The Fall(83)

My landing was a little heavier than I would have liked, my legs bent at the knees to absorb the impact keeping me upright. Sofia gave me the thumbs up when no security lights turned on.

She wasn’t kidding about keeping our backs flush against the wall. If my ass got any closer to the metal that separated the two property boundaries, it was going to fuse to the f*cking bars. But we kept moving, our feet shuffling as quickly as we could while keeping out of sensor range.

Once we got in proximity of the side door, it was going to get a little more involved. There was a camera tracked right on the entrance but apparently it wasn’t on. A hell of a gamble but there was no way to tell if it was just a prop or if Jimmy had stopped having his head up his ass and actually fixed the thing. Either way we were going to find out as Sofia took a small step into its range and held her breath.

Nothing.

There was no more hesitation on her part, her hands getting busy on the keypad and gaining access like she still had a key. The door opened with a little more than a flick of her wrist.

She took a step inside the doorway, gun drawn, running point as I followed her through with twin nines gracing my palms.

Whether we stayed in the clear was yet to be determined but for now the lights stayed off and the door clicked back into place behind us. There was no time to congratulate each other as I followed her through the house, moving on the balls of my feet making as little contact with the floor as possible.

This was easy.

Too easy.

Sofia had run through the layout of the house before we’d left. She’d roughly drawn where rooms were, and the location of doors and stairs, so some of it felt familiar as we walked around in the space. All the bedrooms were upstairs though, which didn’t improve our chances of continuing to be undetected.

We’d just cleared the massive marble entrance wall when we’d heard the click of a light switch.

Mother. Fucker.

I knew this had been too easy.

Sofia gestured to the large hall closet, one hand pointing wildly to the door while the other was still locked around her nine. But she had a better chance of her father rolling out a welcome mat than I did of getting into that closet. Nope, wasn’t going to happen. Apart from giving us no way out, it cut off any advantage, making us completely blind.

My head gave her the it-ain’t-happening shake as she moved closer. The echo of uneven footsteps traveled down the staircase as I clued up that it hadn’t been the closet she’d been pointing to but the corner next to it. The edge of the wall able to provide us some cover while we still maintained some visual of the room. Good enough for me.

“James? Is that you?” A woman’s voice called out as another light went on. The room on the other side of the wall flooded with overhead halogen.

Great. It was Sofia’s mother.

Don’t. I wanted to say it but couldn’t risk giving away our position, so instead I lowered my hand to her arm and pressed my knuckles against her. It was the best I could do while juggling my nine.

Her body tensed but she didn’t step out, staying where she was as we waited to see if her mother was going to go left or right.

“Elena, come to bed.” More footsteps, Jimmy’s voice carried down the length of the stairs.

“I’m sure I heard James.”

We couldn’t see a lot, but I was able to catch the corner of Sofia’s mom face. She dressed for bed but her hair was a mess. It also looked like her face was melting off; the forgotten makeup probably having competed with a pillow.

“I’m right here, Elena.” Jimmy stayed out of view, his voice agitated as he remained somewhere on the stairs. “And the boys are out tonight.”

“Then it must be Sofia.” She looked to the front door like she was expecting it to open.

I felt her body jerk at the mention of her name, but she managed to stay quiet. Both of us watching her parents interact with the limited view we had, wondering what the f*ck was going to happen next.

“Elena, we’ve been through this before. Sofia is gone.” Cue the exaggerated breath. Something told me the old lady was missing a marble or two and this sort of scenario had happened more than once. “Remember, we are burying her tomorrow.”

“My little girl is gone?” The words got wavy, like she was about to cry. “Are you sure, James?”

“Yes, I’m sure. How many times do we have to go over it?” Another f*cking deep breath, the * showing zero sympathy over the loss of his kid or that his wife was having a moment. “She’s in a better place now.” He tacked on like a Hallmark tagline. Father of the f*cking year.

“Yes, yes a better place.” Elena shook her head as she slowly ambled toward the stairs. “I’m not sure why I came down here,” she muttered under her breath seeming to already have forgotten the dialogue with Jimmy.

“Let’s get you back to bed. We’ll get you one of those pills to help you sleep.”

Something told me those pills were part of the old lady’s problems.

She didn’t fight him though, her feet shuffling back up the stairs and killing the lights as she went. The house went dark again as we waited to hear the closing of doors.

One.

Then two.

Sofia’s parents hadn’t slept in the same bedroom in years, which might be sad for their marital harmony but helped us when there was only one of them we want to kill.