Page 122 of On the Double

And then I wouldn’t be able to walk for a week.

My father hadn’t ever hit me. Not until I turned thirteen and he started taking his anger out on my mother. In his eyes, if I was old enough to stand up to him, I was old enough to take his fists.

“Edu, are you listening to me?”

“Yeah,” I sighed.

I glanced back through the window and almost decided to leave, but something stopped me. This was a turning point in my life, and if I didn’t take it, I might never.

“I’m not coming home.”

“Edu, you are my son. You have to protect me!”

“Like you protected me?” I asked as anger flowed through me. “I took allthose hits for you for years, and you didn’t once try to protect me. In fact, you goaded Dad for fun, knowing I would pay the price.”

“Your father’s temper is out of control. You have to come home!”

“No. Not this time.”

I hung up and walked back inside. The men could tell something had happened, but they didn’t ask questions, and I didn’t offer any information. Once I was done, I shook their hands and walked out, finally feeling like my life was about to start.

As I walked up the steps to my house, I thought I heard a scream. I didn’t rush inside. Instead, I sat on the steps for a good five minutes, trying to block out the facts of my life. It would all be over soon. I would be free of them and never see them again.

I just had to tell them I was leaving.

I got up and headed inside, instantly on alert. Something was different. There was a silence that filtered through the house, along with a pungent smell that pricked my nose. I moved silently, terrified of what I would find.

The moment I stepped into the kitchen, I knew my life would never be the same. My mother laid on the floor with a knife sticking out of her chest, and my father hovered over her, stumbling to his feet. I didn’t think. I grabbed the first thing I could find and slammed it over his head repeatedly until he fell to the floor. Blood pooled beneath his head, and his body was still.

Stumbling back a step, I stared at the weapon in my hands and knew my life was over. I had killed my father. I looked at my mother, shaking my head as I came to the realization that there were two murderers in this house. With shaky hands, I wiped my prints from the statue and dropped it to the ground.

If I left now, no one would ever know I was responsible for my father’s death.

“Edu.”

My head snapped to the left at the sound of my name being called. Pushing to my feet, I walked to the front of the plane where the guys were gathered. “What’s up?”

“We’re landing soon. You ready?”

Landing soon? How long had I been replaying that day in my head? I avoided things like this for a reason. It always put me in a bad mood, and that wasn’t good for a mission. I needed to be focused, onlythinking about what was ahead of me. So, I pushed that day from my mind and took a seat at the table.

“I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

Lock nodded and pulled out the map, getting us ready for the drop zone. We’d been over it a thousand times, but Lock was the most thorough leader I’d ever had. He’d saved our lives ten times over with his immaculate plans. I wasn’t about to interrupt him now when he was in his element.

“Alright. You all know what to do. Let’s get in and take out these fuckers.”

We all nodded and Fox walked from the cockpit over to us. “For Cash.”

“For Cash,” we agreed.

31

CASH

I satacross from Senator Kavanaugh, waiting impatiently as he finished up a phone call. We were at dinner in a fancy restaurant, but he didn’t hesitate to conduct business despite the fact that he was being rude. I smoothed down my tie, clenching my fist as I remembered why I was doing this.

One breath.

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