Page 1 of Pray for the Damned

PROLOGUE

EMMETT

TEN YEARS AGO

The gun is heavy in my shaking hand as I approach the house.

The thumping in my chest grows with each step I take, to the point I’m worried my heart might give out before this is all over.

I glance over my shoulder, but there’s no one there. No one I can see, at least.

They’re there.

My father and twin brother lurk within the shadows to make sure I go through with this. To ensure I’m initiated into the family business.

It’s what I’ve trained my whole life for, but it doesn’t make it an easier pill to swallow.

Not for me at least.

Part of me wishes I let go of my soul the way Kade did. His first kill was months ago, but I’ve put mine off for as long as I can, and for as long as they would allow.

But tonight is the night.

Tonight is the night I end someone else’s life in order to preserve my own.

I swallow heavily as my tattered boots hit the bottom porch step of the decrepit house.

Why someone would bother ordering the kill of someone that lives in a house like this is beyond me. It seems pointless, but then again, someone that lives in these conditions isn’t going to bring more business in, so why bother keeping them alive?

The wood beneath my feet creaks as I move closer to the door.

Kade said it was unlocked when he did surveillance earlier tonight, and when I wrap my gloved fingers around the tarnished doorknob, I find that’s still the case.

I let out a breath to steady myself. Get in and out.

Someone else will take care of the rest.

That’s the other part that doesn’t sit right with me. As if killing a man weren’t bad enough, the people who hired me want his sixteen-year-old daughter as penance for his sins.

Maybe if it was just Jeremy Fitzgerald dying tonight, I could live with myself for what I’m about to do. But the idea that an innocent girl is going to be forced into a life of misery makes my stomach clench every time I think about it.

Don’t let your emotions get in the way.

Their words repeat in my mind over and over again, but they don’t sink in as I move through the small house. The floorboards are old and worn. The paint chips off the walls, and there’s a smell that lingers in the air that is likely always present. The pungent scent of alcohol and cigarette burns my nostrils with every breath I take, but that’s the least I deserve.

I deserve to burn in hell for the sins I’m about to commit.

The house is almost too quiet, and each step I take is loud to my own ears as I move toward Jeremy’s bedroom at the back of the house. It’s after midnight, so it’s unlikely that the girl will wake up until they come for her, but I don’t need any unnecessary complications during my first kill either.

When I reach the door, I pause, forcing deep breaths into my lungs to settle the trembles that rack through my entire body.

I can do this. I have to do this.I repeat the words to myself a few times over before my shaking hand wraps around the doorknob.

No turning back now.

With one final deep breath, I push the door open as quietly as I can manage, but even the sound of the bottom of the door scraping along the worn carpet seems too loud.

It takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness in here without the moon and streetlights filtering through the window like the rest of the house, but when they finally come good, I’m staring at my target.

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