Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 88

"Relax, Gauthier. I'm just showing Bren what I got from the other dude." He pointed at the crossbow.

Peter gave Logan a grim look. "You should be inside," he said to me.

I smiled politely. "We're heading there. Don't worry," I said as I walked toward the door.

"It's my job to worry."

I heard Logan scoffed behind me.

Peter whirled around. "You got a problem?"

"No problem here," Logan said.

Peter didn't let his eyes leave Logan until we narrowed a corner and approached Jun. By then, Logan had moved further off the room.

Though it may look like the house was three-stories high, it was actually five. The first two upper floors had the four bedrooms, the third floor—or the first floor where the porch stairs were connected to—was where the kitchen and the living spaces were, which was also connected to the balcony patio that led to a small back yard below.

The room next to the garage, which was the ground floor, was small and cramped compared to what was above, meant to be a basement, but it had been refurbished into another living room. Glass-sliding doors led to the same back yard surrounded by stone walls. The windows were small and narrow here, propped closer to the ceiling, and a door that led to the actual basement where there were no windows—a perfect place to stow prisoners.

Prisoners? Is that what they are now? I shook my head.

Jun told Alfie and Peter to put Bean and Charlie in the basement since no one could hear them there.

"Do you have a rope?" Peter asked Jun.

"Kitchen. It's the second lower compartment on your left."

Peter went up the stairs and asked me to come with him. I nodded and followed him.

"Logan's a bully, you know," Peter said suddenly as we made it there.

"He's kind of okay now," I said. "Seems like the same old Logan before I came out."

Peter didn't look convinced. "Have you forgotten what he did to you? To us?"

"Of course, I haven't. It's not that easy to forget."

"Then why are you too cozy with him?"

"I wasn't too cozy with him."

"Well you are."

"He's a friend now. I trust him. Back in New York—"

"You look like a..."

I paused. "Like what?"

Peter shook his head. "Never mind. Let's just go find what we came here for."

——

"So, how are we going to do it?" Peter asked after he found the rope.

"I...I don't know."

He studied me for a moment. "Do you want me to do it?"

"No. It's my plan, so I should interrogate them."

"Okay. What's your strategy then?"

"Um, maybe scare them a little?"

Peter stifled a chuckle. "We can play good cop, bad cop. But frankly, I am not very effective in interrogations. We never really learned that kind of thing in West Point since I'm only in my first year."