Page 79 of The Hitman's Prince

Jacob even looked nervous at the words coming out of Caspian’s mouth, and he shifted on his stool to watch him closer instead of opening his arms and offering him comfort.

“I just talked to my dad.” Caspian bit his lips together between his teeth and squinted hard, tears sliding faster from the corners of his eyes. He was such a feeble man for how much of a threat he posed. “They never thought I’d be successful.”

I snorted. “In life?”

He shot me an angry glare, which had me grinning back at him.

“With killing Vince,” he said. “They gave me…gave me the gun, but they never thought I’d do it. The plan was always…”

“Always you,” Jacob said gently, and Caspian nodded, another wave of tears leaking down his cheeks.

“They knew I was…obsessed.” He covered his face with his hands and looked at the floor. “They used it against me to…”

Caspian didn’t need to the say the rest.

The plan had been to use his heart against him. Same as it always went, I realized.

In this life, loving someone made you weak, and all of us were at the same disadvantage. Obsessively in love with Vince Angelini, in our own, complicated ways.

“So if it wasn’t Vanessa,” I said, cocking my head to the side. “Though she’ll have to be dealt with before she gets to you.”

“What?” Caspian blinked at me.

“What?”

“I thought you’d be content to let her come for me and take me out,” he muttered. “One less interference to worry about.”

Caspian glanced at Jacob, then back to me.

“It’s not for me to question what Vince wants to do with his spare time,” I said, but it was more than that, and all of us knew it. I didn’t need to give voice to it for us to be in agreement that Caspian’s place in the house was just as important as mine, as important as Jacob’s.

“And it wasn’t my father, or Daren’s,” Jacob added, and the three of us turned our attention to the front door. The mess was cleaned, but I’d see the stains forever, much like I’d see Vince’s face haloed in light the night he unbound me from his father's bed.

I checked the leather strap around my shoulder,pocketed my phone and my keys and headed for the garage, not caring if the two of them followed, preferring that they didn’t because there was too much on the line with all four of us out in the wild. Too much liability, too much to lose.

I stopped and raised a hand so they didn’t come after me.

“Then there’s someone else, and I’m going to find them.”

Chapter 59

Jacob

Orion left and neither of us followed. The house lapsed into a heavy silence that felt like an absence.

“Is he going to be okay?” Caspian asked me quietly.

“Which one?”

“Yes,” he whispered.

I sighed, steering him toward the couch. “The two of them will make it out of this alive or they’ll take the whole world down with them.”

I tapped my first finger and thumb together, the nerves dancing so violently it was impossible for me to sit still. On the couch, Caspian stared at the wall, so I left him there alone to run up to the guest room. My toy bag was still on the floor from when Orion had dug it out the night before—how had so little time passed—and I dropped to my knees in front of it. Digging around through the toys, I rifled past the tawse and the cat-o-nine tails until myfingers hit something hard and cool, hidden at the very bottom.

I checked the magazine to make sure it was fully loaded then slammed it back into place. Tucking the gun into the back of my waistband, I jogged back down the stairs. Caspian was still on the couch. He’d received quite a blow with the realization about the job he’d taken, and in another life I would have stayed to comfort him. There wasn’t time, though. There was too much at play and Orion and Vince were both just…out there.

“Come on,” I said, curling my fingers under his arm and hauling him up off the couch.