“You have nothing to be sorry for.” I huff out a laugh. “I’m so fucking proud of you.”
She gives me a slight smile. “Couldn’t let all of you keep having fun without me.” Her eyes catch on something behind me, and her brow rises slightly. “So I guess you know Ryker isn’t just part of the security team?”
I scoff. “Yeah, I figured it out a while ago, actually.”
“I just want you to be safe.”
“Which is why I didn’t pull you up on it.”
“The guys filled me in a little about you and the Lombardis. You got something to tell me?”
I groan, tipping my head back and staring at the cracked ceiling. “Too much.”
“We’ll save that for another day when I can sit up.”
I nod, fighting a fresh wave of tears that threaten to fall.
Because there’s a good chance that day will never come.
If I have it my way, I’ll be long gone before the sun rises tomorrow morning.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
RYKER
THEN
THREE MONTHS AGO
Idump the last of Graham into the hole I spent the last hour digging. This is the not-so-fun part of my job, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do when it comes to killing the scum of the earth.
“You’re a heavy motherfucker, you know that, G?”
He doesn’t respond…for obvious reasons, but I keep chatting anyway.
Graham Stepney deserves exactly zero of my sympathy, but if he did, I’d feel a little bad for how long his torture went on for.
I’ve been irritated ever since I got my next assignment, and he really dealt with the consequences of that.
But he killed and raped grieving widows and stole their money, so you know, he had it coming.
I only got through half the email before I threw my phone across the room and smashed it.
He’s benching me.
That’s the only explanation for why he would send me to watch some woman who works for a mafia family.
At first I thought I was being put in to keep an eye on the family as a whole, but nope, just the woman.
And it’s not that I resent having to keep someone safe, because that’s kinda why I do this at all, but that’s all I’ll be doing.
Bodyguard.
Fuck, I’m going to be so bored.
If I thought there was any chance of changing his mind, I’d ask for another assignment, but once the boss decides something, that’s what’s going to happen.
Ordinarily I respect that about him, but today I fucking loathe it.
