turning and walking away. Silas comes to stand in front of us, reaching out to brush her hair away from her face and she doesn’t move.

“No one here is going to hurt you. That’s not what we do,” he tells her, and I laugh.

“What?”

“You’re not going to hurt her, but you sure as hell will hurt, Angel, right?”

“In all the good ways,” he responds as I laugh. I slowly begin to ease my grip on this girl until I completely let her go. She doesn’t move, just stands here.

“How’s shit been beside this?” Silas asks, nodding toward the girl.

“Not bad. The kids were pretty good. Got them fed and washed, changed, and everything. Lydia came by and helped out,” I tell him.

“Good. I’m glad that’s handled,” he says. Me too. It’s been a long, exhausting day that doesn’t seem to want to end anytime soon.

“Hey, Hunter. Help me with this table,” Hoax yells. I nod and walk over, helping him set up the table and chairs so everyone can sit down together to eat. When I’m done, I turn back to see the girl staring at the dead dude’s body, still hanging and leaking blood.

She doesn’t say anything at first, just smiles like she’s glad he’s dead. When she finally does speak, her voice makes my cock respond.

“You got less than you deserved.”

Fuck me, I’m fucked.