“You hanging in there, Elliott?” Harris whispers, nudging my side.
“I’m good. I want this done.” I even try to sound confident. Both of us know good and well I’m far from it right now. Hell, in the time we’ve known each other, I’ve always been the most confident bitch alive, but today…Today is different.
“Fuck. Someone’s flipped on a light in the house,” Harris says with hope. God, let whomever the hell it is take us right to Kaleb. I find myself grinning, now hoping I'll get the opportunity to kill because I'm craving it.
“We need to wait for the go-ahead from Kase, Jade.” Does he think I’m an idiot? I know that. Just because I’m antsy doesn't mean I’m going to shoot bullets into the thick goddamn air.
“Where the hell are they? They should all be here by now.” Harris, Jackson, Steele, and I took off through the woods. While Jackson and Steele kept going deeper to guard and get into position on the other side of the house, the two of us stopped here. This is taking too damn long. The thought of it being Kaleb hanging there has tears once again stinging my eyes. My heart is barely beating; its own repair depends on what we find when the moment strikes for us to move in. Hurry the hell up. Someone make a damn move.
I adjust my scope when I finally see movement inside the house. This place is a fucking dump. The poor, barely-there structure would be better off burned to the ground.
Lights flicker on outside just before two men walk out in soldier's uniforms. I wince when I see one of them with the American flag stitched on the upper side of his arm. I damn near combust internally. If there is one single American who has anything to do with this at all, they will pray to the god above that they were born anywhere except the United States by the time I’m done with them.
“Motherfucker,” Harris hisses. His voice is pained with the realization of what's happening.
“What?” I'm instantly horrified by his response. I aim my scope and watch their every move as they lead me right to my worst nightmare.
“No.” I shake my head. My entire body goes into tremors when I see the lonely figure hanging from a large limb of a tree just like Ricardo said.
“What the hell have they done to him?” Harris continues to whisper in a voice filled with a similar hatred to my own.
It’s Kaleb. I know it. His head is hung low and his arms are pulled tight by a rope above his head. This is the first time looking through my scope that I wish I wasn’t seeing the sight before me. The night they took him comes rushing back to me. Even though I barely understood the words they were saying, there was no way to misread the anger and hatred they had for Kaleb. We left him to this fate. I will never forgive myself for this.
They have beaten the hell out of him. He’s naked. The man I love is fucking naked and hanging from a tree.
The sight before me makes me sick. Yes, for the exact reason that it’s the man I love. He's the man I’m here to bring home with me and so very far away from this shit I'm seeing today.
“Harris. Please tell me he’s breathing. I’m sorry. I’m losing it here,” I whisper the truth. I'm fucking losing it. Everything I’ve learned ceases to exist right now. I need to know. And yet, I can't look. Seeing him like this is ripping my heart out. This marks the second time in my short-lived life that I’ve had my heart traumatized. I can't breathe. The first was when my brother died, and now this. Seeing a man so strong hanging there, lifeless, all bloodied and abused. How could they do this?
I focus on pulling my shit together. Then I focus through the scope and set a target directly on the chest of the man closest to Kaleb. There are three men, and I know I could take them all within a few seconds. I just need the clear. We need to know what’s inside that house and in the surrounding area. I get how Kase wants to make sure this all goes down like it’s supposed to, but if one of these fuckers touches him, I’m shooting. I’ll blow their fucking head right off their disgusting body and enjoy every minute of it.
They all seem to be talking and laughing like this is a joke. I watch them all walk up to Kaleb and keep watching as each one of them pull out their dicks like they’re going to take a piss, all of them aiming at him. This is it. I'm fucking done, and I don't give two shits what anyone says. They are done torturing him. Their lives are over. I lower my scope and fire hitting him straight in the dick. Then I do it again. Before I can hit the third one, he turns away, so I hit him in his ass before he has the chance to take a step. They fall to the ground, and I hear pissed-off voices in my headphones as they scream for everyone to move now. Fucking finally.