Page 17 of The Hitman's Prince

It didn’t matter what I’d thought because I was wrong.

Innocent men didn’t disappear into the night after their boss and their lover took a bullet. Orion should have been the one to change my bandages, to make my dinner, to lock my windows at night. I appreciated that Gideon and Fletcher had loaned Daren out, that they’d even have let me fuck him if I wanted, but he wasn’t the one I lusted after. It was Orion who occupied almost every waking moment, and even a handful of the sleeping ones. I dreamed of him, his voice in my ear, his throat in my hand.

The priest…he took up the rest, with his loose collar and his broad shoulders. I owed him a life and he’d asked me for dinner. I’d been of the impression his collar wouldn’t allow him to go on a date with the head of the Angelini crime family, but maybe that was exactly what would have allowed it. I hadn’t seen him since the night I went down to the church the first time, and I didn’t know what I’d been expecting. The only person who showed up at my door with any regularity was Daren.

No priest.

No Orion.

With a grunt, I pushed myself up from the couch and shuffled into the kitchen, nose chasing after the smell of whatever Daren had cooked for dinner. It was pasta with a thick and hearty Bolognese, and I climbed onto a stooland dug right in. It was a relief my appetite had finally started to come back. I’d lost an obscene amount of weight in the hospital, and it was going to take months to put it back on.

I ate the whole plate of spaghetti, then turned off the lights and headed into my office. It was cold without the fire, cold without the heat of Orion’s mouth around my cock while I worked. I sat down behind my desk and finished the organizing I’d been doing before Daren showed up. I supposed one perk of not having Orion to distract me was that I’d gotten entirely caught up on my father’s affairs.

With North and Sinclair in the back seat, I’d realigned my own internal organization to make sure all the things my father had running were still in place. It was mostly money collection of varying degrees, bribes and payoffs and that kind of shit you’d expect. He had a good group of men working for him, a loyal group, Orion included apparently. I had worried there would be blowback when they found out I was the one who killed my father, but it had only earned me more respect in the long run. Or maybe it was just fear; I wasn’t sure.

If I’d shoot my own father in the head, who knew what I’d do to them.

With a weary sigh, I made myself comfortable in the overstuffed leather chair, reaching back to unholster my gun and set it on the desk. I was locked in the house and utterly alone. I didn’t need to bestrapped. But five minutes later, when the door to my office creaked open, I quickly learned both of those facts were absolute lies.

Chapter 13

Orion

“Can I light you a fire?”

Vince was slow to open his eyes, but quick to reach for his gun. He had it pointed at my face before the question was all the way out of my mouth, and I held my hands up to show I’d come unarmed.

“Considering I’m still recovering from a bullet to the chest, you can come put the barrel of my gun in your fucking mouth and make this easier for me,” he said.

My heart beat violently against my sternum, and I closed the space between us. He spun his chair to the side and I met him behind his desk, going to my knees between his spread legs. He lowered the gun to keep it at face level, and I tangled my fingers together behind my back and opened my mouth. I hoped he would follow through. After a month of being away from him, a monthof living with what I’d done, I wanted my life to end. It was what I deserved.

“You look like shit,” he murmured, pressing the gun against the center of my forehead, dragging it over to my temple. I remembered the night he murdered his father he handled me much the same way. It had been the start of the end, and I’d never hated myself more. I’d never been more scared, more uncertain of my future. And then over the two weeks after that, I saw my life unfold with a startling new clarity, saw a way to entertain the most depraved parts of myself without giving up my soul, and I’d ruined it.

My throat was dry, and I licked my lips before speaking, “I don’t think I’ve slept.”

“You surely haven’t shaved.” He let the gun wander lazily down the side of my face, scratching through the beard that had taken shape on my cheeks and my jaw. I hadn’t shaved since the day he fucked me. I hadn’t done a lot of things since that day.

“No,” I agreed.

Vince tilted his head to the side slowly, eyes tracking across my face while he studied me. I wanted to ask what he saw when he looked at me, but there was also a large part of me that didn’t want to know the answer.

“Were you behind it?”

“Yes.”

He pressed the gun against my lips and I opened for him again.

“Why?”

I blinked hard and slow, tears welling up against the backs of my eyelids and escaping down my cheeks. I didn’t have an answer, so I took more of his gun into my mouth until I could smell his skin.

“Why?” he asked again. “I…I thought…”

I sobbed, choking around the barrel of the gun. I tried to pull off, but Vince moved quick, fisting my hair and yanking me down so it reached the back of my throat. Spit poured out of my mouth and snot from my nose, and I cried and cried and cried for what I’d done. He didn’t loosen his hold on my hair until I got myself under control, and by then I’d made a mess of my face and his lap, and I didn’t have strength left to do anything besides rest my cheek on the top of his thigh and close my eyes.

With a muttered curse, he pulled the gun out of my mouth and threw it on the desk, and a fresh wave of tears slicked down my cheeks.

“I got too soft with you, Orion. I brought you to heel and neglected to keep you there.” Vince made a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat. “You didn’t know better, did you? This is my fault.”