Page 24 of Deviant Virtue

In this world, being disloyal was punishable by death and, right now, I was the executioner.

I grinned from ear to ear. Perhaps he saw his imminent death—he crawled backwards, as much as it was possible. He glanced around, terror twisting his features once he saw there was no exit. Not for him, at least.

I had him cornered in the dark alley of a terrible neighborhood. Even if someone saw us, or had heard the gunshots, no one would be brave enough to investigate—this sort of thing happened here every day.

I stepped forward, noticing the sweat dripping from his face. A few years ago, Michael had been an upstanding citizen of New York City, with many people worshiping the ground he walked on. He hosted charities, donated to multiple orphanages, and yet, there was no trace of that person within the man who lay in front of me.

“I-I swear, I don’t know who this man is.”

His pathetic stuttering in the face of danger was making my blood boil. I knew he would’ve ratted the buyer out before I’d shot him if he knew who it was, so even though I was having fun torturing him, I was also getting furious at how little information he had.

“I don’t care. Tell me something.” I inched closer. “You’ll die either way. However, if you tell me what I want to know, I won’t send your wife and children all the pictures of you and your mistress. Her name is Sophia, right? Or should I tell your wife and watch the drama unfold?”

He shook his head furiously. “No, please don’t tell my wife.” He was begging with his last breaths, and it made him even more pathetic than I’d thought possible. “I don’t know his name, but we were meeting in his hotel room at the Plaza. Room number nine. He’s short, with dark hair, and has a tattoo on his neck.”

I patted his bald head with my gloved hand. “That’s a good boy. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

He gulped as I aimed my gun at his head. “Please tell my family that I love them.”

I laughed. “Do I look like someone who gives a shit about your family?”

This was getting boring. I rolled my eyes at the tears that slipped down his cheeks and shot him, right between his eyes. Michael slumped down, and his head hit the ground with a thud. I wiped off the faint spray of blood that had hit my shirt and put the gun in the back of my pants.

Before leaving the street completely, I removed my mask and put it in the inside pocket of my jacket, then whipped out my phone. I let my client know via text that the job was done then dialed Bri’s phone number.

“Are you done?” she asked as soon the call went through.

I chuckled. “I’m fine—thanks for asking.”

I could feel her eyes roll. “Of course you’re fine.” Bri paused for a moment. “The money came through.”

Bri’s voice was… unsettling, to say the least. Her tone indicated that something had very much disturbed her, and although I didn’t care about her or her feelings, my gut told me it had something to do with me.

“Why are you jumpy?”

She cleared her throat. “It’s best if we talk about that once you come home—it’s not something we should talk about over the phone.”

“Fine. I’ll be home in twenty.”

I hung up before she could say some shit about my driving. Driving recklessly brought me satisfaction, but I’d been behind the wheel for over a decade and had yet to cause any accidents. Sometimes, I came too close to killing her, but the urge never lasted long. I’d always remember how much I needed her—for the time being anyway.

Recently, however, Bri had become way too clingy. Always texting and calling me, for absurd reasons. Once, she’d almost compromised a mission by calling me repeatedly, despite me declining each and every single one of her calls.

I was home when I’d told her I would be and found her waiting anxiously for me at the door.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

She stepped aside to let me walk past her then followed silently behind me. The first thing I did was throw the jacket off my body and grab a glass of Scotch. Then I sat on the couch, stared at her, and raised a brow. Bri was fidgeting with her fingers, eyes glued to the ground.

“Speak, Brianne.”

She flinched at the loudness of my voice but nonetheless sat across from me and began speaking. “While you were out and about dealing with… that man, someone called your work phone and asked for a meeting.”

“You didn’t agree before you discussed it with me, did you?”

Bri shook her head furiously. “No, of course not! They said they’ll call again tomorrow.”

“So what’s the problem?”

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