“Why, Danny?”
He shrugged, moving his eyes away. The remorse on his face was visible, yet guilt wasn’t a factor in our lives, we learned to push it away the moment we took our first life.
“We all have debts, Tristan. Unfortunately, mine are bigger than most.”
“So this is all about money?”
Again, he shrugged but his shame deepened, his cheeks heating and colouring his usually pale face. “I owe some pretty hardcore people. Yeah, I can look after myself, but it’s really not worth the risk. Not when I can make some easy money and pay off a hefty chunk of it.” He sighed, and finally looked at me. “Look, it’s nothing personal, you know how it works.”
“Yeah.” I did know how it worked, and I knew because of Danny’s skill in knotting ropes that I wouldn’t get out alive. It saddened me that I wouldn’t get revenge for Sarah, yet I wasn’t scared of death. Far from it really. It was the only thing that had ever promised me peace, and, in a way, I welcomed it.
I watched when he pulled his gun out. He was blinking rapidly, regret making him bite into his lower lip.
“I’m so sorry, mate.”
Forcing the muzzle of the gun to my forehead I looked up at him. “I know.”
“I’ll make it quick,” he promised.
It didn’t really matter which way he made it, I was still going to die, but I did appreciate his compassion, our friendship at least granting me a swift exit.
Closing my eyes, I took a breath when the image of my beautiful sister smiled at me, her hand outstretched and ready to take me back. I was almost eager for it then. To hold Sarah and to have her back in my arms. The sound of her soft voice in my ear had me nearly begging for Danny to hurry up.
The sound of a gunshot made me jerk. Confusion forced my eyes open when no pain hit me, and Sarah’s face vanished.
My eyes widened on Danny, laid on the floor in front of me with blood oozing from a hole in the side of his head.
“You’re a fucking liability.”
I snapped my face to the side when Katie’s stern words registered in my muddled head. “What the fuck?”
“You owe me,” she grumbled as she slipped her knife through the ropes, releasing my arms. “Again.”
The instant relief to my wrists was nectar and I immediately started to rub at the numb flesh. “How the fuck did you know where I was?”
A crafty smile tilted her full lips and she chuckled. “Tommy, my doctor. When he fixed up the wound I’d hacked at.”
I frowned, not grasping what she was saying. However, when she held out her phone to me and a little red dot sat central on a small map, I understood. “You fitted me with a tracker!”
My shock made her laugh harder. “Ahh, trust is everything, Hope.”
One of her guys helped me up, his eyes roaming over the bruise on my head. “You feel okay, or do you need a medic?”
“I’m good.” I waved him off and narrowed my eyes on Katie. “I can’t believe you did that!”
“Oh, shut up, you grouchy twat. It saved your life, didn’t it?”
“That’s not the point!”
“Look,” she sighed. “I never go anywhere without my own tracker. It’s saved my life on many occasions. This job is risky enough. Without a little back-up, it’s downright fatal. Be grateful, it came in handy.”
“But...”
“Well, didn’t it?” she argued, a slight quirk of her eyebrow irritating me when I knew she had a point.
Ignoring her I just gave her a shake of my head and followed her men out. I left someone else to see to Danny. Not that I was sentimental, but the fact money came before loyalty left a sour taste in my mouth.
“You okay?” The concern in Katie’s voice surprised me, but I nodded.
“Yeah.”
“It’s hard, isn’t it. Knowing your life is so easily determined by a few noughts.”
“It’s not the money. I’ve known Danny for a long time. We did a few jobs together, I’ve even met his fucking kid.” The thought that his eight-year-old boy was now left without a father had my stomach twisting with nausea.
Katie, sensing my guilt, gently placed her hand on my arm and gave it a small squeeze. “It was you or him, Hope. I’m sorry, but I did what I had to.”
“I know.” I nodded quickly, giving her a reassuring smile. “I know. And I’ll make sure his family are well taken care of.”
