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“Please…” He started to cry, tears running down his face. “My oldest son is only five…”
I didn’t feel any pity in my heart, none at all. “It’s sad that an innocent child will die because his father became too arrogant. You really thought this stupid plan of yours was going to work? I’m a hitman. I’m paid to kill people. It’s nothing personal. But asshole, you made this personal.” I pointed the knife at him.
He no longer seemed afraid of his own death, just for the safety of his family. “Not my children…not my wife.”
“You touched my woman.”
“And I’m sorry for that…”
“Oh, you’re sorry?” I cocked my head to the side. “She was chained up in a room like a goddamn slave. For that reason alone, I’ll kill your entire family. Your mother is still alive, so I’ll throw her in there too.”
“No!”
“Enough with the small talk.” I pressed the edge of the blade right against his throat. “Last words?”
He held my gaze as he breathed hard. Acceptance slowly entered his puffy eyes, along with the resignation. “My family is innocent. Please—”
I sliced his neck and let him fall to the floor.
I wiped my blade on his shirt then returned it to the sheath before I walked away. The gunfire had stopped because the war was over. All the men in the palace had been killed, and most of my men had survived. Any backup that might have been coming to the son’s aid had driven away, knowing there was no one to save.
I walked past the graveyard of bodies, kicking aside limbs when they got in my way. Vanessa had been saved, and I’d killed everyone who remained behind. But my blood lust wasn’t satisfied. He took my family away from me, the most important person in my life. She was my whole world—and he touched her.
I wasn’t finished yet.
I would track down the rest of his family—and burn them alive.
I walked to the entryway of the palace and found the last man that I hadn’t killed, the one Vanessa asked me to spare. I never had a chance to ask why he was worth saving. Since I didn’t know what her reason was, I let him live.
He stared at me, visibly starting to shake now that every man in that palace was dead. He slowly crept away, his hands in the air in the form of surrender.
It was hard for me not to kill him, almost impossible. But I didn’t pull my knife because my woman had requested that he live.
She better have a good reason.
I stepped outside as Crow spoke into my ear. “Griffin, are you there?”
I’d turned off the headset during battle, knowing he would just try to talk me out of staying. “I’m here.”
“Are you alright?”
“More than alright. Everyone is dead.”
He sighed over the line. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“How’s Vanessa?” I hadn’t even gotten a chance to kiss her.
“She’s staring at me right now, crying because she knows you’re alright.”
I wanted her tears to soak into my t-shirt. I wanted to taste those tears on my tongue. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and tell her I would never let anything happen to her again. I wanted to apologize…for everything. “Tell her I love her.”
“She knows, Griffin. You just proved it.”
And I wasn’t done yet.
“We’re at the rendezvous point with the chopper. We’ll wait for you before we take off.”
“Don’t bother.”
Crow was quiet for a moment. “Do you have other arrangements?”
“I’m not done here. There’s some business I have to finish. When I’m done, I’ll head home.”
“Griffin, what business?”
“I killed the man who started all of this. But I promised I would kill his family—because he touched mine.” I’d never been a moral man. Life and death were boring to me. Everyone experienced both, so if death came prematurely, it didn’t matter to me. I’d never killed a man’s family in my life, not out of vengeance. But this man crossed a line no one else ever had. They touched my woman, the person who should be untouchable. They took her when I wasn’t there, knowing they wouldn’t have been able to get to her through me. It was pathetic—and it pissed me off even more. If I’d been there, Vanessa wouldn’t have had to go through this at all. I wasn’t sure what the men did to her, and I wasn’t even prepared to think about it.
“Griffin,” Crow said gently. “I understand you’re angry—”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“But killing his family isn’t right,” he said.
“They took Vanessa.”
“Which was wrong. But don’t kill an innocent family—”
“I don’t care, Crow.” I’d made up my mind, and I wasn’t going to change it. “You can keep talking to me, or you can go home back to your wife. I suggest you do the latter.”
