Gunshots.
I shriek, terrified, looking around, and I race down the hall toward the bullets. At least, toward the sound of them. Wherever they were going, they have already gone. I cover my mouth, terrified, but also desperate to know what's happened.
If my father... No. I shake my head. He'd never hurt himself and everybody loves him. He's one of the good guys.
As I round the corner into my father's study, I see the profile of a man I know, who knows me, who knows every single inch of me, who, a few hours ago, I was whispering dirty words to in the bathroom of the spa.
I see the man who took my virginity, the man who says I belong to him, the man I want to belong to.
He's holding a gun in his hands. I'm scared to see where it's pointed.
I'm scared to see where the bullets fell.
I walk, still, with my back straight, my eyes wide open, scared, helpless, hopeless. "Flynn," I gasp.
He turns, gun in his hand. "I'm sorry," he tells me. "I'm so fucking sorry."
Sorry? I think as I step into the study, tears falling down my cheeks, my heart pounding with terror. There are two men dead on the floor of my father's study, but neither of them are my daddy.
They’re two men I've never seen before, blood-splattered, lifeless, gone in the blink of an eye. I look up. My dad looks back at me.
"Oh sweetheart," he says.
"I thought you'd..." I swallow. "I thought you were gone," I say.
"I'm right here," Dad tells me, but I shake my head, covering my mouth as a sob takes hold of me.
Flynn killed these men, but why?
11
Flynn
I take in the scene, trying to put myself in Fiona's shoes. Tears streak her cheeks. She's covering her mouth. Near hysterics. I don't blame her. She walked into her father's home hearing a gunshot. Now two men are lying dead on the floor of her father's study.
She must be terrified. I'd be lying to say I'm not scared myself, scared of the phone call I have to have with my boss letting him know what I've just done, about the choice I made. But it's a choice I'm proud of. Yes, I'm a killer, but there was no way in hell I was going to kill Fiona's father. Or let him be killed.
"Who are you?" she says, looking at me walking toward her father, wrapping her arms around him. "Daddy, how do you know Flynn? And..." She swallows trying to find words. They're not coming. I step closer. She puts up a hand telling me not to take another step.
"Who are those men?” she asks. “Why are you here with a gun? What are you doing in my father's home? I thought we... I thought what we shared… was real."
Her father, Cane, looks at me and then his little girl. "This is the man you met last night?"
She nods. "Yes, and I thought he was a bodyguard, not a killer. There's got to be a difference, doesn't there?"
I run a hand through my hair, shaking my head, knowing I need to come clean because losing Fiona after all of this is not an option. "I'm a hitman. I had a target and that was Cane O'Grady. That's why I'm here in Vegas."
Cane shakes his head, stunned. "Who hired you to kill me?"
"I don't know," I say, "I don't ask those questions. But someone else was hired too. These men," I say, pointing to the men on the ground, "they work for BloodHound and they're even less interested in doing the right thing than I am."
Fiona scoffs. Her eyes pierce my soul. "I thought you were a good man. Salt of the earth, true. And what do you mean, they're even less interested in doing the right thing? As if there's some hierarchy in murdering people for a living?"
I swallow. "My life isn't easy. I've made choices and not all of them are ones I'm proud of. But my boss, he's had my back since I was a kid. I fell into this business, honestly. And I tell myself that I'm trying to make sure the good guys win. But sometimes, yeah, I bury my head in the sand because the morality of all of this, hell, it's complicated on good days. It's downright messy on bad. This, this is messy, but I'll tell you what, Fiona, and Cane, you too, I knew I couldn't kill the father of the woman I loved."
I step closer and Fiona doesn't resist this time. "I love you, Fiona. Those words were true this morning when you told me who your father was and I knew the reality of the situation. I came here not sure how I was going to handle this. But the moment I saw someone raise a gun toward your dad I knew I would never stand by and let it happen. So, yes, I killed those men, but I did it for you. I did it for your father. I did it for your family and I would do it again."