She held my gaze for a moment too long, the softness in her eyes something that I rarely got to see. Her bright green eyes shimmered with a delicate kindness, and I knew not many ever got to behold the gentle side of her.
She stared into the distance as we made our way to her car. “You ever think about getting out, Hope?”
“Yes.” It was a simple answer, but a truthful one.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Glancing at her I could see the tiredness around her eyes, the way her shoulders sagged with exhaustion, and the pain of what this life brought her. “You should, you know.”
She turned to look at me, her lips twisted in thought. “Well one of us certainly will be soon.” The cold, ruthless bitch was back. Her reference to our pact after we ended Stillman, making her give me a chilling wink.
She strolled off ahead and I lowered my eyes to the swing of her fine arse. Damn. My cock roared to life and I gritted my teeth at the dull ache in my balls. I knew she’d be a feisty fuck, and that excited me even more. Her body was taut, and I just knew her cunt would be just as fucking tight. It was obvious the fight inside her would spill out into the bedroom, and that thought made my hard-on refuse to relent.
I was fucked. It was time to get this fucking obsession out of my system.
Ten
Katie
“And you’re absolutely sure?” I asked as a shiver worked its way through me. I hadn’t realised how long I had been laid in the bath daydreaming until Nola’s call had snapped me back to reality. Hooking the hot tap with my toe, appreciating the heat that poured into the cooling water, I smiled at the unexpected news.
“One hundred percent, boss.”
After getting a tip-off a week ago that Stillman could possibly be bunking down at his French villa I had sent Nola to check it out.
“Okay, make your way back.”
Nola ended the call and I instantly called Hope to give him the good news.
“Right, I’ll get a hotel booked nearby.” The elation in his voice was blatant and I couldn’t help but share his excitement.
“No need, my parents have a chateau near to where Stillman’s is. I have a set of keys.”
“Sounds good. We leave in the morning.”
I sat blinking at the phone when he abruptly ended our conversation. Fair enough I didn’t want a good old gossip, but a bit more of an exchange would have been nice. Except, when I felt the stab of disappointment in my chest, I chastised my thoughts. I was eager to end this so I could wreak the revenge I had promised Steed. That’s all it was.
“You need me to come out with you?”
I jolted and quickly brought my knees up to cover my chest when I heard Graham’s voice behind me.
“What the hell, Gray?”
He rolled his eyes as though I was overreacting to his sudden intrusion of my privacy. “Chill out, not like I haven’t seen it before.”
I glared at him when he plonked himself down onto the toilet and his gaze dropped to the swell of my breasts that were peeking out from the top of the mound of bubbles. “You haven’t seen it before!”
He shrugged. “Are you forgetting the time you got shitfaced and danced to that Whitney song in your underwear?”
“Yeah.” I grabbed the towel from where it hung over the sink and pulled it to me as I stepped out of the bath. “In my underwear, Gray! Not naked!”
He sat silent on the loo, his eyes roaming over every part of me that wasn’t covered by the towel. He seemed lost, as if he wasn’t the Graham I knew, and I sighed. “I know you miss him as much as the rest of us, Gra
y, but really…”
My back slammed against the shower screen and I choked out a gasp when his fingers curled around my throat. His eyes were fierce, blazing with a bitterness I had never seen in him before. The hold he had on me was far from slack, causing the breath in my lungs to swirl angrily with no escape. The strain on my voice box halted the expletive and the warning I tried to spit out, so I put every bit of my threat into my glare.
“You think this is about Mark?” The vehemence he spat at me caused me to blink. If he wasn’t my friend and I didn’t know how much he was hurting he would have already been knocked out from over me, but I let him have his say and allowed him to deal with his grief in the only way he could. But his next words changed my mind, the surprise causing my hand to snatch the back of his neck and flip us both over. “This is about us, boss, and your inability to take revenge for your fucking husband!”
