Free The House That Death Built by Michaelbrent Collings Page A

don't
want to see him angry."
    "What, does he turn into the
Hulk or something?"
    She giggled. "Nothing so
dramatic. He's more the Batman type." She sighed. "But it's been a
long day."
    "Do tell." He kissed
her again.
    "TJ, please…."
    He held her tight in arms that
were strong from hours spent in the garage where he worked. Where she had found
him. "I like it when you ask nicely," he said.
    They kissed. He pulled her to the
bed, and sank down on top of her. The kiss seemed to have weight, pressing her
down down down into a place she'd never found before.
    No. I found it when I found him .
    "You should go," she
said. The words held no meaning, and TJ knew it.
    "I will… eventually."
    "Today's not good for
this."
    "Sure it is. Today, and
every day."
    She didn't resist any longer. And
this had been what she intended, hadn't it? Hadn't she wanted this to happen
the moment she saw him? Hadn't every moment since then led to this single
place, this singular time?
    She surrendered to the moment.
     

15

    The light in the window turned
out.
    Tommy started forward, but Rob
held up a hand. Wait .
    He could sense that Tommy and Kayla
both wanted to move. They were hungry for a score, hungry for action. To them,
the prospect of money coupled with the probability of violence was a siren
call.
    Aaron didn't move. Not because he
was calm, he was just a prize-winning chicken with a yellow streak so broad
there was nothing left over but the fear.
    They waited. Five minutes. Ten.
    Twenty.
    The light didn't turn back on.
    Rob gestured, and he and the
others crept along the grounds. The area surrounding the house was lit – no
surprise, places like this always had landscape lighting that cost at least the
same as a small country – but less so than many other places that occupied the
same socioeconomic sphere.
    Cheap bastards. How can you be
this rich and this stingy at the same time?
    He wasn't really upset. Far from
it. The Crawfords' choice in lighting was going to cost them far more than they
saved.
    It took a surprisingly long time
to pick their way across the darkened grounds, which were bigger than any Rob
had ever seen, at least in person.
    Definitely more than just a
couple million waiting for us.
    They got to their entry point: a
back door to the house. To get to it they had to cross over a porch that was
itself nearly fifty feet wide and that wrapped around the entire house.
    A sudden déjà vu gripped him.
    Porch is just like the other one.
The last one.
    It's all gonna go to hell. Again.
    "Something wrong?"
    He almost didn't register the
voice. And when he did, his face curled automatically. No one would see his
expression, of course – not through the thick ski mask that covered his face.
But he also knew that Aaron would know. Would know that Rob had heard him, and
was disgusted at the man's cowardice.
    For a moment it struck him that
Aaron might not be a coward, after all. He constantly stood up to Rob, didn't
he? He had managed –
    ( to have a family a wife a
life )
    – to keep up with a gang that
despised him, he had kept a hold on what seemed to be the most important parts
of himself.
    And that's why I hate him.
    "I'm fine," Rob said.
And though the mask might cover his expression, he knew the kid would hear the
loathing in his voice; would feel it.
    Rob switched his gaze from Aaron
to Kayla, who had waited until the exchange was over before kneeling in front
of the back door.
    "How long?" he said.
    Kayla didn't answer for a few
long seconds. Then she snorted, a low noise that slid through the darkness.
"I don't think…." She pulled a small box out of one of her pockets.
She had explained what it was once: something like a digital wall scanner, only
instead of detecting wall studs it looked for specific types of wires with a
specific range of electrical currents, a specific spectrum of radio or
Bluetooth transmissions.
    Essentially, it was an alarm
detector.
    The scanner blinked a few times,
then turned green. She