“You’re sick,” I uttered in bewildered shock.

“But effective, am I not?”

“You’re a crazy fucking bastard.” I grunted as I shook my head and a chuckle escaped me.

“We killed our own men, Dad. What did you think would happen when they took me?” Lara interjected, not at all impressed as she stepped toward him.

“Quite frankly, sweetheart, I thought you’d slaughter them all before Reg even left the mansion. There was a reason Iassigned those traitors the task. Two birds and one stone and all that jazz.” He lifted a hand and tilted Lara’s head, to better see the cuts on her face. “I was hoping you wouldn’t need it this time. But it looks like you did,” he commented as he saw the cuts she allowed them to brand her with. “I hope they suffered.”

“They did. And then we fucked on their corpses.” She smiled widely and Dom recoiled.

“I may have deserved that,” he relented and shivered in disgust. “Just because I approve, doesn’t mean I want toseeorhearabout it, got it?”

“Too fucking bad, mate,” I growled as I reached for Lara and turned her into my arms. “I’ve waited four fucking years for this.” Then I lifted her as her legs wrapped around me, my hand fisted in her hair and I kissed her so deeply, the rest of the world faded away.

Chapter Seventeen

Lara

Sweet but Psycho - Ava Max

The sun slowly rose in the distance as it cast an orange and golden-yellow glow over the docks. Notourdocks, the docks our gun shipments were being rerouted to. I went back to the tunnels after we cleared everything up and interrogated John. Oh and yeah, this was after I got my ass kidnapped by my very own father.

AlsoafterI saw Fraizer’s son for the very first time.

Lucas Black.

The double of his heinous, vile, fucking father. An image that has burned a hole in my brain ever since the day I first saw the man who murdered my mother. Our family had once been allies before Fraizer wanted to test the line of succession. He wanted more than what he was worth.

Not only did his greed kill my mother, but it killed him too.

I wasn’t allowed my pound of flesh back then. The kill was all Dad’s. But I was not that same broken nineteen-year-old girlanymore. I was a woman and a queen, and I would be damned if I didn't feed this beast inside of me. Every part of me hoped that he would be here to oversee the interception himself, but I knew in my core he wouldn’t be. I could see by the look in his eye the other night that he was a showman. The kind that stood behind the line as he fired his orders and watched an empire grow from doing nothing but sitting on his ass. Not too different from his father. He had the same ethics.

Work for shit and gain all the treasure.

I could never understand that. The front line is where I’d always be.

And if my crew went down, I’d be right beside them.

You can say what you want about the Wyelli’s but we were a special breed of monster.

But that’s the thing about darkness laced with evil, isn’t it?

The perception.

Because underneath it all, we were all just vile, insidious creatures waiting for the moment we could burst free. The moment we could let the beast out and unchain the villain within us. Everyone had it. Everyone was capable of such atrocious acts given the right motivation to pursue them.

We were all the same, yet so very different.

But what is the difference between our evil and the evil of those who commit the very same acts?

The difference between a murderer and a cop with a gun?

Our victims.

Monsters who fight for the world and then there are monsters who fight for the kill.

I couldn’t say I’m not a little bit of both, but we had a code.