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I let his body slump to the floor, wiping my blade on his coat to clean it off before closing it and slipping it back into my pocket.
Esther might hate me, but I was nothing if not loyal, and I worked for her family. I had a duty to protect them, even if it meant dragging her back to a man she hated.
I told myself it was loyalty and justice that led me to extinguish her mugger, but a tiny little annoying voice at the back of my head mocked me. Told me it was more than that.
Ignoring it, I got into the car and heaved a sigh of relief. What a fucking day.
Esther sat awkwardly beside me, her lip trembling and her face still tear stained, while she sat forward in her chair, her limp rucksack still jutting behind her. There wasn’t a chance I was cutting off the cable ties, so I reached up to her, grasping a strap in one hand and bringing back out my knife. She flinched as it flicked outward, her eyes darting to mine before going back to the blade.
It slipped easily through the old material, and similarly on the other side. I threw it onto the back seat before putting my knife away and leaning across her.
‘What are you doing?’ she whispered as my face pressed dangerously close to hers.
‘Putting your seatbelt on,’ I answered, grabbing the belt and pulling it across her torso, fitting it as best as I could around her secured hands. ‘Can’t have you dying in a crash after all the trouble I’ve gone to, can I?’
Silence enveloped the car as I backed out of the spot. The mugger’s body lay slumped on the floor in a pool of his blood. If anyone else touched her, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. Fuck, I wished I could kill her husband-to-be for putting her through this shit. But I knew my place in the pecking order. The mugger was fair game. The main man in Glasgow’s most influential syndicate wasn’t. I had no desire to join the mugger in hell. Not for someone who could never be mine, anyway.
Flicking on the radio to drown out the silence, I settled in for the long drive to Barcelona. With good luck, we should be on the first available flight the following night and I could pay off my house and put this whole mess behind me.
We’d driven for thirty minutes of so before she muttered a thank you so softly that I almost missed it.
I pretended I hadn’t heard it.
How had she been in that village a few days and found people willing to take her in, to protect her and be willing to shoot a stranger for her? How had she had me willing to kill a stranger for her? I’d spent my life looking for a family, a place to belong, and still didn’t have a place I fitted into. She’d left everything behind and found another family within a fortnight. It’s all I’d ever wished for.
Which confirmed one thing.
It wasn’t impossible to find that love and loyalty. I just didn’t deserve it.
I’d stick to what I was good at.
Being a paid killer and torturer for people who had everything I’d ever wanted.
And would never have.
FIFTEEN
ESTHER
My eyes felt like sandpaper lined the lids as I stared at the road ahead. We were already a few hours closer to Barcelona, and with each passing mile, terror gripped me anew. I had to escape, or at least delay our flight back until I could speak sense into Alec. For the years he’d been around my family, I’d been so certain that he wasn’t a pile of shit. He was proving me wrong.
I let my eyes close, just for a second or two, sweet relief flooding me. Until the sight of fresh blood hitting the bonnet yanked me back out of my minute-long rest. The mugger was dead. Because of me. Sure, he was trying to break into Alec’s car, but it was him hurting me that signed his death warrant. My fault that he no longer breathed.
Mixed feelings assaulted my insides at the thought. Relief. Guilt. Anger. I hadn’t asked Alec to kill him for me, and I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure why he had.
Sneaking a glance over at Alec, I sighed. His eyes remained steadfast on the road, ignoring me as solidly as he had for the previous few hours. A muscle ticked in his jaw and his fingers were almost white at the knuckles where he gripped at the wheel.
I’d tried to throw myself from the vehicle twice already. The first I’d opened the door, but he’d grabbed me by the hair and dragged me back into my seat without a word. The second time, he’d activated the child locks, making my handle useless. He ignored that attempt entirely.
I watched as his eyelids fluttered and dipped. Fuck, he was going to get us killed.
‘You need to rest,’ I said, trying to get my hands comfortable where they sat still fastened in my lap.
‘No.’
‘A few hours wouldn’t hurt. It’s the middle of the night and you’re half asleep. If you are going to kill yourself on the way to the airport, you might as well let me out right here.’
Another tick of the jaw and silence.
