Charming Asshole (Killer of Kings 3)

Chapter One

“Where the fuck are you?” Boss asked.

Killian sighed and was tempted to hang up, but Boss was his paycheck, so he didn’t like to be rude. “I told you I needed a fucking break, and I’m not coming back in to do a job, or stop your ass from getting killed.”

When Boss had taken Scarlett, who happened to be Bain’s woman, it had gone against every single moral code that Killian possessed. Bain worked for Boss at Killer of Kings, where Killian also worked. It was an organization that arranged hitmen for hire. If you wanted someone taken out, and could pay the large fee, that person would be dead within the stated deadline.

Bain had gone against Boss’s orders, and then the fucker had shot him, causing Boss to take revenge. That had resulted in Scarlett being taken hostage. Killian had snuffed out so many lives in his years of working for Killer of Kings that he had lost count of them. The men he killed all had it coming. He didn’t like the evil that was in the world, and anyone who hurt a woman, well, that shit didn’t settle well with him.

Boss had killed women, and it was something that Killian couldn’t do. Growing up in Ireland to a mother who worked on the streets, bringing back all kinds of men, he’d seen the lowest of the low. The scum had hurt his mother, and when he was a little lad, he couldn’t do a fucking thing about it. The nights after she had fucked her way through scores of men were the worst. Her pimp would arrive to take his piece of her pie, which was a large fucking piece, considering the man didn’t spread his ass wide to take some of those johns. It had really fucked with Killian’s head.

The pimp had done nothing to help his mother. She worked on his turf, and gave him money. The asshole wasn’t there to protect her or to stop the johns from abusing her. All he did was take money, use her when he wanted, or pass her around like it was some kind of sport. Killian had hated that piece of shit. Every time he saw him, he vowed to take him out, and when the pimp had beaten his mother to death, it had been Killian who had found her body.

He’d been fighting, trying to earn enough money to stop his mother from whoring herself out. Holding her bleeding corpse in his arms, the rage had taken hold of him. All he wanted was blood, and he’d gone in search of that pimp.

By the time Killian was done with that asshole, there was nothing left of him. For seventy-two hours, Killian had taken sixteen years of pain out of that fucker, and made him pay. Every scream, every whimper, every cry had been a mark off the bastard’s debt as far as he was concerned.

In all of his career, he had never, not once, harmed a woman until Scarlett. He hadn’t touched that woman in any way, but he also hadn’t stopped Boss either.

“Nothing was ever going to happen to Scarlett. I told you that,” said Boss.

“I don’t care. I need a break. I’ll call you when I’m ready to take on assignments.”

“Just tell me where you are.”

“Like you don’t know already? I’m in another lifetime.” He disconnected the call and turned the device off completely. That was his only connection to Killer of Kings, to Boss. He wanted no part of it, not right now. Staring out across the ocean, he could almost hear her from over ten years ago.

Like all of the guys he worked with, he had a history. Not as fucked up as some, but it still hadn’t been a picnic. He’d joined Killer of Kings when he was twenty years old, quite young all things considered.

After killing his mother’s pimp, he’d killed everyone who ever laid a hand on her and caused her pain. He’d gotten the fuck out of there and made his way to the Americas. From there, he had done a great deal of fighting while also living on the streets. He’d lived it rough, and in the underground fighting circuit, he’d made a name for himself. That name had caught the attention of Boss, who had then trained him into the man he was today.

Killing people was something Killian was good at. He considered it an art form, and he was constantly getting it right.