Vicious Minds (Children of Vice 4)

“Mom told you that, didn’t she?” Darcy asked.

“This joke has gone on way too long,” I told them. Ethan just sat there happily like a drunk cat. “We’ve all lost our motherfucking minds.”

Chapter 19

“And the women answered one another

as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands,

and David his ten thousands.”

* * *

~1 Samuel 18:7

SEDRIC

“This is a bit much,” I murmured, mostly to myself. It had taken all of two hours for our home to become an armed fortress. It reminded me of the Terracotta Army, aka the eight thousand sculpted soldiers that Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, had in his tomb. Except it wasn’t eight thousand soldiers, it was a hundred men with guns, which might as well have been eight thousand ancient warriors. They lined the halls and filled the courtyard out back and out in front. None of them seemed to understand why they were called, but they stood tall, proud, and eager to prove themselves anyway.

Which made all of this even more ridiculous. What was Ethan thinking?

“Two more minutes until she gets here.” Darcy checked his watch as he stepped up beside me at the top of the stairs

“You guess,” I muttered.

“What?”

I looked him, still baffled. “You don’t think this is insane? Ethan has called one hundred men to face one woman who he knows nothing about other than some old Italian mobster with dementia told him she’s an assassin. What if he was just speaking out of anger? What if she has no plans to fight and just wants her daughter back? He hurt his cause by putting this much pressure on her. Maybe she’s afraid of the family and didn’t show herself before. Maybe I’m understating her and she’s Lara Croft meets the Terminator. Option one: she magically figures out how to kill all of us and get her daughter and Ethan loses. Doubt it. So option two: she dies, and Ethan kills the mother of his child. Making him 3 for 3 in one goddamn year, and mentally screwing up his daughter….so he loses. So again, this is insane. And not how Ethan does things.”

“You’re right.” He nodded, leaning on the railing and watching the men below us. “But like always you’re being logical at the wrong time.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“If this seems crazy to all of us, don’t you think it seems crazy to him too? Ethan’s trying to prove a point, you heard him in there, he said she made him look like a fool. So now he’s trying to show her who the boss is. All of this is a show. He’s not out to kill her…yet.” He checked his watch again. “You have to give her credit though, it takes a lot to get under Ethan’s skin like this.”

“Yeah, just one illegitimate child—ah…ouch!” I snapped, rubbing the back of my head. “What?”

He looked at me as if wanted to smack me again. “Do you really think calling his daughter illegitimate is something he’s not going care about?”

“That’s what children out of wedlock are called, Darcy—”

“Yeah, in 1930.”

“Or in the mafia!” I snapped back. “But whatever, I won’t say it. I can’t wait for this damn day to be over so we can get to work…real work. We’re just standing post over the men in black over here. It’s not like she’s just going to walk through the front door—”

DING

DONG

DING

I didn’t want to turn towards the door, so I just looked forward into his brown face. “She did not just use the front bell.”

Darcy huffed, fighting bac

k a laugh, and the men at the door looked to us. He nodded to them as I whispered. “I really hope she has a punchline and not a gun.”

It felt like the air was electrified. The black hair on my white arms rose as the front door creaked open. The dense sound of rain beating down on the concrete became louder as the door opened wider and the cold air flowed into the foyer. I couldn’t see her under the large black umbrella nor could I hear what the guard said to her. However, he took a step back and she walked inside, closing the umbrella. The first thing I noticed was her wavy chocolate brown hair with highlights that stopped at her shoulder. She stood there smiling politely at the guard as she took off her long trench coat, revealing a fitted black turtleneck sweater with black wide leg black satin pants and red heels. Not exactly battle gear.