He stared up at me, not at all shocked by how quickly I had altered our previous position. Hatred flowed through my veins and the edges of my vision faded white. I was struggling to hold it back, the very thing my father had passed onto me through his bloodline, the cold, cruel wrath that was both a blessing and a hindrance.
“Be very careful, Gray.”
He scoffed, shaking his head when I loosened my grip on his throat. “Why? It’s not like you’re up to much lately. I used to envy you, Katie, the way you could handle anything. Your fight was extraordinary, the level of violence that ran in your veins was untouchable. I want that, that capability to destroy and not feel a damn thing…”
“You think I don’t feel? Is that what you really think?”
Shaking his head, he moved out from under me when I shifted aside. “The man that killed your husband has been holding your fucking hand! Stillman killed Mark! Before, you’d be in there, guns blazing with nothing but revenge burning in your heart. And now… now…” He sighed and stood up, staring down at me with the previous fight long gone and now replaced by a sadness that was so much worse. “It’s gone, Katie. Admit that, if you won’t accept any other thing. If you’re not on form, then you risk every one of your team… As Mark found out…”
The pain that seared through my gut hurt me more than it should have, because he was right. I had been too focussed on Hope, willing to put my friends at risk just for some sick fantasy that forgiveness could grant me retribution. I’d sank so low that I had lost my best friend in exchange for the life of a man that deserved nothing but pain and death.
I couldn’t speak through the lump in my throat, so I nodded, shame swallowing all the anger that had devoured me not moments ago.
Graham stepped towards me and I jolted when his cool hand touched the warm wetness of my skin. “If you’re not up to this anymore, then you need to step down. We’re your team, and we’re behind you, but I won’t allow you to jeopardise anymore of my friends’ lives.”
My eyes widened when anger trickled back into the calm that had descended within me not seconds before. “You seriously think I’d ever put their lives at risk on purpose?”
“No,” he answered straightaway, and with honesty. “But that doesn’t mean to say you won’t. I’m not saying this to be a dick, Katie, I’m saying it because I care about the others, and you.” Sighing with defeat, he gently placed his hand on my arm. “You’ve been through too much, I’m not surprised you’re struggling to function…”
“You know what, Gray?” The previous anger spilled over into rage and I shook him off as I attempted to control the storm that was brewing in my chest. “Take it! Take it fucking all.”
He stepped back, his eyes fixed in horror on mine. “Katie?”
“I was struggling with who to hand it all to. But I’ve never struggled to do what is right. But, you’re right. I don’t want it anymore. I don’t want this shit. It’s yours, lock, stock and fucking barrel, Gray. This life has taken everything from me, and I’m not willing to hand it anything else. I’m done!”
The bathroom door slammed behind me, deafening Graham’s stuttered reply and catching the corner of the towel in it, leaving me storming across the hallway exposed and defeated. But I didn’t care. I really didn’t give a shit. The words that had spilled from me weren’t said on a whim, they were true, felt so very deep down inside me. This life had taken everything, and now, stripped naked, it was time to start again.
Life had finally defeated Katie Fox. It was time to allow Katie Steed to reign. The last of the Foxs bowed down to give precedence to the one remaining Steed.
It was only Katie Steed who could, and would, grant peace to her dead husband. And her father.
And so be it.
A small smile prayed on my lips, the cold, cruel smile that I had missed so very much. Steed’s death had taken that away, and it would only be revenge that would give it life once more.
The ache in my chest at what I was going to have to do was pushed aside for the bitter wrath that slithered, icy and dangerous, into my bones. My heart hardened, my blood solidified, and my mouth watered. Carnage, bloody and violent, would be fucking euphoric.
And may Hope feel every bit of my brutality.
It was time to finish it. All of it. Even myself.
Eleven
Tristan
“Nice place.”
Katie smiled at me before dropping her bags by the kitchen door and began to pull dust sheets from various mounds of hidden furniture. “Yeah, it’s been in the family for a good few years. It was special to my parents. The beach down the side was where my dad asked Mum to marry him.”
