The Killer's New Obsession

“I’m here for someone,” I said. “Doesn’t need to be ugly.”

“Gonna be,” Zig-zag said. “Gonna be if you keep waving that gun around.”

“Hands up. I won’t ask again.” I stared at them for a long beat.

Zig-zag lunged for the coffee table. A handgun lay next to a giant bottle of beer. I shot him in the shoulder, then again in the head, and Linc put two in the big guy’s chest. His blood spurted out and covered the girls to either side of him, and both scrambled away screaming.

Franco put his guy down with a shot to his skull. The man crumpled and hit with a dull thud.

I grabbed one of the girls trying to get away by her hair. She screamed and kicked at me, but I held her away as Linc went and checked the stairs.

“Sasha,” I said. “Looking for a girl named Sasha.”

The girl swatted at my hand. “Let me go, motherfucker,” she said. “Sasha’s upstairs, you asshole. You killed them, oh, fuck, I’m going to get beaten for this.”

I let her go and headed to the stairs. I gave Alvaro a look. “Cover them,” I said.

Linc was already climbing up. It was quiet in the hallway and hot as hell. The house didn’t have air conditioning, and the humidity sat above the wood floor like fog. I checked the first room and found two girls crouched behind a bed, terrified. “Sasha?” I asked.

One pointed next door. I saluted her with the gun and went to the next room.

I kicked the door open and entered, gun raised, only to find a girl sitting at the end of her bed wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt with a bag on her shoulder. She had dark brown hair swept over one shoulder and big, round cheeks. Her full lips were painted red, and her big blue eyes stared with me with a vicious smile. She was pretty, though in a rough way, and not even remotely my type.

“Took you long enough,” she said, standing up. She was taller than I would’ve guessed, close to six feet. “Did you kill anyone?”

“Three guys downstairs,” I said, frowning at her. The room was nice with a big, comfortable bed, a little desk with a laptop, and a neat nightstand. The walls were covered with old boy band posters that were faded and ripped at the edges. “Are you Sasha?” I asked.

“Of course,” she said and stepped toward me. “You’re getting me out of here.” She extended a hand and I reluctantly shook.

“Cam,” I said, bewildered.

She grinned. “Let’s go, Cam. You know all these girls are gonna get beaten for this, right?”

“Not my problem,” I said, and led Sasha into the hallway. Linc came behind us, frowning at me, and I only shrugged.

We descended the steps. The girls were huddled in the kitchen, away from the corpses. Alvaro stood near them while Franco watched the front door.

“Let’s go,” I said. “Leave the girls.”

Alvaro followed with Franco bringing up the rear. Linc cleared the street, then I hurried Sasha back to my car while the others disappeared into the night. I hustled her into the back seat, then got behind the wheel and peeled out. The last I saw of that cat house was a single girl standing in the doorway screaming curses out into the night.

Irene blinked at me rapidly then looked back at Sasha. “Uh, hey,” Irene said. “My name’s Irene.”

“Sasha,” she said, extending her hand.

Irene gave me a look and shook it. “Did everything go okay in there?” Irene asked.

“Went fine,” I said. “Killed three guys.”

“The girls are going to get beaten for that,” Sasha said again.

“Still not my problem,” I said through clenched teeth.

Irene gave me a sharp look. “We didn’t mean for that to happen,” she said. “Is there anything we can do?”

“Nope,” Sasha said, sounding chipper. “Just figured you should know. If he’d just yelled for me, I would’ve come down and nobody had to get hurt.”

“The guy with the design in his hair went for a gun,” I said. “Didn’t give me much choice.”

“Oh, Marcus,” she said. “He’s an idiot. Probably better than he’s dead.” She rolled her eyes.

Irene stared at me then laughed. “I have to say, you’re not what we expected,” she said.

“What did you expect?” Sasha asked.

“Someone scared,” I said.

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Sasha said, “but I haven’t been scared since they took me from home and ruined my life. No, I’m not scared, I’m only very, very pissed off, and when you called, I figured this was my chance to get some revenge.” Sasha leaned forward, grinning evilly. “So was I right, Cam and Irene? Is this my chance?”

I exchanged a look with Irene then laughed. She grinned back at me, and I nodded slowly as I drove into the night.

“Yeah, Sasha,” Irene said. “This is your chance all right.”