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“When you get back, you’ll teach me how to fight? How to stop someone like El Diablo from hurting me.”
“I’ll teach you everything you need to know.” She snuggled in against him, and he played with a lock of her hair.
“Do you go abroad?” she asked.
“You’re asking a lot of questions tonight?”
“I’m just curious. Dancing with you, knowing where you’ve come from. I want to know everything about you.”
“Tell me something about yourself?” he asked, avoiding the question.
She shook her head. “I’m a completely boring person, Chains. You know that. I’m one daughter of many children. I spent a great deal of time taking care of my brothers and sisters while trying to make sure they got an education. I went out to work, fed us all, clothed us. It’s not a very colorful life story. Unless you count suddenly being taken late one night after taking out the trash.”
He chuckled.
“Then my life got really exciting. I was chained to a basement, fed amazing food, held at gunpoint. Being forced to leave my kidnapper only to come back. See, kind of boring.”
“I don’t know, your kidnapper sounds awesome. I bet they were top of the range chains.”
She burst out laughing. “See, you’re full of surprises. You told a joke. It was a very funny joke.”
He kissed her head.
Yes, he’d told a joke. He wondered if this was one of the reasons Boss
didn’t like his men falling in love with women. He didn’t feel any softer, but there was a time he’d have shot someone before telling a joke.
Lori was special though, and he wanted her to see him differently than just a killer. To her, he wanted to be a man worthy of taking her virginity. It meant a great deal to him.
Chapter Ten
He left before she woke up. She’d only worry, and he didn’t want any emotional distractions—not today. Lori would be safe at the cabin, and he’d find out where he stood with Boss before he returned to her. He couldn’t punish him for having a woman, not when he gave his blessing to at least four other hitmen on his payroll. As far as he knew, being committed to a woman didn’t affect their performance on the job. Same would ring true for him—he’d prove it if he had to.
Once he hit the main highway, his GPS said he’d be at his destination in just over an hour. He turned on the satellite radio, and cranked the music. Yes, he hated Xavier for breaking into his house, but Boss had planted a file there. It had been part of his plan. Maybe Chains was more disappointed in himself than angry at Xavier. He really didn’t expect that bastard to jump through all Boss’s hoops successfully. And he never thought Lori was in danger. The security system had been activated, and Chains had only been gone a few hours. He needed to be smarter.
He zoned out as he drove, his mind going in several directions. El Diablo was more like him than he cared to realize—both forced to survive with the odds against them, both sadistic enough that Boss wanted to recruit them. Chains remembered when he first met Boss. He swore he’d met the devil himself. The owner of Killer of Kings was in his home town on a contract hit with a couple of men. One of them was Viper.
Chains had worked his way up the ladder, working for a powerful Bratva doing hits and shakedowns. He was able to maim and kill with no remorse, a sought-after quality in his line of work. From an early age, he’d gone numb in the emotions department, a safety mechanism thanks to his shit childhood.
Boss had been there to kill the man he worked for, the kingpin of the organization. Chains was young, but he still managed to put up one hell of a fight. That was as far as he got, but instead of making an example of him, Boss ended up offering him a position at Killer of Kings.
It hadn’t take Boss long to uncover every detail of his miserable life—crooked orphanages, unspeakable abuse, and a life of crime and violence. But he saw deeper, saw Chains’s skills and the person underneath all the bullshit. He had pity on him.
“What’s with the scars?” Boss asked.
They were on a plane to America, Chains leaving everything behind. Boss had the seat beside him at the front of the plane—the very best money could buy. Chains rubbed his wrist, looking down at one of the permanent reminders he wanted wiped from memory. “Chains.”
Boss nodded. “You survived. That’s what counts,” he said. “Bottle that shit up and use it to your advantage.”
They never spoke more about his sins or any of the horrors he’d endured. Boss probably knew it all anyway. Now he saw something in El Diablo.
Once he neared his location, Chains sat straighter, more on alert. They were meeting at a shipping yard, mountains of colored containers creating a maze of metal.
He dialed Killian. “You on site?”
“Just pulling in. Keep on the down low. El Diablo will be going for the yellow office trailer near the dock.”
“It looks like business as usual around here. Boss prepared for the collateral damage?”
