Page 121 of Broken Souls

He glances away briefly. “Yes.”

My jaw drops so far it bounces off my nonexistent boobs. Visiting a psychologist in our line of work is like visiting a cop. You don’t do it if you don’t want to end up dead. For him to reveal that to me? Does he really trust me that much despite how many times I’ve gone out of my way to piss him off?

“You remind me so much of your mother, you know,” he says, and all I can do is stare at him in shock for a few steps.

“Lou is the one who looks like her,” I finally manage to sputter.

He nods. “She might have got all her looks, but you got her fire, angel.”

I turn away from him and squeeze my eyes shut to stop the tears. The last time I heard someone call me ‘angel’ was when mom was alive.

“She would’ve been so proud of you,” he says.

My throat constricts until I can barely breathe. But we’re getting close to the crowd now. In another few seconds, the music will start playing and everyone will turn to look at me. So I take a deep breath and lock it all down. I don’t have the emotional capacity right now to deal with this. So I do what I always do. I crack a joke. “Oh, yes. She always had such dreams of me being a breedmare to a monster.”

He stops abruptly, and I’m jerked to a stop with him. We are still far enough away from the back of the row that they don’t notice we’re here, but Varius notices. I can feel his paranoia running down our bond, his instant desire to come get me and drag me the rest of the way if he has to.

I catch his gaze and shake my head. His eyes narrow ever so slightly, but he doesn’t move even though I can feel the vibration of his energy.

Stefaan’s voice is low, deadly. “Is he a monster to you?”

I snort. “You can’t act like you care after selling me to him.”

“I found out about your secret network and knew it was only a matter of time before some very powerful people came after you. I won’t be able to protect you from them, but he can.”

My eyes widen as I spin fully towards Stefaan, ripping my arm from his. Fear ruptures down my spine. Dayne and I specialized in killing kids as a cover. Any time a hit went out on one, we took it so we could pretend to assassinate them. In truth, we gave them a new face, a new identity, a new family that didn’t want them dead – most hits having been taken out by siblings who didn’t want to share their inheritance or step parents who didn’t want kids or widows who realized they would get everything if they weren’t alive. We were very fucking careful to cover our tracks. “What did you –”

“I covered your tracks better,” he cuts in quickly.

“Dayne…” I say, blood draining from my face. If Father can’t protect me, then he can’t –

“What the fuck have you said to my wife?” Varius asks softly as he comes up to us. His fingers wrap around my arm as he hauls me to him. My eyes widen at the fierce protectiveness rushing down our bond.

The sudden burst of laughter from the crowd takes me by surprise, and I glance behind Varius to see Sau in front of the crowd, playing the smooth hostess who distracts them from the shitstorm brewing in the corner. There’s a slight glimmer in the air around us too, meaning someone has cast an illusion over us, perhaps showing Varius is on a call – a Boss that never stops working.

I look back at him as I try to pull away, but he doesn’t let me go.

“I told her someone has taken a hit out on her,” my father lies smoothly.

“Who?” Varius asks softly, every part of him poised like a snake about to strike.

“William Florsley.” My blood instantly boils at the mere sound of his name. Ten years ago, the fucker paid for us to kill his son just because he suspected him of being gay. That way he could favor his ‘normal’ child without losing face. My five-figure fee back then was nothing compared to how much he threw at marketing to be “an ally” to the LGBTQ+ community so they would support him financially.

His public persona is so well played and he’s so rich that he’s too powerful to touch. He owns the majority share of the retailer Flormart, which has thousands of branches all across the US. They’re terrible places to work, with low pay, long hours, no benefits, and no overtime. But if you focus on hiring the desperate, they’re not going to complain about poor or illegal work conditions due to being too terrified of losing their job. After all, there’s always someone else to replace them because every capitalist economy needs a sum of people unemployed and desperate for just this reason. You can’t rely on firing the people who complain if there’s no one else to take their place.

He’s utter scum, and although I doubt he actually knows about me having not done the job he paid me to do, I am okay with him dying to protect my secret. Because that is what’s going to happen. I can feel Varius’ decision in the power of our bond.

“He won’t touch her,” he says, not giving my father any evidence to use against him. “Now come.” Releasing me, he strides back to the altar.

I breathe out slowly before looking at Father. “Does he actually know?”

“I don’t know. But some PIs have been spotted at his son’s college.”

My lips tighten. We didn’t have the means back then to have given the kid a new face. We hoped moving him to the other side of the country and to a small town would be enough.

“They might not be working for William,” I say.

“Perhaps not.”