Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [546]
But it wasn’t just Richard. I’d met the entire Zeeman clan. They were so close to perfect that it made my teeth ache. The family might never recover from a loss like this. My family hadn’t. I was counting on Daniel and Charlotte to recover from the torture. I was counting on them being strong enough to not let that alone be enough to destroy them. I hoped I was right. No. I prayed I was right.
Thompson had told us what room they were keeping them in. It was in the back, near the woods, as far from the road as possible. Not a surprise. There might have been information that Thompson had that could have been useful. Maybe I should have used less torture and more threat. Maybe that would have gotten us more detailed info faster. Maybe, maybe not. I was new at interrogation by torture, lacked the proper technique, I suppose. I would have said I’d get better with practice, except I wasn’t doing it again. I might have the screaming meemies forever from just this one incident, but if I did it again, it was over. They’d have to wrap me up and put me away. I kept flashing on the feel of the cleaver biting into the floor. I remembered thinking that I didn’t feel it go through the bone. I just felt it bite into the floor underneath. I saw the fingers go in a wash of blood, but not as much blood as you’d think, for some reason.
“Anita, Anita, the turnoff.”
I blinked and slammed on the brakes, throwing everyone forward. I was the only one wearing a seat belt. I usually remember to have everyone buckle up. Careless of me.
Jason peeled himself off the dashboard, pushed back to the seat, and said, “Are you okay?”
I backed the van up slowly. “I’m fine.”
“Liar,” he said.
I eased the van back until I could see the white sign that said, “Greene Valley House.” You didn’t expect to find a house with a name at the end of a dirt road, but there you are. Just because the road isn’t paved doesn’t mean the people don’t have style or maybe pretensions. Sometimes it’s awfully hard to tell the difference.
This road was gravel. The gravel pinged against the underside of the van, even at less than twenty miles an hour. I slowed down further. Roxanne knew the house. She’d grown up with the Greenes’ son. They’d been best friends until the hormones kicked in and he started trying to play boy to her girl. But she knew the house. There was a clearing about halfway down the road where we should park the van. The clearing was right on schedule. I pulled the van into the weeds. They whisked against the metal, whipping the tires. The black van was sort of invisible, parked in the trees. It was also sort of wedged. We wouldn’t be moving it quickly. Of course, I wasn’t planning on us having to make a run for it. My priority was to get Daniel and Charlotte out as unharmed as possible. I had no other priority. It made things simple. We secured the hostages, then we killed everybody. Simple.
Part of me hoped that Richard got here in time for the assault. Part of me didn’t. One, I wasn’t sure how he’d take the news about his family. Two, I wasn’t sure how he’d take my game plan. And I didn’t want to argue. I’d paid the price to get here. We’d play it the way I wanted it.
Someone touched my arm, and I jumped so badly I couldn’t speak for a second. My heart filled my throat until I couldn’t breathe. “Anita, it’s Jason. You okay?”
The passenger-side door was open, and Patrick wasn’t in sight. I heard movement coming up on my side of the van. It was Nathaniel. He tapped softly on the window. I lowered it.
“Everyone’s out of the back,” he said.
I nodded.
“Give us a few minutes,” Jason said.
Nathaniel went back to the rear of the van without another word. He did follow orders well.
“Talk to me, Anita.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“You keep staring off into space for minutes at a time. You’re not even here. We