Shadowed: A Hitman Mafia Romance (Team Zero Book 4)

by Rina Kent

  “I know you want to kill me.” I smile. “But my life has a better use. I was going back to The Pit to shut the fucker Ink because he somehow knows what I did, but now, I’ll return on your behalf. My life never had value anyway. You can stay in your new life with Elle.”

  Ghost lunges at me. I don’t move. I don’t duck. I don’t even tense. His fist slams in my jaw. Pain explodes in my face as he does it again. And again. I stagger backwards but straighten so he can continue to punch me.

  I deserve every bit of his rage.

  At that time, I was already too attached to Ghost. Ever since he saved me from those homeless men, we became inseparable mates. The thought that he’d be taken away by those dangerous men terrified me. I didn’t think that she was his mother, I only saw her as someone wanting to hurt him.

  We were kidnapped into The Pit soon after, but the three of us stayed together. If I allowed those men to take him, we wouldn’t have remained mates for decades.

  Those excuses don’t matter now.

  “Julian, stop!” Elle runs inside and tries to pull Ghost back. He looks at her and his features soften the slightest, but his hands are still clenched into fists.

  “I don’t know what this is about.” She stands between us and trails her gaze from Ghost to me. “But there’s something more important. Zoe disappeared.”

  My body tenses. “She’s meditating with Scar.”

  Elle shakes her head. “Scar lost time again. She didn’t even notice when Zoe left the room. Someone mentioned seeing her with Natalie.”

  “Fuck!” I ran a hand through my hair. “Maybe she went to that lieutenant… Liam?”

  I still want to kill him, but she’d be at least safe with him.

  “No, but…” Elle trails off and bites her bottom lip.

  “But what?” I’m two seconds away from shaking her.

  “But she’s President Joe’s granddaughter. She said she’ll ask him for help so no one would go back to The Pit. Dammit. I asked her to wait.”

  “Fuck!” I’m already running towards the entrance. President Joe is an opportunistic bastard. If he thinks she’s related to us, he’ll use her. It doesn’t matter that she’s his granddaughter. He’s that much of a heartless businessman.

  “Shadow?” Elle calls from behind me.

  “What?”

  “Be careful. She’s… she’s pregnant.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “No!” I thrash against the guard’s brute force.

  President Joe is already walking into his club, his jacket flapping in the wind behind him.

  He doesn’t seem to care that he just ordered a kill.

  It’s as if my life – his granddaughter – means absolutely nothing.

  “No wonder my mother became what she is!” I shout while still struggling. “I can see who she took it from.”

  President Joe halts in his tracks. Both his henchmen stop, too. The guard tightens his hold on me, but he isn’t trying to drag me away. Their boss slowly turns around like a bull before a fight.

  “Don’t ever call that ungrateful bitch my daughter.” Every word drips with venom and rage before he schools his features and tilts his head. “You’re that devil’s spawn, aren’t you?”

  “I’m your granddaughter.” I stick out my chin. He’s the last person I want for family, but he’s also the only person who can help Shadow and Ghost – and therefore Elle and I. However, a tyrant like President Joe needs to be dealt with caution.

  He motions at the henchman clutching me to bring me inside, then he goes in like a king in his kingdom – which he is.

  “I can walk on my own.” I attempt to squirm free.

  The guard crosses both my arms at my back until I wheeze in pain. He pushes me forward. I trip and almost fall to my face.

  The whole way inside, I try to keep up with the guard’s wide strides.

  We go into a room with an orange light slipping through the window. Two Chesterfield leather sofas sit in the middle of the room. There’s an office area, too, but President Joe is sitting on the highest chair, slightly leaning to one side. He removed his jacket and remains in his striped waistcoat. The only thing that seems awfully out of place is the deep red bow tie.

  He looks like a king on his throne and he damn well knows it.

  The stoic guard shoves me down on a chair across from his boss and keeps both hands on my shoulders. It’s to stop me from any surprise attack — not that I’m stupid to do that.

  President Joe reaches to the coffee table between us. A flask filled with an amber liquid rests between a few square glasses. He pours the alcoholic beverage in a glass and goes back to his nonchalant position on his throne.

