He was certain I wanted the man to suffer—what he couldn’t wrap his head around was why I was stalling. Mercerwas within our reach; we could storm his shabby apartment and end his miserable life in a heartbeat.
Yet, we hadn’t made any move. Instead, we were seated in the backseat of my car like fuckin’ undercover cops on a secret mission. Sergei didn’t have to say all of this out loud; I knew the man well enough to know these were his exact thoughts.
“He’s right there, Boss,” he finally broke the silence in the car’s cabin. “Mercer is upstairs—alone.” He gestured toward the window, his tone carrying a hint of confusion. “What are we waiting for?”
I didn’t respond right away. Instead, I lit a cigarette, took a drag, and let out a puff of smoke. “Patience, Sergei,” I said, stealing a glance at him. “Mercer isn’t slipping through our fingers anymore.”
My eyes darted toward the sidewalk, where a vehicle dropped off a young girl and drove away into the sunset. She stood there for a while, her gaze fixed on the same building I had been looking at moments ago.
I thought she looked really familiar—the blonde hair falling past her shoulders, the petite frame, and the quiet elegance she exuded. She wore a silk ash-colored gown with a white cardigan over it.
Something about her caught my attention, perhaps because I thought I’d seen her somewhere. It wasn’t until she glanced in our direction that I realized who she was. There was no way I’d ever forget that heart-shaped face and those hazel eyes that shift between gold and green depending on the light.
It was the same girl from the restaurant—the bold waitress. She looked different this evening, more beautiful, probably because she wasn’t in her uniform. I couldn’t help wondering what she was doing here—did she live in the neighborhood?
It didn’t make sense to me, given that the restaurant where she worked was in the heart of the city.
She heaved a sigh and walked toward the building, her heels clicking softly against the pavement. My eyes squinted as I watched her head inside with quiet elegance.
Perhaps she came to visit a friend. Male or female? Faint creases lined my forehead at the thought of that friend being a man. It shouldn’t bother me, and I shouldn’t give a damn, especially because I was here on an important assignment.
However, my thoughts kept drifting back to her, and I was contemplating whether to have her followed. My curiosity got the best of me, and now my attention was divided between knowing who she was here to see and the mission at hand.
I shut my eyes for a fleeting moment and extinguished that flicker of curiosity within me. This wasn’t the time to be distracted—there was work to be done. I returned my gaze to Mercer’s window, and that’s when I noticed movements within the space.
At first, it was just a shadow on the wall, signaling Mercer’s presence in the apartment. My jaw locked as the figure drew closer to the window. It had been years since I had set eyes on the bastard, and I couldn’t wait to see how sickly he looked.
My brows knitted together when the figure stood by the window.
To my surprise, it wasn’t Mercer. It was her—the same girl from the restaurant. My expression darkened, and my scowl deepened at the sight.
“You’re sure that’s Mercer’s place?” I asked Sergei.
“Positive,” he answered. “He’s in there.”
My jaw tightened at the realization that the petite blonde was actually here to see the same bastard I was here to end. Across from her, a figure approached the window with slow, weak steps.
That’s when I saw him. Mercer.
His betrayal came rushing back in, slamming against me like a tidal wave. I was furious—blood boiling, fingers clenching into fists as I wondered what their relationship was. Who the hell was she to him?
“I’m guessing that’s his daughter,” Sergei said, as if he were reading my mind.
“Daughter?” I asked, turning to face him.
“Yes,” he answered, flipping through the pages of the file in his hands. “Here. That’s her.” His finger tapped on a photo before passing it over to me.
I stared at the girl in the photo, and it was indeed her. “Mercer has a daughter, huh?” I murmured to myself, eyes fixed on the image of the blonde.
The revelation hit me like a strike of fate, lighting an idea in my head. Mercer was sick and dying—no longer the ruthless killer he once was. Killing him now would be putting him out of his misery. That wouldn’t be vengeance; it would be mercy, and men like him didn’t deserve mercy.
The fact that he had an adult daughter had completely changed the game, because now I knew he had something I could take.
My crooked smirk tugged at the corners of my lips as I cooked up a new plan to make him suffer. This girl was the perfect weapon for my vengeance, and taking her would ruin Mercer from the inside out.
“Change of plans,” I said to Sergei, handing the file back to him. “Mercer lives.”
Sergei’s eyes narrowed in bewilderment. “Boss, I don’t understand.”
