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Mechanical.
Brutal.
Like he almost enjoyed it.
His man’s phone chimed. The protector answered it before the second ring and lifted it to his ear. “Yeah? Yeah, okay. I’ll ask. Hold on.” He looked at Ben. “Do we need our escort?”
Ben scowled, then slowly glanced my way.
Why the hell did he look at me?
”Yes, have him follow.”
He stepped around the dead lawyer as his man relayed the information on the phone. Ben checked that the USB was still processing, then said. “Tell the boys they can connect. Take them back to the garage. Call me once you have a location for Leroy Hastings.” He glanced our way, meeting Caleb’s stare. “Keep your cell close, I’ll call when we have something concrete.”
A nod from Caleb, and Benjamin turned and headed for the door, stopping only when he was alongside me. “You did well tonight, Priest. I didn’t think you had the stomach for it. But you’ve proved me wrong. You remind me of my brother before he died, you know that? He was different from the rest of us, kinder, more considerate.” His focus hardened. “But that didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of protecting those he loved, even if he demanded more from us emotionally than we were capable of. Keep that tenderness about you, son. It’s a trait we all sacrificed to violence a long time ago, including your brothers. Protect it, cherish it, and I promise I’ll do my best to keep you safe.”
“Okay,” I murmured, trying to keep up with what had happened.
Benjamin Rossi liked me, no, he more than liked me. He felt some kind of connection. Maybe it was all hidden under the ghost of his brother. Maybe it was a deeper yearning of his own soul. Either way, it looked like I had a guardian of sorts. His steps echoed and slowly faded as he strode through the door.
“Let’s get you back to your cars,” Benjamin’s man said.
We all turned, until I stopped and looked back over my shoulder.
To the gaping wound and the bloody lips of a man who’d had so much to live for, but instead, he’d died protecting the Devil. Haelstrom Hale was pure evil. There was only one place for his kind, the same cold, empty place this man was finding his way to.
“Good riddance.” I whispered as I turned and left the office and that building far behind.
“Incoming,” Colt muttered from the passenger’s seat of the midnight blue Explorer.
Benjamin’s man glanced into the rear-view mirror and caught the glare of headlights that flooded the car. “It’s okay. It’s our date for the night.
Our date?
I turned to look over my shoulder as the blue Land Rover pulled up alongside us. Through the dark tinted window, a hulking beast of a man took up the entire space behind the steering wheel. He turned his head and stared straight at me before he gunned the engine and drove out in front of us.
“Who is he?” I asked.
Ben’s man met my stare in the reflection. “They call them Cerberus, the three-headed Mafia hound. If you ask me, they're ruthless sons of bitches. Ones you never want to piss off, if you get my meaning?”
I stared at the ominous shadow in the driver’s seat and a sinking feeling gripped me. “Noted,” I mumbled as we drove into the underground garage and pulled up alongside our cars.
The blue Land Rover followed us in but stayed back in the empty car spaces, the engine thick and throaty as it rumbled.
“He’s going to follow you home, Priest.” Benjamin’s man glanced toward the car as we climbed out.
“Thomas,” I answered as I closed the door behind me.
“What?”
I met his gaze. “My name is Thomas, not Priest. I’m not that…not anymore.”
A slow nod and he gave a shrug. “Whatever you need.”
Thomas, that’s who I was. I reached into my pocket, pulled out the keys to Riven’s Audi, unlocked it, and climbed in. I didn’t start the engine right away, letting those words really sink all the way into my bones.
I wasn’t a Priest. I couldn’t be, not after what I’d done and all the things I was going to do.