  For what seems like forever, he fingers his bow tie while his cold gaze looms over me with disdain.

  When I think he’ll judge me then dismiss me, he speaks with haughtiness like a snobby principle at school. “You look so much like her. It’s disgusting.”

  That’s supposed to spring a feeling in me. Maybe a normal person would feel offended on behalf of their mother.

  I don’t.

  It is disgusting. What’s more disgusting is that I sought revenge for her all these years. However, this man isn’t blameless. In fact, he should be blamed the most.

  “Don’t act like you didn’t play a part. Mum was obviously fucked up in the head. It was your duty as her father to help her, but you threw her away. Maybe if she’s been saved earlier, she wouldn’t have become that way. If her own father didn’t throw her, she wouldn’t have become the type of mother who thinks she can take away the life she’s given to me.” My lips tremble but I set them in a line.

  He remains silent for a moment as he takes swift swigs from his drink. “She’s not my daughter.”

  “Just because you disowned her doesn’t mean she’s not your flesh and blood.”

  “She’s not my flesh and blood.” He stands up, his shoulders tensing with barely concealed rage. “I adopted that devil and brought her to my home. What did I get in return? Ungratefulness.”

  My mouth hangs open. “She’s adopted?”

  “I loved her as my own spawn,” he continues while pacing the room as if he didn’t hear me. “I always considered her my eldest and gave her everything she wanted, but what did she do? When my wife gave birth to Rachel, Renee fucked up everything. She was smart at it, too. We never saw the abuse or noticed how much Rachel kept to herself. We thought she was merely an introvert. I should’ve seen the signs. I should’ve seen that it wasn’t normal for Rachel to agree to whatever Renee wanted. Or that Renee would take away whatever Rachel had just because she can. She played my daughter like a damn instrument.”

  I stare, incredulous, at President Joe’s reddened cheeks. If auto-combustions are possible, he’d be blown all over the elegant room about now. My mother didn’t only hurt me and my dad, she also destroyed her adoptive family.

  “What else did she do?” I whisper.

  He laughs, the sound is humourless and filled with pain. “The better question would be what didn’t she do? My wife and I made sure to not let her feel inferior to Rachel. No matter what we did, Renee always thought that. She destroyed Rachel’s life and as if that isn’t enough…” His face contorts like he’s fighting deep emotions.

  I edge closer, but the guard pins me in place. I shoot him a glare and focus back on President Joe. “Then?”

  He stops pacing and loosens his bow tie as if it’s strangling him. “Rachel wanted one thing so much that she fought Renee for it. I wish she didn’t. That devil Renee never lost.”

  Appearing nostalgic, President Joe resumes pacing. “Rachel never begged me for anything, but she begged me to be with him. I didn’t agree. He was a soldier and therefore, her future with him wasn’t sure, but she pleaded with me for weeks and months. When that didn’t work, she got pregnant with him while she was a freshman to force my hand. They were only eighteen and nineteen when they got married.” His lips pull in a snarl. “Of course,
Renee had an eye for him, too, and she eventually took him for herself.”

  “My dad…?” My head spins.

  Oh my God. Rachel is the same Rachel Mum talks to in her manic episodes. She was talking to her non-existent sister after she took away her husband.

  I want to throw up.

  “Did Mum become pregnant with me to take Dad away from her sister?”

  “No. At least not in that order.” President Joe throws his weight on the chair like a dying old man who just wants life to be over with. “Rachel was pregnant ten years before you came to life. She and Jason had a beautiful boy and he promised to stop being deployed abroad once his tour at the time ended. After Jason’s blunt rejection of any advances from Renee, she should’ve given up. She didn’t. As soon as Jason was deployed, only months after the birth of Jason Jr., Renee never left Rachel’s side.”

  I edge forward and this time, the guard doesn’t shove me down as harshly. “What… what happened?”

  His gaze drifts to the window. “There was a fire in Rachel’s house. The police ruled it as carelessness. She was saved but her child… wasn’t.”

  Tears stain my cheeks as I choke out. “Mum did that?”

