Page 57 of The Hitman's Prince

Vince looked at Caspian, still holding tight to Orion. “Who is Vanessa?”

“My boss,” he grumbled. “She texted me this morning that I was out of time.”

“Out of time for what?”

“To kill you,” I answered.

Caspian glowered at me and I shrugged, snapping off the bloody latex gloves I’d worn while stitching upOrion’s hand. I stretched my legs out in front of me, back against the under sink cabinetry.

“If I killher, will that end it?”

“I’m sure she has a boss,” Caspian said. “I feel like there’s always someone higher up with more money and more power coming out of the woodwork.”

Orion snorted and turned in Vince’s arms, kissing the side of his neck before slipping out of the bathroom, probably to go deal with Harris’s men in the front of the townhouse. He took all the air in the room with him and, beside me, Caspian tensed. I honestly didn’t know how he had the energy for it. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed and pretend we were all different people.

“I spoke with your cousin this morning,” Vince said to me, leaning against the doorjamb and crossing his arms in front of his chest. “At length.”

“What did he have to say?”

“We both find it hard to believe you didn’t know this was part of the plan when your father put you into hiding at the church.”

The accusation in his voice was beyond clear, but I didn’t have anything to say for myself beyond what I already had. “If you think anyone in his generation shares information with anyone from our generation, you’ve clearly not been paying attention.”

He pursed his lips, studying me. “Will you be heartbroken if he loses his life before this is through?”

There’d been a time where the answer would have been yes. I grew up with nothing more than love andadoration for my father. I never understood who he was to anyone else; the only thing that mattered was who he was to me, and to me he was a king. A man like him could do no wrong. But as I got older, I learned the error of my ways. He was second to his brother, and even further behind men like Miller Sinclair and Francis North.

There was a hierarchy to life that he hated and I loved—our opposite responses a result of the same reason. He hated how far he was from the top, and I knew the distance was the only thing that would ever let me have a life of my own. That had all been well and good until Gideon and Fletcher and Vince decided to upend everyone’s plans and lives.

My cousin’s actions were selfish, focused only on what he needed to do to keep Luca Mandeville safe. His love had exposed him as being weak, and my father—and his—had surged forward to act. Overthrowing two men who didn’t want to be in charge shouldn’t even classify as a coup. It would have been a welcome takeover. But the few days I’d spent with Vince had shown me—much like Caspian had just pointed out—there was always someone higher up on the food chain.

In their case, it was Vince Angelini.

They couldn’t take him out directly, not with Daren, Luca, Gideon, and Fletcher all stacked against them, but with those four out of the picture and me in their place? That would have made Vince a fair target…an easy one.

They hadn’t counted on me, though.

Hadn’t planned for me to see so much of myself inhim, for him to speak to so many of my darkest needs. Between him and Orion, I…had so much in reach for the first time. And if my father and uncle thought I would let them move me into place to cause Vince or Daren or the rest of them any harm…they’d underestimated me for the last time.

“I don’t care if he lives or dies,” I answered.

“What about me?” Vince asked.

Pushing away from the cabinet, I rolled onto all fours and then up to stand. I wanted him to look me in the eyes when I gave him my answer, even if it felt more natural to be at his feet.

“If you die, I’ll burn all of them to ash.”

His jaw ticked and he glanced from me to Caspian, and back to me again.

“Well,” he said, stepping out of the doorway. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Chapter 42

Vince

By the time Harris’s crew had finished cleaning the mess in my kitchen and living room, it was nearly dinner time. The house had finally fallen into a familiar kind of silence, even with a thousand unspoken words hanging in the air between the four of us.

Orion stayed busy overseeing Harris, and Caspian and Jacob had stayed surprisingly scarce, probably on account of the fact they were both involved in plots to end my life. Orion too, all things considered, but the situation with him was different.