Page 219 of The Company

Chapter Eighty-Eight - James

I laugh one of those maniacal laughs you only see in movies. I know Harper left with my mother and Sasha followed as planned. So I’ve got a few minutes before all hell breaks loose to have some fun.

“Vincent?” the Admiral asks.

I shake my head. “Wrong.” I watch him come to terms with the fact that I spent last night with his daughter. Hell, I married her—even though it’s not legal, it was still a ceremony of promise and commitment. And he not only watched, but gave me his blessing. “Sorry, Vincent couldn’t join us tonight. He’s not feeling well. Something about seafood poisoning.”

The Admiral’s face goes white.

“Seriously?” I ask, taking a step toward him. “You of all people should be able to recognize me by now.” I take him by the neck, just like I did One, and have his back up against my chest before security shows up. The little red laser dots flash across the Admiral’s white shirt.

“Don’t shoot,” he tells his men.

“We can take him out, sir,” one kiss-ass says. His laser sight flashes me in the eye.

I press my gun to the fleshy part of the Admiral’s lower back.

“For fuck’s sake, lower that laser before you piss him off and he shoots me for fun.”

“Oh,” I say, backing up so I can have a wall behind me. “It’s already been tons of fun, Admiral. Twelve years of good fucking times, right? You thought you’d what? Just keep giving me orders and I’d just keep following them until you decided I wasn’t worth your time anymore?”

He doesn’t answer, so I press the gun into his kidneys to help him along.

“No,” he groans. “I treated you like a son.”

“Yeah,” I say with an ironic laugh. “You sure did treat me just like my father did. But don’t worry, Admiral, you won’t get the same fate. Because you won’t be brought back from the dead like him. I’ll finish the job and end it right.”

I spot Sasha running outside in a crowd who figure it’s best to get as far away from me as they possibly can, and breathe a sigh of relief. Harper must be safe and my mother must be dead.

I check my watch. Three minutes. Harper appears in the room and people give her a wide berth as she approaches.

The Admiral laughs. “There she is.” He says it with some relief as Harper raises her arm, a gun in her hand.

My eyebrows go up as she walks up to us. At first I think she’s aiming for me, but I realize it’s not me, it’s him. Her father.

“Harper,” he says. “Do your job, honey.”

“What’s my job, Daddy?” she asks sweetly.

“Protect me at all costs. Kill Tet. Kill anyone who threatens us.”

“Is this part of that brainwashing you did on me?”

Fuck.

“Because I have to tell you.” She lowers the aim of her gun and I can actually feel the Admiral let out a breath. But that’s before she shoots him in the leg. “It didn’t take.”

I have to shake my head, because that bullet was so close to me, I feel the impact in my own body.

“Oops,” she says, as the Admiral wails in pain. I let him fall forward onto the ground and take out two security guards. The whole room erupts in screaming and then the bullets start spraying. A woman standing next to me is shot in the torso and blood splatters me in the face.

They’re early.

Lesson learned. Never fucking trust a gang member to do their job on your time.

I grab Harper’s wrist and pull her down to the floor in front of her father so I can keep her safe and relieve her of the gun. “Get the file from One, Harp.”

She crawls over her father’s wounded leg and begins searching One when the Admiral pulls a gun out from his pocket and aims it at me.