Page 57 of Ignite
Fucking rumor mill around this place. Then again, no one has seen me with a partner in over a decade. And after the office rearranging incident, I have to wonder what Rev disclosed to everyone to calm them down about their shit being touched.
Last time Rev held an informative meeting I couldn’t attend, he told everyone that I had explosive diarrhea. I knocked out one of his teeth in the boxing ring that night. Cost him ten thousand in dental work.
“Don’t start with me,” I warn. “Can you take him to dinner at Madora Estates? He’s got family there. Salem’s posted up on watch.”
Getting to meet Ezra would have been enough of a temptation for my overly curious brother, but I know Isaac would never turn down an opportunity to spend time with Salem. They’re a good fit for each other. Not sure why either one hasn’t made a move, but that’s none of my business.
“Sounds wonderfully entertaining. I’ll take care of him. Oh, and Cain? You really should consider going home for dinner soon. Mom and Dad miss you.”
I hesitate, trying to remember the last time I visited the farm. Has it already been three years? Fuck. I’m a horrible son.
But being back there only reminds me how much I’d changed after my time in the military. That realization first sank in when I was granted leave from service to attend my grandfather’s funeral. I’d stayed with my parents, helping them keep up with their commercial dairy business while they sorted through my grandfather’s substantial finances, padded by dozens of successful hotel properties.
Normality felt wrong. Like an itch in my brain I couldn’t reach. I struggled to ease back into the simple life. Chores I had once relished felt pointless, and home-cooked meals didn’t hold the same magic when I knew good people were out there suffering.
My ability to hold conversations had withered beneath a storm of horrors playing out in my head like an endless film strip. Hard to talk about the weather when your brain is stuck on visuals of humans being blown apart.
“Cain?” Isaac says.
As the elevator doors ding open, I reply, “I’ll think about it.”
Stepping into the armory with my teams of mercenaries gearing up, I know this right here—the company I’ve built on the bones of criminals—will forever be where I belong.
And if the government ever decides to shut me down, if they teeter more to the belief that my business is a threat to them or to the public, I still don’t think I could ever give up this lifestyle.
I am a killer, and I will be a killer until the day I’m dropped into a grave.
The assholes put up a fight, I’ll give them that.
We stormed the rain-slicked shipyard, pouring in through the north gate like a mutating virus as soon as Rorik gave the signal. While Gabriel’s cronies matched us in firepower, we outranked them in experience.
The only reason it took so long to clean house was because we had to identify who was running the show in Gabriel’s absence. The fucker knew how to keep his head underground.
We wasted hours prying open shipping containers, too, only to discover ungodly amounts of drugs and a few decomposing bodies. I had to call in Henry’s team to dispose of both.
We ended up with two shitlords tossed in the back of one of our windowless bulletproof vans. I had to call Isaac back to the office to keep one of them from bleeding out after Rev shot him in the kneecap.
Isaac might not be a practicing doctor, but he had enough knowledge to keep the guy conscious and out of death’s hands as we tied him up in the interrogation room.
“You can kiss the corner office goodbye,” I mutter to Rev as I circle our two restrained prisoners.
“He was about to throw a fucking grenade! I should have shot him in the head.”
I strip off my jacket and bulletproof vest, eager to get answers out of our prisoners and check on Ezra now that he’s back in the building. Did he have a good dinner with Jakey? Did Isaac ask him too many questions?
Pulling out a pair of latex gloves, I tug them onto my hands.
Rev gives his prisoner a slap on the cheek. “Hey there, shitbag. Let’s you and I have some fun.”
I lower myself down in front of the other guy. Their chairs are pushed back-to-back so they can’t see each other. Makes it more intense for one of them when their buddy starts screaming.
The guy curses at me in a language I don’t recognize, so I jab my fist into his teeth, breaking two of them.
“You talk when I tell you to, understood?” I speak slowly.
He spits blood onto the floor, and I remove my knife, flicking the blade out. There’s a flash of fear in his eyes before he scowls at me.
“Here’s how this is going to go. The quicker you offer up information on the encryption key to that drive, the less I carve you up. I want a password or the name and location of the person who can provide them.”
