Page 3 of Hate Me

I had one hell of a radar for discerning such things and he was most definitely free and clear of that.

However, there was a reason for him wanting to connect with me in this way, to assist and befriend me to such an extent.

He’d claimed it was due to his close relationship he’d had with my father, that Jameson King would have wanted him to watch out for me, to be in my corner.

However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to it.

I’d figure it out sooner rather than later. I always solved every mystery I came up against.

But, for right now, this worked, in spite of that missing piece.

I was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no threat to me and mine from him, absolutely no ill will intended. Certainly not just from his word, nor even from the instinct I had about people, but because it had taken me six months to trust him enough to let him in beyond the beginnings of an alliance that we’d forged when he’d sent me my father’s ring. I’d researched him in more depth than I’d ever researched anything or anyone, to be absolutely sure that I could give him even a fraction of my trust. Given everything he was caught up in and the extremely shadowy nature of the Mancini Syndicate, it had taken that full six months just to obtain solid intel and enough of it too.

And from there, we’d grown closer, eventually getting to the point of talking every other day about this and that, not just conversations related to business or our mutual goal of decimating Bane Industries and Elijah along with it.

I gestured at the fallen target and back up toward the broken door of the apartment at the top of the fire escape. “While that may be the case, this is not a teachable moment. It had to be done. I find it hard to believe that you’d disagree, given the circumstances.”

“I don’t disagree concerning the necessity of the operation itself, only how it was conducted.”

I frowned. “Quick, efficient kills. No collateral damage. I fail to see the issue.”

He took a final drag of his cigarette, then butted it out on the ground. “The issue is you carrying out said kills.”

“It needed to be done, I took care of it.”

“There need to be degrees of separation when it comes to this sort of operation.”

I lifted my shoulder. “I have no problem doing my own dirty work. Besides, you just took out one of my targets yourself.”

“An exception I made for you. And it is an exception for me, Caspian. As leaders of our empires, we cannot get our hands dirty consistently. It risks incriminating us, it risks destroying the anonymity of those acts also. What you’re doing here, these particular targets, it’s especially dangerous for you to be directly responsible for their deaths. It’s a risk to the big picture of what we’re doing.”

“I won’t allow it to become a risk. It won’t lead back to me directly.”

“I know you have the means to cleanse it, however, the more you continue in this vein, the more likely a mistake will be made, details will be overlooked. Especially when you begin to relish it beyond mere necessity.”

“My judgment isn’t clouded.”

“No, but there is an issue.” He laid his hand on my shoulder. “You don’t trust anyone.”

“That’s—”

“Outside of me and Luke. Since that night two years ago, you don’t trust your own people.”

For good reason.

A few months after what had happened to his younger brother, Elijah had retaliated. But not with a show of force as both me and Dante had anticipated. I’d even significantly shored up my defense and offense to counter such an assault. But the bastard had subverted expectations—one of the most dangerous things about him—and he’d gone with a Trojan horse approach instead. He’d tried to turn key figures in the underworld wherein my illegitimate operations thrived, wherein I was the gatekeeper. He’d come at them and my own people within the City of Rossun, with the goal of infiltrating my territory by turning them and instilling plants—traitors. It had been a much more strategic and wider reaching version of what his brother had attempted. And it had taken me a great deal of time and resources to weed out the weak links and threats he’d created by offering them riches and power in exchange for pledging their loyalty to him over me.

“It’s warranted.”

“It was at the time, but you’ve rooted out the bad elements. While I agree you need to maintain a healthy cautiousness, the extent of your distrust is bordering on paranoia. With what’s coming, you can’t lead an army of soldiers you have limited faith in, Caspian. Because, as much as I know you hate to conceive of it, you can’t do it alone. You need a strong force at your back and they need a leader who believes in them.”

He was right. To an extent.

I had managed to counter Elijah’s plan and root out the treachery he’d instigated.

But now he’d taken to funding up-and-coming criminal elements and operations just to position them outside the city, basically assembling them and building an army to come at King through infiltration. Just like this team I’d taken out tonight. They were to function as a branch of a planned multi-pronged assault spearheaded by Elijah. They were the fifth lot I’d put down since he’d started this new strategy a couple of months ago.

I’d been dealing with it myself because of the paranoia that Elijah’s efforts had caused in me that my people being made aware of the highly tempting promises of compensation that the bastard had offered would then tempt them to betray me like the others I’d rooted out.

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