Chained Hands (Chained Hearts Duet 1)

“Sailor.” I turn at Roberto’s voice. He takes in the scene around us. “It’s time we leave. This will be cleaned up.” He’s referring to my dead husband lying in a puddle of his own blood. His eyes are wide, non-responsive, his skin has a blueish tint now and what looks like pee is spread out over his pants at the front.

Is this my fault?

But it can’t be.

Can it?

“She’s coming too,” I say, holding out my hand to Ellie. She looks shocked at first but takes my hand and pulls herself up, still covered in my husband’s blood.

“Just you,” Roberto replies.

“No,” I say sternly. For all I know they will kill her for witnessing what happened.

Roberto looks to Ellie, and she drops her head, stepping a little closer to me for protection. Little does she know I can’t protect her from them any more than I can protect myself.

“I’m going back to mine?” I ask and he nods. “My things?”

He hands me my phone from his pocket and then nods to the car. “Everything else is in there.”

“Why is it in the car?” I don’t expect him to answer, but he does, “It was either you or him. I’m glad it wasn’t you.” He turns back to the car.

Ellie starts crying again, and I pull her by her arm toward the waiting car. As she gets in, I look back one last time and hope and pray that his next life is going to be better than this one. He picked some real shitty things in this life, me included.

Chapter Nineteen

Keir

“She’s at the house.” Roberto walks into the dining room where I sit at the table, my gun, and a bottle of whiskey in front of me. “You weren’t meant to kill him,” Roberto states, pulling out a chair and sliding the bottle over to himself and pouring a drink.

“She pissed me off,” I tell him, smiling.

He smiles but shakes his head.

“What?” I ask.

He nods to the gun. “Push that away and promise me you won’t kill me, then I’ll answer.”

I do as he says and push the gun away. “No more killing tonight,” I tell him.

“You like her, and you aren’t used to that because the only connection you have with women is them sucking your cock.”

Well, he isn’t wrong.

“You made her stay in your bed. Since when do you keep a woman in your bed?”

“I did it so I could watch her.”

“No. We could have watched her from anywhere. You knew the minute you saw her, you wanted to have her. And you changed all your plans because of her.”

“Do I need to go and put a bullet in her head to show you I don’t care for her?”

Roberto leans back and takes another drink, watching me over the rim of the glass. “Do you think you could actually do that?”

“Kill her?” I question, and he nods. “Yes, I fucking could.”

“She was your target, so why didn’t you? You get angry, but you never fuck up a job. You did for her, though.” He stands, sliding the bottle back to me. “Just saying, boss. Maybe it’s not always a bad thing to have something … more. We’ve all had it drilled into us to respect the job, and that it’s all that matters. But how can that be everything?”

“The job is everything,” I snap back.

Roberto nods but doesn’t say another word as he leaves.

The job is everything.

Every-damn-thing.

Chapter Twenty

Sailor

Ellie cries.

It’s all she does.

It’s annoying.

All night she cried.

All morning she’s cried.

I’m ready to shoot her myself to shut her the fuck up.

Shouldn’t I be the one crying like I lost my puppy, not someone who hardly knew him?

“Where do you live?” I ask, walking out of the kitchen to the couch where she’s seated.

Ellie takes the coffee I offer her, wiping under her red and swollen eyes. “I live here.”

“Ha.” Should have expected that one. “The apartment is mine. We’re still married.”

“He signed the papers,” she says. “They’re in his room.”

Fuck, I’m going to have to destroy them. I need to sell this apartment to pay Keir back.

I really am not in the mood to die.

So I run up the stairs to my old bedroom and find the papers on his bedside table. Tearing them up, I walk over to the shredder he has stashed in the closet and drop them inside.

“Oh, my god!” I hear Ellie scream, so I run back down the stairs to see her cowering as Keir stands on the other side of the door, dressed in a suit, looking impeccable, with a pair of sunglasses perched on his nose.

“Get Out!” Ellie tries to shut the door on him, but she’s no match for his strength. He pushes it open easily and steps inside, his eyes scanning me before he removes his glasses and those dark eyes bore into mine.