Page 21 of The Bodyguard Freed

“Your girl told him you won’t be apologizing to anyone, publicly or not. And you want to know what else she said?” Igor laughs. “She told him if he doesn’t drop the matter, he was going to… disappear. That he had no idea what you were capable of doing and that no one would find his dead body.”

There’s silence between us.

“I’ve known her since she was a little girl, Kayne. She’s hurting. You're hurting her.” Igor puts his hands into his pockets, nods then leaves.

I change direction and don’t go to the private west wing where I keep my surveillance of Sophia, amongst other things.

I leave the palace and get into my car. I drive for twenty minutes and then pull up at a deserted parking lot. It’s a part of Strohamden no one comes to. I press a code into a keypad which unlocks the door and then I roll it up, step inside and roll it back down again. I take an elevator to the basement.

I’m determined to end this now. Igor is right. I’m hurting her. Fuck. She’s the last person I want to hurt.

But after an hour I can’t bring myself to end it. I can’t put this part of our lives behind me.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

A murderous rage rushes through me. All it takes is a bullet to end it but fuck I’m not done torturing myself. I can’t let go of my anger. I haven’t suffered enough yet.

I don’t deserve her yet.

Not fucking yet I bellow into the dank darkness around me. I smash my fist into the brick wall, blood spews from my knuckles. That one strike would have been enough to kill a man. But I’m not fucking done with the torture.

One more night. Just one more night. I’m making deals with the monster inside me. One night of darkness before I allow myself to step into her light.

When I end this it would mean I’ve forgiven myself. A man put his fists into her face. He kicked her when she was down. He slammed the breath from her body when he punched her in the stomach. And I watched that happen to her.

My sweet Sophia.

Sweet but powerful.

Lindberg had signed his death certificate when he came back to the palace, but now I might let him live because she stood up for me. She handled him.

But feeding my wrath is hurting her. One more night, I promise myself. Just a little more torture. Just a little more pain.

I need to do something to alleviate the raw fucking fury I feel. I’m back in my car, checking my phone. I open a site on the hidden web.

I’m looking for a fight. I run down the list of names.

Aiden Walker.

It takes me a minute to get him on my phone.

“Kayne Fucking Langley,” he says.

Aiden and I go way back. We trained in the same circles, and have a similar temperament and when we were put up against each other, there was no winner. Our strength and stealth always matched equally. We’re both orphans. Both trained to kill in our early teens.

And over the years when we needed to vent in the ring, we called on each other. We didn’t risk going up against other men, not when we could kill them way too easily.

“You fighting?” I ask him.

“No. Surveillance. But clearly you’re looking?”

“Yeah,” I say running my hand up the back of my neck. It’s then I notice the blood on my knuckles.

“Come on down. I have a few hours to kill.”

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