Nodding, I ventured into the cosy kitchen and found the kettle. The room was small but adequate for two people, the appliances up-to-date but in taste with the traditional features of the simple but beautiful chateau.
Opening the blinds and pushing open a window, the subtle scent of orchids filtered into the room, immediately freshening the place and giving it a homelier feel. Sunlight streamed in, breaking the dull light as it reflected off the glossy cream unit doors.
“I’ll take the bedroom on the left, there’s two left for you to choose from,” Katie shouted as I poured hot water into two cups.
“Oh.” I sighed heavily, walking into the room and passing her a mug of coffee. “I thought we could share. You know, keep warm and all that.”
She quirked an eyebrow and glared at me but I didn’t miss the flash of heat that altered the deep green of her eyes into a bright jade tone. “Sure.” Her agreement surprised me, until she added, “smothering you in your sleep is so much easier than a fight.”
Rolling my eyes but grinning, I snatched up my bag and went in search of a bathroom to freshen up.
I was amazed the water was good and hot but I gathered the system would be as modern as the fitted furnishings. The Foxs had done an excellent job of renovating the place. Often, people took the original features and demolished them, turning a beautiful piece of history into a tangled mockery of contemporary facets.
The bedroom I chose was just as perfect, a mix of customary beams and characteristics teamed with quality but subtle soft furnishings.
I could hear Katie moving about and then talking softly on the phone. Glad of the paper-thin walls, I tilted my head and listened to her conversation. It was obvious it was a friend from the soft tone of her voice and nothing she said concerned me, but when I heard Stillman’s name crop up, I opened the door.
“I’ve got it. And you say he is there tonight?”
“Okay, can you make me a reservation at the same bistro?”
“Yep, for two. Keep the system running in case I need you.”
I stood, leaning against the doorframe, when she walked out of her room onto the landing. She didn’t seem surprised to find me eavesdropping and I grinned widely at her, showing no shame at my lack of interest in her privacy.
“Dinner date, huh?”
Sighing, she shook her head. “Nah, more a case of Hors d'oeuvres before the main meal.”
“And the main meal being a night of hot
, hard fucking?” I could hope.
She snorted. “Depends if the waitress flirts with you.”
“You know it’s coming, sweetheart.”
Nodding, she jumped down the stairs and I followed. “You might be if she’s a hot shag.”
The way she twisted everything I said, and how she had a smart answer for everything, had me both amused and excited. Her feistiness would be a definite in the bedroom, it came naturally to her. And that thought only made my dick harder.
She gasped when I suddenly trapped her against the wall. She didn’t struggle but her chest heaved when I pushed my thick cock into the swell of her fine arse. “Why are you fighting this? It will be the last shag one of us has before we have to flirt with angels instead of the opposite sex. At least let’s have a bit of fun.”
Her eyes hooded over, her arousal evident. Yet, still she fought the connection we had. The way her teeth sank into her bottom lip and the faint but noticeable way she leaned back against me made me trap her harder.
Her breathing quickened when I brought my mouth to her ear. “You know how fucking good we’ll be together, Katie. How fucking high I’ll drive you. How fucking deep inside you I’ll bury my cock, and how the mix of your blood and my cum will give you the most intense orgasm you’ve ever had.”
Her heavy eyelids slid closed and the softest of moans escaped her. She didn’t try to push me away when I gently bit the lobe of her ear, another slightly louder groan making me bite down harder.
“Tell me how wet you are right now.”
Unsure whether she would answer my demand, I bit my tongue to hold my patience when it seemed she wasn’t going to give in. Except, when her whispered reply came, I couldn’t hold back the groan of excitement that was bubbling in my chest. “My knickers are soaked.”
A shudder ripped through me and I swallowed back another moan when she pushed her palms to the wall and rubbed her backside into my erection. “And how hot is your cunt for me, Katie?”
This time she answered me straightaway. “It’s burning for you.”
Nemesis: Katie's story (Heart of Stone Book 15) Page 6
