AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I thought you were just getting him situated?”
He could hear the accusation in Ares’ voice and cringed. Yep. That had been the plan. That plan hadn’t worked out for him so far.
“I don’t think I can leave him here alone. He’s just gonna get himself into more trouble.”
Good. That was a perfectly reasonable explanation. Or, excuse. Shit.
Ares grunted, then said, “I got his new ID. Little John will stop by with it tomorrow.”
“Great. Thank you.”
“You’re my brother.”
Ares had already made it clear he wasn’t helping for Kai’s sake, nor did he think Steel should be helping him either. Ares was right, but he was also wrong. He couldn’t explain it to him, though. He couldn’t even make sense of it himself.
Kai was this… almost enigma that he wanted to solve. Well, he didn’t want to, he simply felt compelled to. He could’ve walked straight out that door and never thought of Kai again, but he didn’t. He couldn’t. The fucker was under his skin and even though his confessions should’ve pushed Steel further away, it was as if Kai had only crawled deeper.
He leaned back against the counter and watched Kai for a moment. He was sitting on the couch, legs curled up under him and a quilt draped across his shoulders. He looked cozy. There was no sign of the façade he was used to seeing from Kai. Right then, Kai was just a man. He was vulnerable and… human.
He didn’t understand how those so starkly different sides of Kai could coexist. It made him wonder. It made him want to ask questions and despite himself, he couldn’t stop from asking them.
He walked into the living room and sat down in the armchair across from the couch. Kai gave him a curious look.
“How did it start? How the hell did you become a hitman for hire?”
Kai looked at him with such a sad smile it made his heart hurt for him.
“You figure out that the only thing you’re good at in life is taking it from others.”
Steel felt a lump form in his throat. Sadness was radiating from Kai.
“What happened?”
He shouldn’t ask. There was no reason for him to want to know because the only one he could think of was that he was trying to humanize Kai and that was the last thing he should be trying to do.
Kai needed to remain a deadly, scrupulous murderer in his mind. He had to, because if he wasn’t…
“One thing led to another. I went from being a merc at a private contractor firm to something darker and once that black hole opened up, I just kept falling deeper into it. I didn’t have a way out.”
A part of him understood. In the time Ronin had been president of their former club, things had been dark. They’d done shit he’d never thought they’d do. He had done shit he’d never thought he would do. He hadn’t gotten paid for it, though, and he wasn’t even sure anymore if that was better or worse.
Steel cleared his throat.
“And how many innocent people have you killed?”
“Enough.” Kai raised his head, gaze burning as he stared into Steel’s eyes. “If I’ve taken even one innocent life, then the answer is one too many.”
And there Kai went and proved to him yet again that he was human. That there was something, if not good, then at least remorseful, inside him.
Kai straightened, his expression brightening.
“Enough talk about me,” Kai said, eyes gleaming with that sassiness he knew to expect from him. “Did you always want to be a biker or is it small-dick-syndrome?”
Steel snorted despite himself and shook his head at Kai. He wasn’t touching that with a ten-foot-pole. Not a fucking chance.
“Oh, come on,” Kai whined and scooted closer to Steel.
Steel gave him a stern look and said, “I’m not showing you my dick.”
