Page 73 of Fighting Salvation

“So what happens now? You don’t have Marsha to recruit men and Carter isn’t around to foot the bill.”

Hansen frowned but then smiled. “It matters not, I have enough funding and the programme will survive. After all, the network is set up.”

“Why did you and Sean go and see my father at his office?”

Hansen looked surprised by the sudden shift, which was exactly why he’d done it, an attempt to knock him off his game. His smile though, when he stood, was calculating.

“Did I need a reason to visit my beloved stepfather with my baby brother?”

Bás was struggling to hear this but he knew he had to continue. “Cut the crap, Hansen. You know as well as I do that’s bullshit.”

Hansen chuckled as he moved to a desk and flicked a trackpad as if he were looking at something. The TV screen changed and an image of Sean and Hansen came on, showing Sean smiling with Hansen’s arm around him.

Bás frowned, his brain trying to place the timeframe of the photo. Sean looked so young, so full of life and energy, and it was like a boulder on his chest. The loss was as painful now as it had been then.

“While you were playing soldier, I was looking out for our brother. I got to know him well and when I explained to him who I was, and how I wanted to get to know my mother, he was only too pleased to help me.”

“Sean knew?”

“Oh yes. He came with me to speak with your father and try and persuade him to get mother to see me.” Hansen’s face clouded over and it didn’t take a genius to realise it hadn’t gone well at all. “Your father was unsurprised and tried to pay me off. I knew then how things would have to play out. Poor Sean was heartbroken. I was the brother he’d always wanted. I have to admit, I did feel just a touch of remorse for killing him, but it was necessary.”

“So you slaughtered my family because you have mummy issues and wanted to pin it on me? Why?”

“Because you took something from me, Niall.”

Bás couldn’t help the flinch when he called him that. It had been so long since he’d been Niall to anyone and Val was the only one he wanted to hear that from.

“And what was that exactly?”

“I was first born, not you. I should have been the one doted on by our mother. But she rejected me, cast me out, and then my adopted mother did the same thing.”

He could see genuine anguish on Hansen’s face. If it had been anyone else, he might have felt just a smidge of compassion but knowing what he’d done, all the vile acts he’d committed, made that impossible.

“Boo-hoo, Mummy didn’t love me, so I killed everyone. What the fuck is wrong with you? I think my mother did the right thing giving you up, or maybe the right thing would have been to get rid of her mistake before that.”

Hansen’s face went beetroot red. For a second, Bás wondered if he might do them all a favour and have an aneurism but he wasn’t that lucky. As Hansen marched toward him, Bás braced for the blow.

“You’re the mistake, not me.”

Hansen grabbed his shirt and pulled them face to face and Bás realised he’d got to him more than he’d thought with that comment. It was good to know which buttons to push and he felt it gave him a slight advantage he hadn’t had when he arrived.

Hansen shoved him away and nodded behind him. “Take him away and feel free to get creative but don’t kill him.”

Bás was grabbed by two men and he didn’t fight them, they were the hired help after all. Although he’d kill them and wouldn’t hesitate if it meant getting off the island.

“What? You don’t have the stomach to do it yourself, Hansen?”

Hansen barrelled toward him and let fly with his fist. As the pain ricocheted along his jaw, he let it ground him. He’d taken more beatings than he could count and he’d learned to handle the pain and harness it into something else. “That’s all you’ve got?”

“Oh, we’re gonna play, little brother, but first I need to catch up with your little friends and see how they’re taking the loss of your Russian friend. Perhaps the lovely Valentina needs someone to console her broken heart.”

Bás dove at him snarling. He wanted to rip his throat out with his bare hands. He was grabbed before he could make contact and slammed to the ground, his ribs taking the brunt as well as his face.

A knee was placed in his back and Hansen bent close. “I see I touched a nerve. It seems she means more to you than I realised. Perhaps I’ll pay her a visit in person.”

Bás cursed his emotional outburst. He should have known Hansen would use anything he could against him and he’d been a fool. In doing so, he’d put Val in more danger. “You touch her and I’ll kill you.”

Hansen laughed. “That was always your plan though, wasn’t it, brother?”