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Fred crouched so he was at eye level with Rafferty. “It’s a pain like no other, isn’t it?” But Rafferty didn’t respond, so Fred continued. “Grief is the slow caress of death. It rots you from the inside and makes you feel the ache of loss in inches, for days, months, years. Grief doesn’t pass—only time does, Rafferty.”
“Don’t act like you’re a saint,” the man growled.
“The difference between you and me, is that I’d never take a penny to kill someone. Ever.” Fred stood and walked around the chair as he spoke. “I’m sure you did your homework on me. Any good assassin would be prepared for anything.” Fred winked at me, and I could’ve kissed him right there.
“We are the best.” Rafferty sneered.
“Well.” Fred sighed. “Your family is mostly dead, and all that’s left is you…but that’s not the point. You know that I’m a doctor, that I’ve chosen to dedicate my life to saving people.” He stopped by the table that was off to the side. A few instruments were laid out, courtesy of Lex Talionis.
He picked up the scalpel and stepped over to the chair. Rafferty watched Fred’s every move.
“In all your research, did you discover how much I never wanted to be the head of this family? How I wanted to live my life in peace? Did you know that I never wanted any of this?”
“We were given a target, got paid, and we were executing it. It was just business. You went and made it personal!”
With a flick of Fred’s wrist, he sliced across Rafferty’s cheek pretty deeply. The man screamed and after a minute, he began breathing heavily.
“No, Rafferty, you made it personal without even knowing. So here’s how this is going to go. You’re going to tell me who hired you, every detail you know, and if you do, you’ll die fast. If you don’t, I’ll show you what else I can cut with a scalpel.”
“I die either way.”
Fred’s expression was blank, unreadable, he answered but only his lips moved. “Yes.”
Blood sprayed across Fred’s face, but his eyes were clear. Neither Rafferty nor Fred blinked.
It was fascinating to watch Fred in this situation. He despised running this family, hated killing, but he was surprisingly good at it.
As Fred regarded Rafferty, there was no way he wasn’t reliving the moment he’d watched Aine and Sean fall to their deaths. I imagined it haunted Fred every second of the day. Revenge wouldn’t make the pain go away, but I hoped for his sake it gave him closure.
“Keir was the one who took the call when it came in. I can’t tell you the sound of the man’s voice, but he went by Liam, and no, not my brother.”
“Liam,” Fred asked.
“Yeah.” Rafferty huffed out a laugh. “That was the kick of it all. Man said he was Liam Brennan and he needed his son Fred taken care of.”
Fred swallowed and there was a twitch of surprise, but he gathered himself.
“My father died years ago.”
Rafferty nodded. “Which we discovered after we ended the call. We figured the person wanted anonymity, but it was sketchy, even for us, so we declined the offer.”
“But…but you didn’t.” Fred gripped the scalpel in the palm of his hand. Anyone with eyes could see he was barely hanging on.
“We did at first, but he called again, gave a different name, but paid extra for our silence.”
“Spit it out, Rafferty, or I’ll show you the best way to flay someone.”
Damn. Was it wrong that I found that hot?
“Thing is.” Rafferty lifted himself up as best as he could and glared at Fred. “The guy would update us periodically once we arrived. Telling us where you were, what to do. All of it.”
“A name,” Fred growled.
Rafferty kept going, though. “The night we killed Sean and Aine, a few minutes before Murphy drove onto the street, he texted us.”
I didn’t need Rafferty to go on. Exactly what I’d thought was now coming to light, and I spun to where I’d last seen Aiden, but he wasn’t there.
“See, we were supposed to kill you, Sean, and Aine, and make it appear like the guy who hired us was hurt in the process.…He’d be the only one to walk away.”
