Page 82 of The Hitman's Prince

Something that felt a lot like jealousy knotted together behind my sternum, and I absentmindedly rubbed a circle in the middle of my chest.

“He’s watched you?”

Bellamy’s cheeks were the next to darken and he shrugged at me casually. “It wasn’t a big deal. I think it was before you were involved with him. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Right.”

“I’ve known Vince for a while, on account of Gideon and Fletcher. I know what it’s like to feel you’re a pawn, not in control of your life because you find out other people have been lying to and manipulating you.” Bellamy cleared his throat. “Vince is a good man, and if he cares for you, then you’re lucky. He’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Because that’s what Gideon and Fletcher did for us. It’s what Vince did…with his father too.”

Jacob and Orion were both off on their own, racing down separate tracks toward the same goal. Both of them focused on getting Vince back, and I’d never felt moreuseless in my life. Sitting on a bed, hidden away for safekeeping.

“I was born into this life, but I don’t think it’s for me.”

“There is no such thing asthislife,” Bellamy said. “It’s just life. Do you want me to make you something to eat? Fletcher might already be working on getting something together.”

“I’m not hungry,” I whispered.

“But you still have to eat.”

A soft knock on the door had us both looking up, and the man in question appeared in the doorway.

“Lunch?” Fletcher asked, glancing between the two of us with narrowed eyes.

“I’m not hungry,” I said again.

“Daren promised Jake we’d look after you, and that involves eating, so it doesn’t really matter if you’re hungry or not.” He gave me a completely un-apologetic smile. “Lunch will be ready in five.”

With that, he left me and Bellamy alone again in the guest room, and I looked over in time to see Bellamy roll his eyes at the place Fletcher had been standing.

“It’s a gift, I think,” he said quietly.

“What is?”

“Thislife?” He laughed, emphasizing the word he’d already told me didn’t matter. “To be loved so differently by so many men.”

“So many,” I muttered, letting my mind wander back to Vince and Orion…and Jacob.

“I’ll give you a few minutes to get settled, but if you’renot down to eat soon, Fletcher will probably send Gideon up for you.”

“Is that bad?” I asked, arching a brow.

“They don’t call him the beast for nothing,” he said, with a smile that led me to believe Gideon North was more akin to a teddy bear than a grizzly. “But he has a way of getting what he wants.”

Bellamy pushed up from the bed and left without another word. He closed the door behind him and I fell back onto the plush comforter, flinging an arm over my eyes to block out the light and hoping when I opened them up, I’d be back at the townhouse with Jacob on one side of me and Vince on the other…Orion safely tucked at Jake’s right where he belonged.

Chapter 61

Orion

Vanessa was the first to go.

A threat to Caspian was a threat to Vince, was a threat to Jacob, was a threatto me. She was easy to hit, not nearly as protected as she should have been, and as her sticky crimson blood pooled on the floor beneath her shattered orbital socket, I busied myself with digging through the files on her dining room table to see if she had anything open that would continue to be of concern.

She had a pile of dirt on Caspian’s father and hisrestaurant, which was a very loosely used term for nothing more than a money laundering front. There was a list of associates that would be problematic, but I could deal with them further down the road. None of them wanted Caspian dead as bad as his father did, all on account of Caspian’s hopes to inherit a restaurant he didn’t understand could never be his.