Page 36 of Ruthless Commander

I'd given up everything for this,even my one chance of actually happiness.

For. This.

I turned from the window in my office, strode through the study, and headed out the door. There was no word from those who'd attacked, or my men hunting them…and I didn’t like it.

I grabbed my phone and punched in the code to hit the one number I didn’t want to. The one number I hadn’t called in over five years and the number I never wanted to call again. I listened to it ring on the other end of the line and for a second, I thought he wasn’t going to answer and I’d truly left that part of my life behind. Maybe Ion was dead…maybe the Sergeant finally—

“Komandant?”

“Thought you were dead there for a second,” I answered, hating how I winced at the thick accent of my home.

“They can’t kill what’s already dead.”

A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth at the growl. “Then it’s a good thing I still have you in my corner. You are in my corner, right, Kurti?”

Sheets rustled in the background. “Do you even have to ask that, Mateo?”

A flare of shame rose inside me. “No…no, I don’t.”

“Then tell me what you need, old friend.”

“Besnik, what do you have on them?”

“Wow, that’s a name from the past. Not much, they’re more underground than fucking hell, if you know what I mean.”

I swallowed hard, my mind racing. “That’s what I was worried about.”

“Is there a problem? They reach out to you?”

Reach out…that’s one way to explain what’d happened here. The only problem was, I didn’t know for sure that it was them. “No, maybe…I don’t know.”

“Which is the reason for the phone call,” Kurti clarified. “You’ve come to the right guy, Komandant. I’ll make some calls and get back to you.”

“I appreciate that.”

“How is your…Edon. How is Edon, Komandant?”

I flinched at the question. “Fine. Alive, if that’s what you’re asking.”

He just gave a chuckle. “And the rest of us shall live in fear.”

I stopped walking, stopping in the middle of the hallway as his words hit home. “Do you have a reason to be afraid of him, Kurti?”

“Sir, the entire world needs to be afraid while a man like that is alive,” he replied, his words careful. “A trained killer who hasn’t wiped out every man who ever harmed him is a scary concept indeed.”

Not as scary as the brother who'd killed to save him…

And would kill again.

“Get back to me with whatever you find out,” I murmured.

“Of course. It’s good to hear from you, Mateo,” he finished, and hung up.

I didn’t say it back. I never did…because the truth was, I wanted to forget that time of my life. I wanted to forget what happened in that arid land where I was born. I wanted to forget the crimes I'd committed for my country…and the things I'd seen.

I turned away, lifting my gaze to the darkening skies outside the building. Gray skies, whipping winds. The weather report indicated a cyclone headed our way, as if a murder wasn’t enough, mother nature decided to demand some attention. Why the fuck not.

Beep.