He cupped my cheeks with both of his hands and looked into my face, his eyes softening once he looked at the vulnerability in mine. “I know.”
“Then keep your promise.”
He pressed his forehead to mine before he kissed the corner of my mouth. “I will, baby.”
4
Bones
The job was easy.
After he left the opera, he would head to the brothel a few streets away. Max told me he had an appointment there, with a busty brunette he frequented.
Apparently, she wasn’t on his kill list.
I sat in the black car at the curb, all the windows tinted and dark. It was a burner car, meaning I’d stolen it from the sidewalk, and I would ditch it somewhere random. They wouldn’t be able to trace anything back to me.
Not that there would be anyone left alive to find me.
The building looked abandoned, the windows carefully boarded up so not even a hint of light escaped. There was no movement on the streets around, no pedestrians or anything. Only powerful men walked through the front door because they didn’t care if they were caught walking inside.
Only cowardly men used the back entrance, the ones with wives who couldn’t know about their dirty secrets. I’d paid for whores, but I never went to establishments like this. I never went anywhere public where people would see my face.
Not because I had anything to hide.
I waited in the car with my gun at the ready, the silencer over the barrel so I could do this quietly. I’d prefer to do this in private so I could torture the guy, but luck wasn’t on my side. Since there wasn’t a pot of gold at the end of this mission, my crew thought the risk outweighed the reward.
I didn’t take it personally. This vendetta was my own thing. If Max asked me to do something like this for him, I probably would have done the same thing. Even if I killed this guy and all his men, it wouldn’t change anything.
She was still dead.
It was the coldhearted truth.
I sat in silence and waited, listening for sounds and searching for headlights. I preoccupied myself with thinking of what Vanessa had said to me before I left. She wanted me to come back.
She made me promise I would.
Our relationship was so fucked up. I didn’t even know what we were anymore. She was my enemy and I was hers, but neither one of us wanted to kill each other. I kept telling myself when the time came I would pull the trigger.
But I was starting to think that was bullshit.
Maybe I could achieve my vendetta differently. Maybe I could kill her entire family but keep her as a prisoner anyway. That way I could spare her life and keep her as a slave.
But I knew if I really wiped out her entire family, she would never fuck me again.
She really would kill me.
The only way to keep her this way, keep her passionate and affectionate, was to keep things the way they were.
But I knew I couldn’t keep it up forever.
And I certainly couldn’t let her go or drop this blood feud. That wasn’t an option. Which led me back to my original conclusion.
I had to kill her.
There was no way around it.
But damn, when she was needy and clingy, I loved it.
I loved it so damn much.
I’d never find another woman to fill my bed the way she did. I would never have another woman who could take my fat dick the way she could. I would never have a woman slap me like that, who had the balls to stand up to me even though I was more than twice her size. They didn’t make women like that anymore.
How could I kill a woman like that?
I had to stop thinking about it. The more I thought about it, the harder it would be. It didn’t matter how much I loved being between her legs. I wasn’t going to be a pussy and chicken out. I had to kill her the way I vowed I would.
Otherwise, what kind of man would I be?
I just had to enjoy her while I could and put up that painting after she was dead.
Headlights approached in the distance, and I knew it was time for action.
It was an SUV, all black with black windows. It pulled up right to the curb, and then a man hopped out of the passenger side and opened the back door so Joe could get out.
Here we go.
I jumped out of the driver’s door and opened fire.
I shot the man who opened the door for Joe, hitting him right in the skull so he went down like a potato sack.
With lightning speed, another man hopped out of the other side, a semiautomatic in his hands. He opened fire, and I dodged out of the way before he could hit me. I landed a few bullets his way, hitting him twice in the chest.