Page 92 of The Hitman's Prince

“It wouldn’t take much.”

“I want him to die the way he lived,” I decided. “Alone.”

“Do you have any last words for him?” Vince asked.

I swallowed hard, exhaling a breath that trembled more than I wanted.

“No.”

I walked around him and exited his office, stepping into the bright light of the hallway. Vince followed after, closing the door behind him.

“Caspian and Orion are together,” he said, taking my hand in his. “Daren is with your uncle.”

“Where?”

Vince shrugged, giving a jerk at our joined hands until I turned and faced him. He had a bandage wrapped around his palm, the only evidence of whatever injury he’d endured at the house.

“What happened to you?” I asked, lifting his injured hand and kissing his fingertips.

“Orion found me,” he said, which was a non-answer.

“You were always safe,” I said.

“Always,” he confirmed, letting me kiss his fingers again before spreading them over my cheek and jaw, reaching back into my hair and digging them into the back of my skull. He tugged me closer, our foreheads coming together so I could taste his breath with every inhale.

“Is it enough now?” I asked.

“It’s about to be.”

“What next?”

“Whatever we want,” he said.

“I meant with the four of us.”

“I know.” He bumped his nose against mine, slanted our mouths together and gave me the softest and kindest kiss I think he’d ever given anyone, save maybe Caspian. “But I need to make some phone calls to clean this up. Need to talk to Presley, if he’s still alive.”

“Okay.”

I didn’t want to do any of those things. I wanted to sleep for a week with Orion on one side of me and Caspian on another and Vince behind him, all of us warm and tired and at some kind of peace for more than a day. Iwanted to wake up and stay in bed and not have to pretend to be someone other than Jacob Moore the man, not Jacob Moore the son of Phillip Moore, Jacob Moore the pawn, the priest.

We found Orion and Caspian in the living room, sitting together on the couch Daren and I had fallen asleep on together more times than I could count. Someone who didn’t know them wouldn’t have read anything into their proximity, but the fact they sat side by side on the cushions, close enough to touch…Vince noticed it too, making a pleased sound at my side.

“I called the cleaners,” Orion said, pushing up from the couch like it was nothing.

“Tell them to get the cops involved,” he said.

“What?” Caspian jumped up, face pale as a sheet. He knocked into Orion’s back, and Orion slowly moved a hand out to stop him from falling forward.

“Not to investigate,” he assured, squaring his shoulders and looking every inch the man my father had been so scared of. “But to make sure the message is delivered far and wide. You can bend the knee or you can end up six feet underground.”

Chapter 68

Orion

Daren’s father bent the knee, as I knew he would. He’d always been one to talk instead of act. In and out of the bedroom. When all was said and done with ensuring he understood who was in charge and what was expected, and his promise that Alexander Mandeville would also fall in line, Daren went home to Luca and his harem of fuck boys.

Caspian collapsed onto the couch as soon as we walked through the door. Jacob made it to the kitchen before everything caught up with him, and I busied myself making coffee while Vince helped him upstairs and into bed. He returned for Caspian next, and then for me. I slid a mug across the counter to him and gestured toward the stairs with a jerk of my chin.