Ian laughed. “Surely, you haven’t forgotten my brother, Reed, right? All I had to do was give him a call, and he found you in a mere second. Then again, it wasn’t that hard considering you bought your new house under your real name.”
This was true. Now that I wasn’t working for the government, I had no use to hide under my aliases.
“Why’d you call?” I asked, leaning my head on the back of the couch. Hopefully, I’d get a good night’s sleep one day.
Ian blew out a long sigh. “I was calling to check on you. No one has heard from you in months. You got all the guys worried. They were kind of hoping you’d come back.”
I scoffed. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Elijah’s death wasn’t your fault, Declan. You can’t keep putting the blame on yourself.”
And just like every other time Elijah’s name was mentioned, I was thrust back to that horrible night. Elijah and I had been following the Deluca family for months. They were notorious members of the mafia. Joseph and Vincent Deluca were on the Circle of Justice’s hit list. There were many mafia families not on our list, but the Delucas had a habit of wreaking havoc and sacrificing innocent livesin the process.
It was raining the night Elijah was killed. I still remember the way the rain smelled and how cold it was as it pounded on my face. Elijah wanted to take the reins on the mission, and I’d let him. While he was in position in the back alley outside Joseph and Vincent’s family restaurant, I was on the rooftop of the neighboring building. I had my rifle ready. All I had to do was wait for the moment Joseph and Vincent walked out the door. And when they did, all hell broke loose. They knew Elijah was there and was waiting for the right time to strike. The second I saw the back door open and Joseph pointing his gun in Elijah’s direction, I had only a split moment to react. But I wasn’t fast enough. Our guns went off at the same time, his bullet hitting my brother and mine hitting Joseph right in the head. They both fell to the wet ground . . . dead. A getaway car arrived for Vincent but not before he saw me on the rooftop. Our eyes met briefly, an unspoken promise passing between us before he hopped in the car and was taken away.
This wasn’t over. But I couldn’t think about that. All I wanted to do was get to my brother. It felt like an eternity as I raced down the fire escape stairs to the alley below. There was a river of Elijah and Joseph’s blood as the rain washed it down the street. Ilost it when I got to my brother and saw his unseeing eyes staring up at the sky. I’d punched the ground until I broke my hand. There were still scars on my knuckles from tearing open my skin. My body shook with rage, but the feeling that overtook everything was grief. My brother was gone, and I was never going to hear his voice or speak to him ever again.
I wanted to finish the mission for him, but I couldn’t . . . not yet.
“Declan, you there?”
And just like that, I was thrust back into the present.
I rubbed a hand over my face. “Yeah.”
“Just think about what I said, okay? We want you back in the group.”
“The only reason I’d ever go back is to finish the job Elijah and I started,” I snapped, feeling the rage come back to the surface. I’d kept it at bay for so long, but it had always been there, hiding inside of me, consuming me.
“Then finish it, Parker,” Ian fired back. “We’ve all lost friends and loved ones to our enemies. Why do you think I continue to do this job? I want to make the world safe for those we care about who are still here.”
That was the whole driving force behind mywanting to be a part of the Circle of Justice. The problem was that when you got rid of one bad guy, there was always more to fill their place. It was a never-ending cycle.
“Is anyone targeting Vincent Deluca right now?” I asked. It was a question I’d intentionally avoided for the past few months.
The line went silent; I could only take that as bad news.
I huffed and closed my eyes. “What’s going on?”
Ian released a heavy sigh. “Vincent’s gone MIA. No one has seen him since the night your brother died.” The same night I also killed his brother.
“What do the others think about that?” I questioned.
He sighed again. “Not sure. We’ve moved on to other targets for now, but we have guys trying to locate Vincent.”
The words left my lips before I could take them back. “Let me know when you find him.”
“And what are you going to do if I tell you where he’s at?”
WhatwasI going to do? Would I join the Circle of Justice again and go after him? Would I kill him? Unfortunately, I didn’t have the answer.
“It’s been fun catching up, Chandler,” I said, “but I’m done for today.” We said our goodbyes and I tossed my cell phone onto the coffee table. A part of me felt as if I was two people. On one side, I wanted to be the assassin again, but on the other, I wanted to be normal.
That was my big secret—the one dark truth I didn’t want anyone to know, especially Ayla.
I was an assassin. I’ve killed people . . . many of them. They were all scumbags of the earth, people who had committed heinous crimes over the years and managed to escape the law. Justice was what I fought for.
I did what I did to help the innocent people of the world.