  “I’m certain she did.” He grits out.

  “Rachel was never the same after Jason Jr.’s death. Even Jason couldn’t do anything to appease her depression. That’s exactly what Renee aimed for. She knew how much Jason Jr. meant to Rachel and she took him away so she could pave the path to take Jason, too.”

  I let the load of information fall over me. Dad was married before Mum and had a son. I had an older brother that I never met and never will because like everything beautiful in my life, Mum took it all away.

  “Did Dad leave Rachel?” I ask.

  “Never. Jason took a whole year off to help Rachel cope with their loss. Maybe he wasn’t enough. Maybe Renee never stopped jabbing a finger in Rachel’s non-healed wound. Whatever it was, Rachel fell from the balcony murmuring Mummy is coming, baby.”

  Bile and nausea rise to my throat and threaten to spill on the carpet. I mourn for Dad and his beautiful, pure soul. He lost his son and then his wife. It’s ironic that Rachel died out of missing her baby while Mum died trying to kill me.

  President Joe’s face is stone cold, and he seems lost in his own, hand-picked hell. He brought Renee home and allowed her to destroy his family. He must regret that decision with everything in him.

  “What happened then? How… how did Mum and Dad end up together?”

  “After Rachel’s death, Jason focused on his endless tours. Africa. Asia. The Middle East. Anywhere. We never saw him for years. He should’ve not returned, but he did, and Renee latched on him like a parasite.” He laughs again. “He raped her, she said. The Devil. She raped him. Some witnesses even saw her slip something in his drink. Then, she came crying to me to save her honour. I did what I should’ve done when Rachel was alive and cut her off from the family registry. After a while, she fell pregnant and Jason married her. Worst mistake of his life.”

  My head hangs. I can’t say I disagree. Marrying Mum had cost Dad his life — and mine in retrospect.

  “You’re right. If I stopped Renee at first, maybe Rachel would’ve been alive.” He reaches into his pocket and retrieves a necklace with a very familiar stone. He caresses it as one would do a pet.

  My eyes squint on the dainty chain dangling from his fat fingers. The blue and black heart pendant reflects the light.

  No. It can’t be.

  I stand, but the guard shoves me down. “Please, I just want to see.”

  President Joe nods, and I run towards him. He’s not scared, knowing full well I’d risk my death if I hurt him. I inspect the necklace up close and there’s no mistaking that this is a replica.

  “Was this by chance… Rachel’s?” My voice is so small, I’m surprised he hears it.

  “It is.” President Joe appears puzzled. “I had it specifically made for her in Italy.”

  “Anyone could’ve had it made, right?”

  “It was custom made and cost a fortune. Only two necklaces exist in the world. One is Rachel’s and the other is Jason Jr.’s.”

  “W-where’s… Jason Jr.’s?”

  He lifts a shoulder. “Probably lost in the fire.”

  This can’t be happening, but I ask anyway. “How long has it been since that fire?”

  “Thirty-five years. It was a rare snowstorm that day. I can never forget it.”

  “No, no, no…” I curl my fingers around my necklace and a hand around my stomach as nausea explodes in my mouth.

  I’m going to faint.

  Thirty-five years ago, Nonna found a newborn baby in a rubbish can during a snowstorm. He only had a replica of Rachel’s necklace around his neck. Mum wasn’t heartless enough to burn him, but she was monstrous enough to throw him in a rubbish can as if he were nothing.

  Jason Jr. is Shadow.

  And he’s… my brother.

  I fall over. President Joe clutches me by the arm, brows furrowing. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “My brother… he’s my half-brother… Oh, God.”

  “Jason Jr.?” President Joe shakes his head. “I don’t know why you’re mourning him when you never met him, but he wasn’t your brother.”

  “He is! We share a father.” No wonder he always looked so familiar. He’s a carbon copy of Dad. The blond hair. The grey eyes. Even the smile and the build.

