Vlad shot again, missing him by a few feet. Hawk pulled his 9mm from its holster and shot the old man right in the hand. He yelped, dropping the gun.
Hawk walked over, each step punctuated. He squatted down next to his old friend. “Why?”
“Three million.”
“Fucking sell-out.”
Vlad spat blood. “I’m over sixty. My boss is dead. What did you expect me to do?”
“Not kill his daughter, that’s for damn sure. I thought I could trust you, but you’re no different than all the others.” Hawk’s emotions bubbled to the surface, which only pissed him off more. Vasily had been like a father, and Vlad had been a constant fixture in his life, a man he trusted.
Now he had no one. Only himself.
Vlad gasped, hunching to the side and curling up his legs. He had a mortal wound right in the gut. Cayden had ensured this was his last stop.
“Hawk, I need to tell you something.” His voice became more and more faint. “Your parents…” He began to sputter blood.
Hawk holstered his gun and grabbed Vlad by the collar with both fists, lifting him partially off the ground. The old man groaned in protest. “What about my parents?”
A sick grin appeared on his face. “You think Vasily saved you? Raised you because he’d always wanted a son?” He let out a choked laugh. “I was there. We killed your parents because your father refused to work for us. Vasily was going to rape your mother first, but he heard you coming downstairs, so he put a bullet in her head.”
Hawk froze.
“Vasily felt sorry for you. Thought it would be a novelty to train his own assassin from childhood. I told him to kill you, but he never did listen to my advice.”
A frog built up in his throat, burning with emotion. His eyes watered, but he wouldn’t blink and give this two-faced pig the satisfaction.
“All these years, we’ve kept it from you. I told him that if you ever found out you’d kill us all. He’d created a monster.”
“Does Sophia know?”
He scoffed. “That little bitch has her head in the clouds. She actually believes her mother was killed by a rival when she was born.”
In one motion, he whipped out his gun, pressed it to Vladimir’s temple and pulled the trigger, emptying his entire clip into the piece of shit. Hawk dropped down and rolled to his back when it was done. He was covered in blood splatter, but too fucked to care. He exhaled, staring at the lone bulb swinging above him.
Everything was a lie.
He didn’t know how to feel. What to think.
His pants pooled with blood, the sticky fluid travelling down his thigh.
Hawk had devoted his entire life to the family, to Vasily Morenov. He fucking worshiped the man. His only wish was to be his real son, flesh and blood. He wanted to belong so bad that he never questioned a thing. Never asked about his real name, his birth family, nothing. He’d put one hundred percent faith in Vasily.
He’d kept his distance from Sophia out of respect.
Duty.
If he’d known the sick truth, he would have told her he loved her. Everything would be different. He’d pushed her away, turned her down again and again.
Now she was in the arms of another man.
“Live by the gun, die by the gun,” he muttered.
Hawk lifted his gun, holding it to his head.
What was the point anymore?
He pulled the trigger.
****
“No! Go back!” Sophia kept up the hysterics as they drove down the dark, deserted highway. Her face was red and stained with tears. She slapped the glass of the passenger window again and again.
“Stop it,” Cayden warned. “He’s the one who told me to take you away. He wants you safe.”
“They’ll kill him! You can’t leave him there.”
“He knows what he’s doing.”
She began to panic, hyperventilating, blood dripping down her arm. He never realized just how much she cared about Hawk.
No one had ever thrown a fit on his account.
Cayden reached into the center console with his right hand as he steered with the other. He grabbed a needle, pulled the cap off with his teeth, then plunged it in into Sophia’s neck.
“Sorry, baby. It’s for your own good.”
Within seconds, she slumped to the side, her body heavy. He adjusted her into a comfortable position, then focused on driving.
There was no way Hawk was getting out of there alive. They’d been outgunned and outnumbered. That meant Sophia was his responsibility now. He’d never asked for this, but he’d be lying if he said he wanted no part of it.
Women never interested him. The whole commitment thing sickened him, so he didn’t allow himself to get attached or emotionally involved. After living through as much dysfunction as he had, he wanted no part of family life.
Sophia, she was everything. She’d infiltrated his head, his thoughts, his desires. What was it about her that he couldn’t shake? The fact he’d made her an orphan? Or something simpler, like the freckles across her nose or the fullness of her lips?
He needed to get them set up for the night. Even with Hawk down, Antonio Baretti would still be on the hunt for him. And the bounty on Sophia was alive and well.
No place was safe.
Cayden drove a couple hours outside of the city. He had a trailer on three acres. Another of his many hideouts. There was no lighting, and everything was overgrown, the weeds attempting to devour the silver bullet.
He cut the engine, the drone of crickets trying to soothe him, but that wasn’t possible tonight. After getting what he needed from the trunk and unlocking the front door to the trailer, he came back and scooped up Sophia into his arms. He’d only given her half a vial, so she’d be coming out of her sleep within the hour. He settled her on the queen bed in the back bedroom and closed the door.
He crashed on the sofa and raked his fingers into his hair as he leaned his head back. He’d lost so much in the past couple months—Frank and his family, his apartment, his cat, his factory hideout, and maybe his heart. This was bullshit. When would it end?
