Page 65 of Twin Deception

“I learned what the difference is between good guys and bad guys.”

I scrunched my face. “Huh?” That was a cryptic answer that told me nothing.

“There is none. There is no real difference between who we call the good guys and the supposed bad guys. Cops versus criminals. Military versus outlaws. I started out in the military and excelled. I made my family proud. But when one of my supervisors tried to smuggle something in over the border and Icaught him red-handed, he laid all the blame on me and got me discharged.”

“Just like that?”

He narrowed his eyes, focusing on the road. “Just like that. His word against mine. He was pissed that I would want to do the right thing and not just look away. He threatened my family if I spoke up, so I didn’t. But he had them killed anyway, as ‘insurance’ that I wouldn’t think of speaking up. The shit he was involved in was terrible, and that was my first lesson that there’s no difference between who is supposed to be a good guy and who is supposed to be a bad guy.”

“Oh, Miguel.” My heart ached for him. No wonder I felt a kindred loneliness with him. He wasn’t much better off than me. He’d lost his family so cruelly. I had too, but in another way—one to estrangement and the other to the disease of the mind and drugs.

“I’m so sorry.” I took his hand and held it tight.

He nodded, exhaling a long, pent-up breath that made me suspect he'd never talked about this with anyone. That he’d kept this secret for years.

“He had them killed. I was kicked out of the military. And then I knew. Both sides of the fence are corrupt. All over the world, in any exchange of power, they were all bad. So, I was recruited by the Cartel and I proved myself and my worth very quickly. I’d take out hits on people the world really didn’t need, and I’d make a killing while I was at it.”

I dared to smirk at him. “Is… that a pun? Make akilling?”

He laughed. Once. It was a bark of amusement that continued as a rich, throaty chuckle that I wanted to hear again and again. Seeing this serious, strong man lighten up was a miracle.

“Only you’d make a joke like that.” He smiled at me. “Careful. I might fucking fall in love with you.”

I’m already there.“Because I can be witty when the mood strikes?”

“Because you accept who I am. What I do. And you don’t freak out.”

I looked out the window again. “Yeah, because I learned that same lesson you did. That good and bad were just figures of speech. Louis was a bad man, but so were some of the cops and lawyers who’d try to be as corrupt and rotten as he was.”

“I realized that fighting on the side of the Cartels paid more, anyway.”

“Still, I’m sorry to hear you were treated so poorly. They just kicked you out when you only wanted to be ethical.”

“Ethical?” He shrugged. “I don’t regret my time in the military, as short as it was. I needed to witness and experience that twisted play of good versus evil forces in the world. It was eye opening to see that sometimes the people everyone was supposed to trust and rely on were far worse than any criminals out there. Many of the hits I’ve had to take out were really bad people, sweetheart. Murderers, rapists, traffickers, all around sick, sadistic fuckers.”

He glanced at me. “Really bad people the world doesn’t need.”

I huffed a wry laugh at that. “Well, my father having a hit on his back makes sense then. Louis fits right in. He’s definitely abad guy. He abandoned his family for wealth, he associates with horrible people, and he’s got no issues screwing everyone over if it gets him ahead.”

Only a loveless monster would behave like that.

“Are you saying he deserves to be killed?”

I hadn’t looked at it like that, mainly because I wasn’t involved in deciding when or how or why his death should happen.

“That’s not my call to make.”

“But it could be mine.”

I faced him as he volleyed his attention between me and the road. “Or the call of whoever placed that hit.”

“Isabel?”

I sighed, guessing what he was about to ask me.

“How would your opinion change of me if I were to kill him? To complete this one last job I was given before taking time off?”

I held his hand tightly, showing him that I wasn’t afraid. And that I’d stick with honesty. “It’s not my call to make. And it’s not my judgment to form. You are a hero, Miguel. I’m alive right now because you sacrificed and risked yourself to save me multiple times.”

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