  “Jason wasn’t your biological father.” President Joe’s voice cuts through the chaos. “I did a paternity test for him two or three years after you were born because you had none of his traits. I wanted to save him from that wench. God knows who your biological father is, but Renee being Renee must’ve picked anyone on the streets to get pregnant and corner Jason”

  Air goes back to my lungs. I don’t know why I believe everything President Joe says, but I do. The alternative will be believing that Shadow is my half-brother, and I’d rather die a horrible death before thinking about that.

  “If Dad had proof that I’m not his daughter, why didn’t he leave her?” I ask, puzzled.

  “He didn’t want to leave you.” President Joe’s eyes soften. “His exact words were ‘Even if she’s not my biological daughter, I love her like one.’”

  A sob tears from my throat. What did I do to deserve him in my life? All that time, he knew I wasn’t his biological daughter, but he never gave up on me. I can still feel the caress of his love on my skin. Dad is the only thing that made sense in my childhood.

  President Joe tries to sit me down on the sofa.

  The door swings open. The guard turns abruptly.

  Shadow.

  He stands on the threshold with squared shoulders and overcast robotic eyes. Blood stains his white T-shirt and mars his face and hair.

  His gaze falls on President Joe clutching my shoulder, and I see the moment he makes the snap decision to kill.

  “No, don’t!!” I scream.

  He shoots.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Pain explodes in my shoulder. I wince as I fall to the carpeted ground.

  I throw a frantic glance behind me to President Joe. His face reddens to his bald head, but he’s not injured. I release a small breath. Shadow wouldn’t have forgiven himself if he killed his grandfather.

  Or maybe he would’ve. I’m not sure. But I’m not ready to have him carry the burden of murdering his grandfather.

  Shadow looms over me like a piece cut from the darkness. Concern contorts his handsome features and slams into me.

  His hand presses against my wound, and blood soaks his palm and slips from between his fingers to drip to the ground. “The fuck, Zoe? Did you just sacrifice yourself for President Joe?”

  I clutch his arm and smile. “I did it for you.”

  He curses low again as he searches for something in his surroundings. “If I didn’t aim higher, you’d be fucking dead!”

  President Joe offers him a handkerchief. “Did you kill m
y guards?”

  “You’re lucky I’m not snapping your skull in two.” Shadow throws him a dark scowl but he accepts the handkerchief and does quick work of wrapping it around my upper arm. “I don’t even know what the fuck to do with you, Zoe.”

  “It’s only a graze.” And I mean it. The wound burns, but it doesn’t hurt as much.

  “Do you want to die?” He bites out. “Is that it?”

  “I didn’t want to do this, you arsehole.” I lean into him. Even though President Joe is beside us. His guard remains on standby as if waiting for an order from his boss.

  “Then why did you do that?” Shadow’s eyes bore into mine with a mixture of rage and fear. It’s so confusing but also so soothing. Perhaps it’s because he takes so much after Dad and Dad had always been the calm in the storm.

  “Fuck, Zoe.” His fingers are coated with blood as he continues fixing the napkin. “Even if the bastard is your grandfather, he was hurting you.”

  “He wasn’t hurting me, and he isn’t my grandfather.” My nails sink in the tiger tattoos as I gather the courage to say the words. “He’s yours.”

  Shadow doesn’t stop wrapping the handkerchief. “Are you lightheaded already to start spouting nonsense?”

  “That necklace Nonna found on you and you gave it to me is a necklace President Joe had specifically made for his grandson.” I go on and tell him the story President Joe told me and what I know.

  The whole time, Shadow listens with a solemn face. He’s still putting pressure on my arm even though it’s not bleeding anymore, and the burn is a mere nuisance.

  President Joe stands beside us with the necklace dangling from his fingers, hearing us word for word. The more I state facts about his grandson being alive, the more he watches Shadow with a stupefied expression as if he’s seeing a ghost. Which is true, more or less.

  It’s been thirty-five years. I can’t begin to imagine what he’s thinking.

  I palm Shadow’s cheek and finish with the most important words I wanted to tell him. “You haven’t been abandoned. You were never rubbish for your family. Your mum died from missing you and your dad… was the best dad anyone can ask for. He sacrificed his life for me when I wasn’t even his real daughter. You should be proud of them.”