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Fun. I was sick inside but refused to show it. I’d asked to be involved. Now I had to suck it up.
The man gave me another quick look and a nod before all four jumped back into the vehicle, Daniel turning toward me. The look of anger on his face was quickly placed by one of concern. He kept his weapon in his hand as he approached, rubbing his jaw. When he spoke, his voice remained low. “If I tell you to do something, you need to follow my instructions. More now than before.”
“No. As I told you before, I want to know what I’m in the middle of. Are you really killing several men?”
“Don’t ask questions where you don’t want to know the truth.”
“I do want to know the truth. This is a part of my life now. I’m not the innocent girl you seem to think I am.”
He laughed. “No, I guess you are not. That darkness I noticed before is peeking out more and more. Perhaps you’ve just been hiding your true self from me, beautiful pet. Is that the case?” The way he was looking at me was nerve-racking.
“You don’t know what I’m made of, Daniel.”
As he cupped the side of my face, he shook his head. “I can’t wait to find out. To answer your question, yes, I’m going big game hunting. And I’m the kind of man who enjoys placing trophies on my walls.”
“You’re not a killer. You’re not the monster you claim yourself to be.”
“My sweet wife has changed her mind.”
“Don’t do something you’ll regret.”
He rubbed his thumb across my lips and it was difficult not to melt into him. “I assure you that I regret almost nothing in my life. Least of all marrying you. When I return, I’ll have a surprise. Call it a wedding present.”
Daniel was shutting down his passionate side, turning into the cold-blooded killer I’d heard him to be.
The gleam in his eyes, the way he laughed sent another shiver down my spine.
And it reminded me that the glass house was already cracking.
CHAPTER 21
“The souls in purgatory pray for us and their prayers are even more effective than ours because they are accompanied by their suffering. So, let’s pray for them, and let’s pray them to pray for us.”
—St. Padre Pio
Daniel
Tick. Tock.
Today was a perfect day to test the teachings from church I’d received as a young boy, the priest standing on his pulpit reminding all the sinners that purgatory existed.
Heaven or hell.
That’s what most people believed. Depending on how they’d lived their lives, the deeds they performed, they’d end up in one or the other. That wasn’t true. The worst offenders, those who ignored all the rules of good versus evil would be sent straight to purgatory, the place everyone should fear, a dark abyss where pain and pleasure were combined. Today, men would suffer for killing three more of my men, all shot by cowards who’d refused to show their faces, the biggest coward of all the man who’d sent them to their certain death without a care in the world.
How could I tell my wife that I enjoyed this when for some ridiculous reason, she didn’t want to believe what I’d told her? Or perhaps the real truth was that she was cut from the same cloth, desiring the same outcome for those who deserved it.
And I would say that Liam had brought the wrath he would face on himself, by allowing his son to behave badly. My father would recommend I spend my time and resources hunting Ronin instead. Perhaps I would at some point, but today was about sending a clear message that even in hiding, I could get to them.
The fact she’d tried to remind me that I was a good man deep inside was sweet, also something I hadn’t expected. But this time she was wrong.
Violence.
It was a matter of when and how it was used. Often, brutality and torture were the only recourse to handling a volatile situation. My father’s methods, although savage in nature, were helpful in some regards. However, with every act of retaliation there was a risk that had to be calculated carefully. That meant the smart players, the ones who used caution usually came out victorious.
But right now, I was angry enough that the cautionary tale that had encompassed every decision I’d made regarding business had been tossed out the window. Was the change in my demeanor because I now had a family to worry about?
My thoughts drifted to an incident when I’d turned eighteen, the brutality and bloodshed the beginning of enjoying the darkness I’d tried hard to avoid.
