Page 1 of Hitman

CHAPTER 1

Julian

Grim pulled a rolled up yellow mailer from the inside of his black jacket and handed it over to me. It slowly unfurled as I took it from his outstretched hand. “Your newest target,” he told me, his voice deep and raspy from too many years of heavy smoking. He’d cut back since he’d become a dad a few years ago, but everyone knew he’d never stop completely. Smoking was the one crutch Grim allowed himself.

“Who’d he piss off?” I asked as I pulled the little metal tabs and opened up the mailer. Reaching inside, I pulled the papers out that gave me every bit of information on my target. The information in these packets went so deep, I would know what the mother fucker had for breakfast that day by the time I got through reading all of it.

When I first began prospecting for the Savage Crows MC Texas Charter, I’d been quiet. Kept to myself a lot. I was just trying to find a place to belong after getting out of the private sector of the military—a sector civilians had no idea existed. I was picked during basic training in the army based on mypersonal training scores and my marksmanship during weapons training.

One day, I’d been training for the infantry, and the next, I was issued paperwork to fly to fucking Alaska for specialized training. I wasn’t given a choice. My captain made itveryclear to me I either cooperated or the government made me disappear for now knowing this organization existed.

“Copper received word that this man helped fund a sex trafficking ring that another club in Washington wiped out. He flew under the radar, but a man named Rico Martinez discovered him recently, and since he’s down here in Texas, the president of the Ghost Born MC, Shaw, reached out to Copper, asking if this was something he’d be willing to take on.”

Copper was the president of the mother charter of the Savage Crows MC. His father, Blink, founded the club with three of the men he served with in the military. While the other three founders had scattered, Blink was still around, but not as much as he used to be anymore. He now trusted Copper enough, so he’d started traveling the world with his wife, Lindsey.

“And Copper agreed because you have me,” I finished for Grim, looking back up at him.

Grim nodded and pulled his cigarettes out of his cut pocket. After tapping one out of the pack, he lifted it to his lips. “Who better to take him out than Hitman?” Grim asked around his cigarette as he worked on lighting it.

Hitman was my club name, and I’d come by it honestly. Once Grim found out just how useful I was, he and Alex, the Texas Charter’s vice president, sat down with me, asking me if I’d be willing to be the club hitman. It was what I was good at and what I knew, so I’d agreed. They patched me in, then contacted Copper to bring him up to speed.

I looked down at the papers, my eidetic memory immediately memorizing my target so I’d never have to look at the paperworkagain. The man was overweight and balding with a horrible spray tan that made him look orange. I would’ve thought someone with a two point four-billion-dollar net worth would be able to afford better spray tans, but I guess I didn’t know much about billionaires after all.

Stewart Barry Dukes was sixty-three years old, the CEO of a company that’d been in his family for two generations, and he was known for making literally the most disgusting, cheapest liquor to be sold in the United States—Dukesuor. Not only was the liquor fucking horrible, but the name was absolute shit too and uncreative. But people drank it because it was a real easy way to get drunk.

“He’ll be taken care of by the end of the week,” I told Grim as I shoved the papers back into the mailer. Lifting my bike seat, I set the package inside, then lowered the seat back into its rightful position. Straightening my cut over my plain black hoodie, I asked, “We done here?”

Grim nodded. “We’re done here. Let me know when the job is done. I want to know before the news stations do so we can cover our bases and protect our asses.”

“Always,” I promised. Then, I straddled my Ducati and grabbed my helmet, sliding it over my head. I flipped the visor down, then turned the bike on. Revving the engine, I left the warehouse parking lot and headed for my apartment in the city.

Unlike my club brothers, I didn’t hang out around the clubhouse often. And it wasn’t just because I enjoyed my solitude. It was because if, somehow, I was found out, they would still be protected. It was agreed upon that I’d take all the heat and tell law enforcement officials I was working on my own. It wouldn’t exactly be a lie anyway considering besides either Grim or Copper giving me the targets, Ididwork on my own. I was one hundred percent responsible for the bodies that were dropped.

But being caught was never really on my radar. I hadn’t spent years in the military being a sniper, taking out high-value targets all over the world without ever being caught through pure luck. Sure, the government had been backing me, but they’d made itveryclear during my training that if I fucked up and was found out, they’d disavow me and leave me on my own.

I was just purely good at what I did.

And just like my hundreds of jobs before this one, this target would be taken out just as easily.

By the end of the week, there would be one less crooked billionaire in the world.

CHAPTER 2

Solace

My platform boots thumped across the pristine, white, tiled floors of my father’s office building as I made my way across the thirty-first floor to his office. The man and I had a very strong love/hate relationship. He was a piece of shit who’d abused my mother for years until I finally convinced her to leave him when I was a teen. The only reason I hadn’t cut all ties with him was because he had me as an off-book employee doing a job that paidexceptionallywell, allowing me to keep my mentally unwell mother in therapy and have a live-in nurse around the clock.

As soon as I’d graduated high school, my father had cut my mother off. When I’d confronted him, so angry I’d brought a gun with me because she was losing the healthcare she desperately needed, he’d made me a deal all while I pointed that gun at his head, ready to blow his brains all over the wall.

He had numerous enemies, and every time he turned around, another was coming out of the woodwork. If he sent me to assassin school and I agreed to take out the targets he gaveme, he’d pay metens of thousandsof dollarsfor each target I took out, which would in turn allow me to take care of my mother without having to worry about finances.

The deal had been too fucking good to pass up, but I’d made one stipulation. Until my first kill was made and I was paid, he had to continue depositing money into her bank account so she was taken care of while I was away. He’d begrudgingly agreed, which just showed his desperation to have someone like me at his disposal.

Now, years later, here we were.

I didn’t bother knocking as I pushed open the door to his office. My father scowled at me, his jowls jiggling as he turned his head to glare at me. Someone in a very expensive suit and about ten years younger than my father was sitting in the chair across from him, and he looked a mix of shocked and appalled at my interruption.

I lifted my wrist, glancing at the time on my Rolex. I was right on time, which meant, once again, my father was cutting intomytime, which was valuable, even if he didn’t seem to think so.

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