Page 25 of The Hitman's Prince

I wanted to tell him even if I was supposed to, even if I should, getting the police involved was the absolute last thing I’d ever do. It was dangerous enough when they’d shown up the night of Vince’s attempted assassination. I didn’t want to welcome them back. But playing the role of the priest meant I had to play the role of the priest in all ways.

“No,” I assured him. “This is between us.”

“Okay.” He breathed out again, the smell of peppermint wafting through the carved window grate. “Forgive me, Father. I have sinned…I’m the one who tried to kill Vince Angelini.”

Chapter 19

Vince

Iwoke up the following morning with a headache the size of Daren Moore banging at my door. Maybe I’d let Orion back in just so I didn’t have to get up an answer the door anymore. Knowing he was waiting, I took my time getting out of bed. He was a persistent son of a bitch, and he wasn’t going to go anywhere before I let him in. Even if he wanted to, he was obeying orders.

“Took you long enough,” he said when I finally opened the front door to let him inside.

“I was asleep.”

“I was asleep too,” he said, closing the door and following me into the kitchen. “Before I had to wake up, leaving my gorgeous boyfriend naked in bed, to come over here and play nurse.”

“You can tell your daddies I’m fully capable of taking care of myself now,” I said, turning my attention to the coffee pot.

Daren shouldered me out of the way, not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to remind me of his purpose.

“Fletcher’s the boss, isn’t he?” I asked, climbing onto a barstool and watching the already familiar way Daren moved around my kitchen.

He glanced over his shoulder at me, brow raised. “Is that what you think?”

“I’m asking.”

“There isn’t a single thing Fletcher wouldn’t do for Gideon.”

“So, North then,” I said.

“It’s more balanced than you’re thinking.” He shoved a mug under the spout of my coffee machine, resting his ass against the counter and leveling a tired look at me.

“And that’s why you’re here?” I asked. “On orders from those two because it’s balanced?”

Daren’s jaw ticked, and he changed out the mugs to brew a second cup.

“I’m here because I was voted least likely to stab you in the heart.”

“Bellamy doesn’t strike me as the type.”

I knew I wasn’t wrong about Bellamy, a bright little wisp of a man, a pawn in a game he hadn’t realized he was playing until he was already too deep into it to turn back. Though, seeing the outcome now, I don’t think he would…even if given the chance.

Daren finally passed me one of the coffee mugs, giving me a slow onceover with his eyes. I wondered what I looked like to him, if it was obvious how tired I was. If hecould somehow tell Orion had shown up, that I’d taken him to church and made him whip a priest. That I’d let a stranger suck me off in an alley on the walk home. There was no way for Daren to know any of those things, which in that moment felt like the biggest blessing of my life.

The truth of my situation was I’d been sleeping like shit since getting released from the hospital, and fear for my life had nothing to do with it. I missed Orion, but I knew that was dangerous. He’d had a role in the attempt on my life, but that didn’t change the way I craved his body.

Craved him.

Part of me had hoped he would show up after taking care of the priest, but the townhouse had remained quiet and unbothered. I’d eventually fallen asleep in my office, feet propped up on the desk and a glass of whiskey in hand.

What did it say about me that I yearned for the man who’d put a hit out on me? That I’d take him back if he asked…if he apologized.

“Bellamy would surprise you.”

He’d surprised me plenty in bed with three of his four boyfriends, that much was for sure.

“I’ll call Fletcher later today,” I said, taking my coffee and climbing to my feet. The chair in my office was far more comfortable than the barstool, and I had plenty of work to do and not enough time to do it. “Tell him that I don’t need your services anymore.”