CHAPTER TWO

NIKOLAI

I wrinkle my nose as I drag the body across the basement floor and onto the middle of the large nylon.

Sweat rolls down my face, dripping onto the floor and my muscles strain from the effort.

“I could use a little help here, Caleb,” I mutter to my annoying brother as he stands there and watches me. “This is all your doing, anyway.”

Caleb stretches, the material of his dark shirt riding up and exposing his tight abs. He runs a hand through his bleached blonde hair, the metal of his eyebrow piercings glinting in the light.

“Exactly. This is all my doing. I’m a little tired from doing all the work. I’m sure you’ve got it all under control.”

Irritation burns in my chest as I glance at him. 

“Tired from what exactly? From fucking up as usual?”

Caleb straightens and his dark eyes narrow. “Watch your fucking tone, Nikolai. You of all people don’t get to talk to me like that.”

“Why? It’s the truth, isn’t it? We’re all here because you fucked up.” River, my other brother approaches from behind, carrying a large body bag in his gloved hand.

He drops the bag on the floor with a dull thud and adds, “Again.”

A small chuckle escapes me as Caleb bristles.

River watches him in that cold, detached way of his, his icy blue eyes assessing.

“You always take his side, River. As expected. When will someone take my side?” he whines.

“When you stop fucking up,” River and I say at the same time.

Caleb huffs and leans against the wall, crossing his arms.

He was such a child. You’d think he was the youngest brother.

“But I have to admit, you did really well, Caleb,” River says as he looks down at the body on the floor. “Silas isn’t an easy target and yet you took him down so quickly.”

Caleb’s eyes brighten and he visibly preens under River’s praise.

“Thank you. At least, someone—” he shoots me a pointed look and I roll my eyes. “— appreciates my efforts around here.”

I scoff. “Oh, don’t make his ego bigger than it already is, River. Just look at the mess he made.”

We all look down at the body lying motionlessly on the clear nylon bag. His tattered white shirt is completely covered with blood and there are several cuts of varying sizes on his exposed skin. A large knife juts out from the centre of his chest. Another one juts out from his right thigh.

River sighs. “Yeah. This is going to require a lot of work.”

I purse my lips as I study the body. Too much damage. Too messy. Too careless.

 “How does one make such a mess anyway?”

“Hey,” Caleb points a finger at me. “You heard River. He wasn’t easy. Just be grateful I got the job done and the bastard is dead.”

He huffs and marches over to the corner to grab gloves.

“Besides,” he continues as he puts them on. “This is not how I operate. I told Derek I don’t do well with close contact but he wouldn’t listen to me. Now look what happened. I don’t know why he didn’t choose either one of you.”

“Because I was having a crisis at the company,” River says, grabbing a saw. “This week alone, I had to travel across three different continents.”

“I don’t know why you can’t just quit,” Caleb mumbles.

“Because,” River says patiently as if speaking to a toddler. “We all have images to uphold. No matter how stressful they are.”

He’s right. Everybody had a role outside of… this. Well, everyone except for Caleb.

It’s the only way to avoid getting caught. It’s the perfect cover. 

No one looked too closely at a CEO or a university student or a professor.

“And I’ve been busy this entire week too, so I couldn’t do it,” I say.

I grunt as I shift the body more toward the centre.

Caleb snorts. “Busy with what exactly? Fucking your way through the entire school? Your reputation precedes you, dear brother.”

“Busy with a project,” I snap, as I accept the saw and goggles that River hands me.

Something burns in my chest. I hate to admit it but Caleb has perfectly mastered the way to get under my skin.

He shrugs. “If you say so.”

River hands him a saw and goggles and he takes them, putting the goggles on.

“We can’t all be jobless like you,” I snipe.

But even as I say that, I know it’s not entirely the truth. Caleb might be unemployed to the public eye but he still had a role to play in our group. 

Despite the way he looks with the multiple tattoos and the piercings, Caleb is actually very smart. As much as it hurts me to admit.

He’s in charge of research work and is very good with computers.

He also has a laboratory in the family mansion. A lab where he cooks up some of the deadliest poisons known to man.

He ignores my jab and wrinkles his nose as he looks down.

“This is why I don’t do knives. Poisons are more my style. It’s easier, more efficient and less… messy.”

“Can we stop complaining and just get to work?” River grunts. He presses a button on the saw and the device comes to life.

After that, there are no more words exchanged as we get to work on chopping the body into little pieces that would be easy to get rid of.