Lili kept quietly crying, her tears soaking into my shirt, tearing my insides to shreds.
Alessio appeared a moment later and slipped into the driver’s seat. I met his gaze in the rearview mirror as he started the engine.
“You’re safe, sunshine,” I murmured. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you again.”
She lifted her head, rubbing at her cheek. Then her brown eyes widened. “Wait! My friend was in the house. Ava-Jane. Goodyear kidnapped her and is…” She swallowed. “She said there are three other women as well, he’s trafficking them. Taking them to parties and…”
When she trailed off, I didn’t need her to continue. I cursed. “Alessio?”
My friend shook his head. “We searched the house. Apart from the guards, there was no one else there.”
“She was there,” Lili insisted. “She brought me food.” A stricken look crossed her features. “God, where is she?”
“Hey.” I gripped her chin. “We’ll look into it. For now, you need to focus on you.”
I saw the struggle in her eyes, then she nodded. “Anton was coming to get me. The guards told me.”
Fucking Kamensky. I ground my teeth together until my jaw throbbed. I was going to take the asshole out, once and for all.
Clearly Lili read me. Alarm skittered across her face and she cupped my cheek. “Cole, you can’t do anything that will get you into trouble.”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
She swallowed. “Back at that…place. Those guards…You…”
“I killed them.”
She stared at me, unblinking. I had no idea what was going through her head, but she needed to know who I was.
“Will you get into trouble?”
I froze. No panic, no fear, or disgust. “No.” Right now, Nash, Bastian, Rafe, and Landon would be clearing the scene. We were all retired assassins. If we didn’t want a body found, it wouldn’t be found.
She relaxed. “Good.”
She had to be in shock, and not fully comprehending the situation.
“Lili…I used to work as a mercenary.”
She watched me with big eyes. “Okay.”
“But then, I worked as an assassin.”
She looked at me for a beat, then glanced toward Alessio and back. “You were all assassins.”
She wasn’t asking a question, but I nodded.
“Did you kill women and children?”
“Fuck, no.”
“Did you kill bad people? Like Goodyear.”
“Sometimes.”
“Okay.” Then, she pressed her face to my chest and stayed quiet. Hugging was not a skill I was familiar with, but I held her tight.
Not long later, Alessio drove us through the back gate on the Avernus grounds. He pulled up beside my villa.
