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“You’ll ensure his predecessor is aware of all of this,” I gestured to the folders that served as my life insurance. My name would be erased from any ledgers, anywhere that Gregory had planted his own evidence to use as threats.
He nodded once.
He was being paid a fuck of a lot of money to not only stage this scene but to make sure I wasn’t connected to any of it. I was trusting him with my life. It was a risk. A calculated one. Knox Rhodes had come into my life at an opportune time. I might have considered it fate, if I believed in such things.
I’d heard his name mentioned while at the poker table with Jasper. I did my research—a lot of it—then contacted him to set everything in motion.
“Good doing business with you.” I extended my hand to him.
He looked down at it before shaking it.
The contact was uncomfortable, as if my body knew I shouldn’t be touching a man like him. I didn’t move a muscle.
“Good business model,” I added. “You’re like Batman for bad guys.”
“We’re not the good guys.” Knox’s face didn’t so much as twitch. “And if you make any more comparisons to comic book characters, I’ll rethink our deal.”
His threat was sound, yet it also made me want to smile at the serious badass who couldn’t take some good-natured ribbing. I didn’t smile.
Instead, I nodded. Because what he said was true. Knox Rhodes and Lukyan—no last name—were not good guys. But they weren’t the kind of bad guys who threatened toddlers either. Both were semi-reformed hitmen. In the sense that they’d made a business out of only accepting contracts within the underworld. Previously untouchable men were being taken down if you had enough balls and money.
I had both.
“You’re done with this business,” he barked as I’d been about to let go of his hand.
“You don’t have the say in that.” Indignantly, I tilted my head. Adrenaline surged through my body at my victory, and maybe I was a little cocky, ready to take on all bad men. Especially men who tried to tell me what to do when they were on my payroll. Granted, Knox was a contractor. Mercenary, Batman for hire. Whatever.
“You babysit my niece.” His grip tightened as I tried to pull my hand away. “You’re out of this business. You’re done making enemies with men like that who could have her name in their mouths.” He quirked his head to Gregory’s corpse.
I wasn’t surprised that Knox knew I babysat Mabel. He didn’t exactly come to barbeques, but I knew about his wife, had met her once in passing. She was warm, friendly and seemingly human. Therefore, he must have had a heart, a soft side. Although that didn’t give me a feeling of safety. A demon with a heart, who cared about a handful of people, was infinitely more dangerous than one who didn’t care for anything.
And though I ached to stand up against him and tell him I was done when I said I was done, I knew when to back down.
Though it pained me, I nodded. “I’m out of this business.” I bit my lip. “Not because you said so, though.” A little petty and juvenile, but I couldn’t let it look like I was submitting to him.
I only submitted to one man. It wasn’t a glowering hitman but a smiling fisherman.
He held my hand in his painful grip for a second longer to punctuate his wordless point. If I put his family in danger, I was dead.
When he let me go, I nodded again. “Hope to see you at Christmas dinner.” I gave him a faux smile before I walked away, leaving him to deal with the corpse. That was men’s work, after all.
Bringing down someone who had the power to ruin my life, who had ruined countless others, taking the target off my back, should’ve filled me with a sense of relief. Of victory. Yet my steps were heavier than ever. Because that was the easy part.
Twenty-Six
My Ego Dies At The End — Jensen McRae
This.
This was the meeting I was afraid of. Terrified of. There was not even a tiny uptick in my heart rate when I’d threatened and blackmailed one of the most dangerous men on the planet. Not as I watched him take his last breath. Because he meant nothing to me. Because I was positive I was doing the right thing. That I had enough power to defeat him. That I’d tied up all my loose ends.
Yet standing here, behind his door, there were no certainties about power or whether I’d be walking out alive. If my decision was the right one. If he could be saved.
Jasper didn’t appear to be surprised when he answered his door. As if he’d been expecting me. He did a quick perusal of my body, his eyes flaring just slightly, the only show of emotion I got from him those days.
It made my heart stutter, that flare, though. Because it illustrated the need he had for me. That need I’d had in me oncebefore. Before it was smothered, strangled and died, piece by piece.
I didn’t want him. Not even a little. But a wretched, evil part of me still loved him. Would always love him.