Cassian shakes his head. “No, it was real. But that guy was dead before it happened. I believe Dreq was driving the carremotely. I can’t confirm anything for sure, but I’ve been diving down this rabbit hole for the past two days, and I can’t come up with anything else.”
Shaking my head, I literally can’t fathom what Cassian is telling me.A hit?
“Where can you find this guy? Dreq?” I ask.
Because I’m going to slaughter him myself. He tried to kill my Ace?
“I don’t know. I can put a call out, but from what I’ve heard, the guy only appears when he wants to be found. He’s one of the deadliest assassins in the world.”
Eyeing Cassian, I raise a brow. “I thought you were one of the deadliest assassins.”
Cassian smirks, “First of all, we’re not assassins, asshole.” He shrugs. “I mean, not really. Depends on the day, I guess. Dreq is a full-on hit man. And he’s dangerous. Served six years in the Albanian military as a sniper, and then served ten years in one of the most dangerous prisons in Albania for killing the person who killed his wife and kids in a hit-and-run. He escaped about eight years ago and has been in the dark since. He’s dangerous, Kian. Even more than me.”
“He didn’t kill Ace, though,” I say, my mind reeling as it dawns on me that an assassin didn’t fulfill his contract, and my girl is out in Las Vegas without a bodyguard.
That’s not true. Luciano said he has security on her at all times from a distance. She’s safe. And she’s at work right now. I know because I dropped her off at Emerald Palace before I came here. She’s in a secure area of the casino.
Knowing that makes me breathe easier as I look at one document after another until my eyes can’t focus and I sit back in silent shock.
“There’s no way to prove this, though?” I ask.
Cassian levels me with a look that makes me question whether he’s sane or not, and then he smirks. “There is one way to find out for sure.”
Fuck.
I don’t think I’m going to like whatever it is he’s about to tell me.
“Dreq does a ritual with anyone who dies under his hand. The night after the deceased is buried, he uncovers the casket and puts a marker inside it that says who called the hit. In the underworld, as a contract hitman, he is never the one held responsible for the killing. It always falls on the contract holder.”
So, if this truly was a hit, the guy who hit Ace’s car would be marked somehow.
“You’re telling me you have to unbury a body to figure out if it was him?” I ask.
Cassian shoots me a cocky smile. “Nah, man. I’m telling you thatwehave to unbury a body ifwewant to confirm whether my suspicions are true.”
The coffee and breakfast burrito I had with Ace this morning are suddenly a concrete weight in the pit of my stomach. I’ve put a lot of bodies in the ground, but I’ve never dug them up again. A year later. Fuck. What would a corpse look like after this long?
Jesus Christ.
Am I really contemplating this?
If Cassian’s suspicion is correct, Ace could still be in danger, and no one knows it. I find it hard to believe, considering a year has passed, and she’s had nothing else happen. Wouldn’t a hitman keep going until the contract is fulfilled?
“Where’s he buried?” I ask.
“He’s in a graveyard in Kirkland. Northeast of Seattle. I have my jet on standby. We can do this tonight.”
“Aren’t there cameras all over graveyards?” I mean, how the fuck does one unbury a body without being discovered? Not thatit matters. I already know I’m doing this. If someone is after Ace, I need to know.
She’s mine. I don’t care if I just met her a week ago. It feels like our souls have known each other for a lifetime. I can get to know her over time. What I do know right now is that I’ve fallen for the glittery woman, and I’m going to do everything in my power to keep her safe and happy for as long as she’ll allow.
“I’ll tap into the system and cut it while we’re there, then duplicate a previous night’s footage. Already got that shit covered, man,” Cassian says as he stares down at his phone at some sort of game he is playing.
The guy is so nonchalant about this, like unburying bodies is nothing to him.
I pull up the group chat with my brothers and type out a message.
Kian: Need to look into some business near Seattle tonight. Could use some help.
