He’d molded me into an assassin, and he’d become my family.
Then, a year ago, I’d gone on a job. When I’d come back to visit Ed, I’d found him dead in his bed. A single gunshot wound between the eyes.
It had been an execution.
He’d been killed by the Reaper. The most fearsome assassin in the world. One people still whispered about, even though he was supposedly long gone.
He wasn’t gone. He’d just changed his name to Bastian Thorne.
My next breath was ragged. He’d left me a note.
We need to talk
– B.
I hadn’t wanted to talk. I still didn’t want to talk. No, I’d raged and cried and screamed. What I wanted was revenge.
Ed had been my savior, my adopted father. Bastian had ended him.
I rose and walked closer to him. Almost close enough to touch. I kept my shoulders hunched, my walk slow, my gait uneven. The key to a good disguise wasn’t just what you wore, but living and breathing it. Right now, I was an older woman with hip problems.
As I passed by him, my muscles twitched. I could attack him right now. I stared at his back. I could plunge my knife deep. I knew exactly where to hit for maximum impact.
A good assassin never acts on impulse.
That was Ed’s voice.
One of his rules.
I kept walking, slow and steadily. I paused near a bar and glanced back.
Bastian was looking around. Like an impatient king surveying his domain.
How anyone believed that idiot Chance Tyler—the two-bit actor Bastian had hired to pretend to be the owner of Avernus—was the casino’s owner was beyond me. You could see it was bullshit in an instant.
As I watched, Bastian disappeared into an elevator. I turned toward the exit of the casino.
I would kill Bastian.
I would take down my enemy.
I would have my vengeance.
But I wasn’t a good assassin, I was a brilliant one. Ed had forged me into that.
I’d plan. I’d take my time.
I’d make the kill.
Bastian Thorne was a dead man walking.
CHAPTER 3
BASTIAN
“Okay, that’s the last event on the schedule,” I said.
The man sitting on the other side of my desk crossed one leg over the other, studying the tablet in his hand. “Got it. It’s good to be busy.”