Cayden pulled out his cell phone and called Randy.
“Where the fuck have you been? I’ve been calling for days,” said Randy before he could get in a word.
“I’ve been ghosting. You have no idea how much heat is on me.”
“Oh, I have an idea. Half the damn city wants you and the girl dead,” said Randy. “Where are you?”
“I’m not trying to be an asshole, but I wouldn’t trust Mother Teresa right now. No one knows where I am, and that’s how I want it to stay.”
“What about the girl? She still alive.”
“Yeah, I have her. I think her bodyguard is dead. Things got ugly fast.”
“You know how much they’ll pay for her now?”
He took a breath. “Three million.”
“Did you get hit in the head? Turn her in and end this shit. Move to another country for a few years, if you have to. If her man is dead, there’s no trade.”
“I’m not turning her in. It would be a death sentence.”
Silence.
“Where are you, Cayden?”
“I’m not turning her in,” he repeated.
There was no way in hell he’d trust anyone at this point. Everyone was in it for themselves first. In his world, money was god.
“You make no sense. Explain to me why you’re keeping her?”
“Maybe I like her. Is it so wrong if I keep her for myself?”
Randy laughed on the other end of the line. “Are you sixteen? This isn’t a game. Shit, if you want a woman, I can get you twenty bitches twice as hot as her.”
“You wouldn’t understand. I don’t expect you to, because I don’t understand it myself. All I know is she’s different. I won’t trade her life for money.”
“You think she’d be as generous if the shoe was on the other foot, Cayden? She’s the daughter of Vasily Morenov. Whatever she’s con
vinced you of is a lie. Trust me on this.”
“This is the last time you’ll hear from me for a while. Take care of yourself, Randy.” He ended the call, squeezing the phone in his hand, feeling like the only man in the world.
He went outside and set up his perimeter tripwire and activated all his security measures. He hoped they wouldn’t be necessary. This place was in the middle of nowhere, owned by one of his anonymous corporations, and he’d switched cars shortly after putting Sophia to sleep to be on the safe side. He finally settled inside and checked the security and trackers on his phone.
“Hawk!”
Cayden ran up the three steps and slammed the door shut behind him. He rushed to the bedroom to find Sophia thrashing about, having some kind of nightmare. He straddled her body, pinning her wrists to the sides of her head. “Calm the fuck down.”
She opened her eyes, her chest rising and falling like she’d run a marathon. “Cayden,” she gasped.
His nerves settled, and he lifted off her, sitting on the side of the bed. “Sometimes there are side effects with that shit. You’ll be fine.”
She touched her neck. “You poisoned me.”
“It’s not poison. It just calmed you down. I use it all the time,” he said.
“Yeah, on people you plan to kill.”
He got off the bed and left the room. She followed him, grabbing the walls as she wobbled slightly on her feet.
“You should rest.”
“No, you need to apologize!”
He was not in the mood to humor her. And she was way too feisty right now. “Listen, princess, as far as I’m concerned, I paid back my debt in full.”
“You think you can repay me for killing my dad? We’re not talking about eating my slice of pizza here.”
“So why am I helping you if I can never repay you? No matter what I do, you’ll always hate me. Always blame me for taking your father’s life.”
The small trailer snapped with emotion. It was all coming out to air.
“Don’t forget Hawk. You left him for dead and ran off like a coward.”
He bolted forward, his hand to her throat. Something inside him stopped him from squeezing too hard. Cayden had killed men for so much less.
“This isn’t even my fight. I could have left you at the factory to get slaughtered by your father’s men. Or taken the bounty and fucked off. I’ve lost everything because of you. All because I can’t kill you.”
“Why not? You’re a killer, aren’t you?”
He turned around, massaging behind his neck. No way could he say the truth and expose his heart—she’d tear it to pieces. “I have a thing about killing little girls.”
“Bullshit, Cayden. If you haven’t noticed I’m not a child.”
Oh, he’d noticed. She had everything he could want—soft rounded hips, perky tits, and long legs. He may be over a decade older than she was, but he didn’t care about numbers as far as Sophia was concerned.
“What do you want me to say?”
“Tell me something real, Cayden. Something that won’t make me hate you more than I do right now.”
“Hawk’s alive.”
“You know that for a fact?”
“I don’t play games.”
She nodded. “Okay, that’s a start.”
“Let me see your arm.”
He hoisted her up to sit on the kitchen table, holding her arm out to examine it. “Just a graze. You’ll live.” He grabbed gauze and medical tape from his first aid kit and patched her up.
“What now?” she asked, her anger subsiding.
Cayden tidied up the kit. “I have frozen pizzas in the freezer and a stove.”
Her tension visibly faded, her shoulders slumping, her steam petering to nothing. She gave him a little smile. “Good answer.”
A lot was at stake. All the “what ifs” were like an elephant in the room they chose to ignore for their own sanity. Sometimes you had to survive day to day or even minute by minute. She didn’t ask more about Hawk, and he didn’t worry about their next move.
This was a minute by minute kind of day.
They ate in comfortable silence. Then she looked for the bathroom.
