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Closing my eyes, my hands trembled no matter how much I tried to steady them. My mind kept wandering to how deep in this whole thing I was willing to go. I had only come to set new terms, and now I was staring down the barrel of my own gun.

I knew what Virgo had for protection, because we were the ones who supplied it. Every gun and bullet he owned came from my father. Any time he needed to make someone who screwed him over disappear, my family would step in.

It wasn't a pretty business, but it was profitable. The people I worked with went from high power government officials to low life scum. As long as they had the means to fund it, I had the power to make it happen.

But this fucking woman had seeped into my head, making it hard to concentrate, forcing me stick around a lot longer than I wanted to.

When she said I was playing games, I didn't want to admit she was right. Because once I laid eyes on her, my whole purpose for that fucking trip suddenly changed.

My body was holding me there, making me go back over and over to see her. All I could think about was touching her, caressing her, making her scream.

But that was before I knew just how unhappy she was. What Virgo did wasn't a mystery to me, but maybe I had always been too ignorant to realize that none of it was consensual.

You knew, you just chose to ignore it.

I turned my head, never looking any deeper than the surface. I saw the girls, I saw a stage, I saw women with a fake smile and flirty tongues. But I never stopped to actually see the truth. That was what my father had taught me to do, don't stick my nose where it doesn't belong.

And then I met her. I watched her dance on that stage the first night while I sat in the shadows. I knew her place, and still I let her pull me in with her endless curves and sexy, pouty lips. Her body moved in ways that made my blood surge through the veins and my cock thicken.

I want to fucking kill him.

The idea of just making it easy and killing Virgo weighed heavily on my mind. But that could come with a price.

What I did went well beyond a service for hire. I was supposed to be in the shadows, an unknown name that would come in and take care of a problem. There shouldn't be any links to the person that hired me and no trail that would lead back in my direction.

But it was impossible for me to know what notes Virgo had, who he had told about me, and how much his men knew, or what they would do if I just took out their boss.

I had to play nice, at least for now. I wouldn't risk my life for his.

That doesn't mean she's not worth the fight. . .

Berlin's desperate attempt to seek my help made my chest hurt like someone was squeezing the muscle hidden behind my ribs. Each beat was a struggle, painful and wretched like my heart was turning to stone.

Forget it, forget her. She's not worth the trouble.

Going to war was out of the question.

It wasn't worth it for just one girl.