Page 21 of Restitution

I straighten my spine and drop my cutlery. “Do you know where Stacey is?”

She stares at me, her smile slowly turning faker and more demonic. “Why would you like to know?”

“Just cut the bullshit and tell me.”

“She was seen on CCTV being taken out of the manor by her buyer before the fire started. I don’t currently know her location, but my team is on it.”

I lose my appetite instantly.

Base nudges me with his knee. A sign to tell me he’s here without her seeing. We always do it, letting the other know they aren’t alone when we’re being forced into a void or when we’re sofucked up we can’t think straight.

She clicks her fingers, and a server brings in three files. He lowers them in front of Bernie. “This is the fun part. I’m going to refund your bidder’s money and send you on a little… adventure.”

I blink once, twice, three times. I haven’t done a kill contract in a few weeks.

Taking someone else’s life has become so normal to me, I almost missed the power of seeing the light go out of their eyes, especially if they’re bad people. Which most are.

The first contract I was ever given, I had no idea what to do. I mean, I wanted to run, to ask for help or just say no, but no one said no to Bernadette Sawyer. I held the file in my hand and tried to set fire to it, to hand it in to the nearest station, to fucking beg the person to run and hide.

But I killed the guy. In cold blood.

I pulled the trigger, my entire body jolting with the kickback from the gun, and I ran. Bernadette gave me hell for leaving so much of a mess. Then she handed me another file. Then another. Then training. More contracts. It became endless. Familiar.

Three Manilla folders are sitting on the dining table between us. From the deprivation of my senses the last few days, my vision is still unclear and not properly adjusting, so I can’t read the names on them.

“I think it’s time to make a decision. You’re distracted. Massively. And I don’t like it. You lack focus on me and don’t give your all to your missions. So I’ve decided to do something about those distractions.”

She crosses her arms, lounges back and smirks. I raise a brow when she doesn’t elaborate on what the fuck she’s on about. “Meaning?”

Base is still eating beside me, but his eyes are on Bernadette.

“You need to assassinate one of them, Kade.” She opens the first one and pushes the file towards me.

It opens, and my eyes widen as she says, “Your father.”

She does the same with the next. A picture of Base. “Your best friend.”

My eyes lift to her, and I glare as she opens the third. “Or your lover.”

I glance down, and my teeth grind together when I see numerous images paperclipped at the corner. They’re screen grabs from CCTV. Stacey being pinned to the wall by her buyer, her thigh up his side, his masked face buried in her neck.

The image beside it is them in a lobby.

Holding hands.

He isn’t short, or an overweight, sweaty man like Bernadette threw in my face. He’s… built, muscular, and my height. He doesn’t have grey hair; it’s brown, and she almost seems comfortable with him. In the second image, she looks like she’s half-smiling.

Some of my panic subsides.

I know exactly who that is, but I’m not going to give Bernadette ammunition by telling her my father has Stacey. I look back up. “Hmm.”

“Hmm? That’s all?”

I shrug.

I won’t look back down at the pictures, because they’re fake. My dad would never do that to me or my mother. He’s putting on a facade to try to get her out of there.

My lips almost curl at the corner. He burned the manor down too.