“Out of order, well the toilet anyway,” he said. “You’ll have to use the outhouse.”
“Outhouse? Are you being serious?”
“Too good for you?”
She scowled and left the trailer, the screen slapping back in place. There was no lighting outside, and she hadn’t taken a flashlight. He would have offered, but she wanted to prove she was tough shit, so he left her alone.
He kept tabs on her. When she didn’t return after ten minutes, he stepped outside the trailer and waited. He heard her footsteps. The glow from the windows would be her beacon in the darkness.
Cayden tossed a rock into the woods behind her.
“Watch out for the wolves!” he called out.
Sophia screamed and raced toward him, throwing herself into his arms. It felt way too good to be her safety net.
“I’ve got you.”
She clutched his shirt, looking up at him. “I’m not used to the wild.”
“Time to spread your wings.”
He ran his palm over her hair. Cayden couldn’t remember the last time he cared to comfort another human being. With Sophia, it came naturally.
“Will you teach me how to fly?” He became hyper aware of her hands on his body, their proximity, and the tone of her voice.
“How about we get a good night sleep first.” He winked at her and pulled away.
Once inside, he went to the bedroom to change for the night, tossing his shirt into the hamper.
Sophia went to wash up in the bathroom. They needed to get some rest and recharge before they both burned out. A lot of shit had just gone down. Tomorrow was another day.
She came in when he was half dressed, only wearing a pair of grey jogging pants. Sophia leaned against the doorframe, combing her fingers through her hair. “Were there really wolves out there?”
He approached the door, towering over her. Cayden slid his hand under her hair and cupped the back of her neck. His urge for physical contact overwhelmed him. The fact she didn’t push him away only compounded the desire. “There are a lot of scary things out there.”
“Will you protect me?”
He stared down at her. “What if I’m the worst of them?”
“You’re not,” she said.
She was destroying him, making him want something unattainable. “Really?” He pinched her sides with both hands, making her squeal. Cayden made growly wolf sounds as she crawled on his bed to escape him, but he pulled her legs, bringing her closer. He tickled her until she laughed uncontrollably, barely able to breathe.
Laughter.
It was a beautiful sound.
Something he’d missed since losing Frank and his family. Life had gotten way too damn miserable.
“Cayden!”
He held off long enough for her to catch her breath, continued, then stopped again.
“No more,” she panted, her palms up on his chest.
He was on all fours with her body beneath him. Her eyes roamed over his bare chest. She licked her lips.
“But you’re not afraid of anything, are you?”
“Just tickling. It’s my weakness.”
He smirked, starting up again, just enough to make her giggle. His fingers lingered on the skin at her side. “Then behave or I can go all night long.”
She wet her lips, the humor fading away.
“Can you really?” she whispered.
Fuck, she was playing with fire. Her hair was mostly blonde now, her dark eyes piercing in the dim room. “Guess you’ll never know.”
She frowned. “Why not? Because of my father?”
“Because you’re too good for me.”
Sophia reached up and cupped his cheek, then scraped her nails along his stubble. “Don’t let anyone fool you. I’m just an ordinary girl.”
“And y
ou love Hawk.”
“Can’t I love two men?”
He scoffed. “You don’t love me, Sophia. Like every other woman, you don’t realize it, but you want to use me. I’m not worth keeping.”
****
Her womb coiled tight. Cayden’s strong arms supported his weight on either side of her head. He was ripped and covered in ink. Her mouth salivated, craving to trace her tongue over every dark tattoo. Waves of heat and need washed over her, but he kept shutting her down. His reluctance made her more desperate to win.
Right now, she didn’t want to think about death, the future, or all the nightmares strung together that she called life. What she wanted was to forget it all.
To feel love.
To at least pretend it was love.
To know a man’s body.
“Don’t refuse me, Cayden. I don’t think my heart could take it.”
He did a half push-up, his biceps bulging as he slowly lowered over her without making physical contact. He took a deep breath at her neckline, exhaling in almost a growl.
“If you knew everything about me, I guarantee you wouldn’t feel the same.”
“Then tell me.” She turned her head to the side and kissed his forearm. “It can’t be worse than what I already know.”
“It is.”
She began to unbutton her shirt. It was one of his since they’d been staying at his place for days. His eyes darted to the white lace of her bra as the shirt opened. He used his thigh to part her legs, dropping his hips against hers.
Sophia cried out, his hard cock pressing unforgivingly against her aching pussy. It felt so damn good. And she wanted it all.
The stress of the day, the horrors she wanted to forget, everything transformed into a sexual tension that bound her tight. She needed this. Needed Cayden.
Even with the minimal lighting, his blue eyes stole her breath away as he looked down at her without humor. “Lucky for you, I’m not that much of a bastard. I’m not going to fuck you.”
“You’re cruel. Is it because I’m a virgin?”
He smiled, then licked his lips, making her stomach flutter. “Are you now?”
“Please, Cayden. I need you.”
He sat up, kneeling between her parted legs. He ran his hands over her thighs, making skitters dance along her skin. “I like when you beg.”
Witness Protection Page 10
