Page 79 of Breaker

He loves doing business with Snyder Inc. He especially loves that I am so incompetent at handling financial matters that I simply sign whatever documents are placed in front of me. Rune may have paid millions, but he got a great deal onthe shipment of weapons pending arrival at his lodge. Of course, I was too busy to come in and sign papers the day the sale finalized, so I just video-called Delilah and did it all digitally.

Busy getting ready for the night we had planned with them.

She was so mad that day. All spitfire and rudeness. She didn’t even bother to hide it. She’s not as good at pretending as I am. And I’m nowhere near as talented as the people in this room, smiling and laughing, donating hundreds of thousands to charity, pretending they don’t gather one, sometimes twice a year, for a truly heinous act.

Act’s I’m too familiar with.

There have been many times in my life when I wish I were different. That Fallon never took me, that I never had Nanny and our sunny kitchen, that I never went to the school and learned how cruel and hard life truly is.

But today, I am grateful for every moment and every dark memory. For the heartbreak I endured leaving Nanny. The humiliation of the girl in the village.

The day I earned my name.

Because if I hadn’t lived exactly as I did, endured every lashing from Fallon, the blue room, the pain of growing up to be Fallon’s soldier, I’d not be here, right now, standing in a room full of my enemies, watching the woman I’ve adored for the last four years.

I have seen little of her since that day outside the office building, but now she’s right before me, walking arm and arm with fucking Zane.

I grind my teeth, as I struggle to keep myself in check. My hands ball into tight fists at my sides, fingers itching to rip Zane’s greedy hands off our Little Red and punch him in his fucking face, shoving all this pent up rage onto him. Break his fingers one by one. Unleash an entire magazine into his skull.

Then reload and do it again.

My blood simmers at seeing Zane’s gaze devour her whole. Cora’s long-sleeved, red dress plunges to her navel, her breasts peeking out temptingly. The back drapes even lower, revealing those little dimples above her ass that I’d fantasized about for so long. I finally got to touch them that night in the club, and I’ve been craving her ever since.

My back straightens when I see Cora jerk her arm from Zane’s grasp, causing the dress to shift, the two long slits on either side revealing her thighs. His gaze dips to her legs, and I think I may have a brain aneurysm from the restraint it’s taking not to stalk across the room and kill him.

Loud, vicarious laughter off to my right snags my attention, and I glance over to find Dave Sobian, Delilah’s ex-husband, with a group of women.

Fucking prick that guy is.

He turns my way and raises his glass. I lift mine back in greeting. The remnants of two black eyes color the space under his mask green, and I smile inwardly. Rune must have beaten the shit out of him after we took the girls, looking for answers. Satisfaction curls up my spine. Dave cheated on our girl, and he deserves everything that’s coming to him. Rune has surrounded himself with evil monsters who feed off cruelty, Dave being one of them.

I fit right in.

Rune’s somewhere in the crowd, and the thought alone makes my stomach churn. It doesn’t matter that I’m in a crowded room, I’mfeelalone knowing Rune is in this gallery. I’m a fool for thinking I could do this alone. Striker and Viper were always by my side before. Now I’m in a room full of our enemies and I’m barely able to breathe under this suffocating mask because of the number of people in this room who’d flay me alive if they knew my true identity.

Fallon’s son. The man who helped orchestrate the kidnapping of Rune Gavin’s daughter and his adopted daughter, all while pretending to be a billionaire.

Well, that part I’m not exactly pretending.

A firm clap on my back startles me from my thoughts, forcing my focus away from Dave and the group of women to Zane, who’s suddenly standing beside me.

I’ve never in my life been more grateful for a fucking mask.

Panic and anger collide in my chest, making my heart rattle in my ribcage.

“Benjamin-fucking-Snyder.” A lopsided grin forms on Zane’s face, hazel eyes sparking. “I can’t believe you’re actually here.”

My eyes drop to his outstretched hand as I breathe in deeply, trying to tamp down the violence brewing in my chest. I blink, focusing on his fingers, the manicured nails, the fair skin of his palm. There’s a fleeting thought that there should still be blood on his hands from all his crimes.

He helped kill my brother.

And nearly killed me.

I’m an idiot. There’s no way I can do this alone.

Zane’s gaze drops from the black material covering my eyes to my mouth, the only part of my face he can see. I force a smile and grip his hand. Hard. “Glad to be here.”

His lips purse ever so slightly as I tighten my grip. I release his hand, my fingers tingling, like his evil is slowly seeping into my pores, infecting me. The urge to wipe them on my pants is so strong that I switch my glass from one hand to the other, allowing my fingers to trail in the condensation. The cool wetness eases the growing knot in my chest, but it’s still there. I tap my pinky ring on the glass, drawing his eyes.

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