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The fucker had some sort of soundsuppressor. I shouldn’t have been impressed. I should’ve beenrunning.
“I said move,” he hissed and shoved me toodamn hard.
I fell on my ass, and he left me there.Disappeared just as two figures walked out of the trees, gunstrained on me.
“Grab this one,” the taller guy said. Theywere wearing balaclavas, only their eyes visible.
The shorter one reached for me. I heard twoquick pops and both guys fell, blood spreading out underneath them.Maddox sprinted out of the woods again and hauled me to my feet. Hewas on the phone with someone. I didn’t know who. Back up, aclean-up crew. The fucking army.
Once he got me to my feet, he started deeperinto the trees. He slid left to go back around. Probably to see ifthere was anyone else. The whole world fell out of play, as if itdidn’t exist. Cops, people, traffic, no one cared.
The woods. I hated them.
Maddox had disappeared again. He wasn’t muchof a team player since he left his team member—me—behind. I startedto move when I felt a pinch on my ass. I pulled out a dart from myleft cheek and looked at it as if it held the answers to thequestions of the universe. Heat rushed through my veins, my heart.My head fuzzy and I face planted on the ground. I couldn’t move butit didn’t mean that I lost consciousness. I saw the big man lift meover his shoulder, and he sprinted to the right, away from Maddox.I tried to call my brother, but my tongue felt too damn heavy.
I was dropped into a truck bed, tires spun,and all I could see were the clouds above me and all I could thinkabout was that Daniel was alive. Maddox had saved him. But he haddoomed me. Moms had it wrong. Everything bad that happened to mehad been Maddox’s fault. Jack trying to kill me because of Maddox.Mom hated me because I looked like him. He killed my dad. JoaquínMoya may have made a lot of mistakes, but he had taken care of hischildren. He never abandoned us. And now I die because of fuckingMaddox Brennan.
I wanted to hate him, but I didn’t. Hate wastoo strong a word.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kieran
Twenty-four hours after we returned toschool, John walked into Brennan Holdings with an entourage ofattorneys, accountants, and his new staff and declared Arcas GroupInternational as owners. I hadn’t been there to witness theexchange, nor to see my grandfather’s face when he realized he’dlost billions. Or my father’s, for that matter. It had been a quietthing. It hit the news but didn’t get very far.
Wren had been transferred to the medicalcenter here at Arcadia under Dr. Shanahan’s watchful eye. Ofcourse, he flirted with the beautiful doctor. River turnedpricklier than usual. Fox just glared at everyone. Tor had gonesilent with Rumor. Graham had given us their message. One word.
Godspeed.
We were now in the business of ruining therest of our families. Claiming Brennan Holdings also led to ourinsertion into their private security side business. And thatallowed Graham to gain access to resources Tor and Rumor wouldn’thave had outside the government. I just hoped that Tor wouldn’t gethimself killed.
We’d sent the cleaners to pick up the bodiesat the cabin and take care of the car Antonio had used. Grahamreported that the contract for Tomás had been retracted and thatTomás Moya/Brennan was still MIA.
The thought of him dead somewhere burnedthrough me like acid. No one spoke about his absence from school.Dasher had asked me about it. I knew it must’ve taken a lot for himto approach me after what I’d done to him, what Fox had done, and Irespected the guy. I shook my head and told him the truth. I didn’tknow.
A day after the takeover, Grandfathersummoned me with coordinates.
“He knows and he is going to shoot you inthe face,” Fox said. “Don’t go.”
“I have to. It’ll be more suspicious if Idon’t.”
I had considered letting Fox come with me asback up. Something about this didn’t feel right. I contacted Tor,sent him the coordinates instead. While I trusted Fox with my life,I also knew that he wasn’t the type to evaluate the situationbefore he acted. Guns blazing was his style. Whereas Tor was theopposite. A cold calculating killer was better to have on my side.Except he wasn’t within range.
I was on my own.
The takeover was done. My death would changenothing. That kept me moving to my destination. A dock off LakeWilmer. The small shack looked as out of the way as they came.Whenever grandfather brought me on these missions, they were alwaysremote, and he was always alone. Cillian liked the hunt, the catch,but could never finish the kill. I never understood why. Did hehave a conscience? Did he know the person he was judging to beexecuted? In his sick mind did he really think that since he wasn’tthe one pulling the trigger, he could be absolved of all the bloodon his hands? If I didn’t do it, he’d call someone else. Eitherway, the blood was on his hands. I was just the instrument.
A single bulb illuminated the small space.Shadows deep in the corners made the place seem smaller. The doorwas opened to the dock outside where Cillian stood looking out intothe placid lake. As my quiet steps reached him, I noticed someonetied to a chair. The guy was hooded, head dropped down indicatinghe was knocked out.
“What the fuck is this?” I asked.
Cillian turned and slapped me across theface. The burn felt deeper than I’d ever felt before. I hadn’tanticipated it and fell on my knees. He gripped my hair and liftedme to my feet. “What did you say?”
I bit back the desire to pull my blade frommy boot and stab him in the heart with it. “I’m here, Grandfather.As ordered,” I said, instead. My eye twitching, alreadyswelling.
“Good.” He released me and I straightenedmyself just to do something with my hands that did not involvekilling him. His expression remained unchanged. The man wasvolatile on good days, that volatility was heightened even more.“You are a good son,” he said, freaking me out. “Have I ever toldyou how proud I am of you?”
I swallowed. Not sure if it was bile risingto my throat. I remained stoic. Giving nothing away. And hecontinued.
