Hate or Love?

Chapter Twenty-One

Jayce pulled the car to a stop a little ways away from the safe house, deciding that going in on foot was the safest option right now.

"Alright, let's get this shit done." he talked to himself, going to his trunk and opening it, grabbing a few guns and strapping on holsters, as well as shoving a few knives away just in case. He glanced down the road, locking his car and starting on his way.

"Here goes nothing..." he muttered, jumping the front gate and staying low to the ground, walking down the driveway with a pistol in hand. He got to the front porch, ducking down beside the stairs and looking up. There was nobody outside, and it didn't look like there was anyone at the windows. He crept up to the door, pressing his ear to it.

"If my boy doesn't show up I'm going to kill them all, you understand that Bates?!" he heard Barrett Ryder inside, shouting.

"I do understand, Mr. Ryder, but I'm also telling you to wait and see. Jayce will come, I doubt he knows that this safe house has been compromised. See, we have the upper hand, because he wasn't working with Andreas' friend. He doesn't know what she knows, so when he pulls up to the house with your boy in the passenger seat, he won't know any better." Arthur reassured the other man, and Jayce slipped back down the stairs, going around the house, looking for a back entrance. He found one, a screen door that unfortunately creaked when he opened it. He hesitated, his finger on the trigger, pointed down the hallway, waiting for someone to come. But no one did. He closed the door slowly behind him, letting the latch click before he kept going. He went down the hall, finding that there was just a series of bedrooms. They were all empty, and he wondered if Arthur had moved Andreas and Quinn somewhere else. He turned a corner, finding a kitchen with one person in it. His back was to Jayce, so Jayce crept up behind him with a knife, slitting his throat with one quick motion. The man fell to the floor, and Jayce dragged him into a storage closet, shutting the door and continuing through the house. He heard voices from the living room, and stopped, dropping low to the floor and peeking around the corner. There were ten men in there, and on the far side of the room, Barrett and Arthur. Jayce dropped on the floor, checking how many bullets he had left in the chamber. He had plenty, that wasn't his concern. He was just trying to figure out how he'd drop them all without getting shot or taken himself. He took a breath, closing his eyes and thinking, trying to remember if there was anything important.

"Hey, Richard has been gone an awful long time. I'm going to the kitchen, I want a beer anyways." one of the men declared, and Jayce scrambled to his feet, racing to the kitchen and sliding into the closet where the dead body of the man - he assumed was Richard - had gotten blood everywhere. There was also a trail of blood that led directly to the closet, and Jayce wanted to kick himself for being so stupid and reckless. But, it was too late to change it, because someone was in the kitchen.

"Richard?" the man called, and Jayce readied a knife, positioning himself so he could just jump on the man when the door opened, and kill him before he could make a sound. He heard the click of a gun, and held his breath as he listened to the footsteps get closer to the closet. He waited, not breathing as the footsteps stopped right outside, and the knob turned. The door swung open, and Jayce lunged, driving the knife through the man's throat. The man gasped, choking on his own blood as Jayce yanked it away, wiping it clean on the man's jacket. He shoved the man on top of the other dead guy, closing the closet and letting out a breath. No one else seemed to be alerted, thank fucking god, and Jayce wondered where the hell Andreas and Quinn could be. He wished he could know, so that he could just go in and get them out quietly, but of course, they were hidden away. There was never an easy way. Jayce went back to the entrance to the living room, and listened to their quiet conversation. There was a door at the end of the hall, past the door frame to the living room. If Jayce could get by undetected, he could see what was inside. But, he couldn't, without them seeing him. He glanced back at the kitchen, an idea slowly forming in his head as he snuck back into the kitchen, going to the closet and opening it. The two dead guys were lying there, and Jayce sighed, shaking his head as he shrugged off his leather jacket, trading it in for the suits the men were wearing. Unbuttoning his shirt, he reached down, loosening the tie on the dead guy's neck and sliding it off, grimacing at the blood on the collar. He buttoned the man's black shirt up on his own body, tying the tie and pulling on the jacket, then shedding his jeans and pulling on the matching pants, and finally taking off his shoes for the shiny leather shoes on the dead guy's feet. The body was now naked, except for boxers, with Jayce's clothes piled on him, and Jayce pulled a pair of sunglasses from the inside of the jacket, sliding them on and putting the earpiece on. After grabbing his weapons and hiding them on his body, he closed the door once again. He walked out of the kitchen, taking a deep breath and sticking his head into the living room.