“And people think I’m weird. That is just a little more weird.”
Whatever Boss wanted to say to him, he’d handle it.
He’d been handling everything all of his life. There hadn’t been anything worth fighting for then, but with Lori, she was worth everything.
“You’re really ready to take on Killer of Kings?” Chains asked El Diablo, changing the conversation. She didn’t need to know that when they met Boss, it could end really badly for him. Their outcome depended on Boss’s mood.
“May as well now that he has me by the balls. Pay sounds better, and there’s a lot more benefits.”
“The work is harder, more challenging. Boss demands total loyalty,” Chains said. “Whatever you wanted to be before, or whoever you were taking targets for, they will cease to matter.”
“The world is full of bad men. It’ll be interesting to see what you guys do. You all keep going back to him, so he must have golden balls or something,” El Diablo said.
Chains chuckled, and rested his head back. When he met Boss, he’d been a shell. His skills rivaled all, but he’d been dead inside. There hadn’t been much there until Boss brought him back, and gave him focus, and a reason to kill.
Now that he had Lori in his arms, everything seemed complete to him.
“I wouldn’t have hurt her,” Bain said, speaking up.
“What?”
“Lori, I wouldn’t have hurt her. Boss gave me a few simple instructions, but none of them were to kill her. As a matter of fact, he wanted me there to protect her from those hitmen. He’s not as bad as you think.”
“You told me you were going to torch my house, and to start breaking bones.”
“I told you what I’d been told to say. Boss said that I was to take her to him, and that he’d deal with you there.”
Lori took hold of his hand, squeezing it tightly. He didn’t want to let her go, not now, not ever.
“Are we going to die?” Lori said.
“No, we’re not.”
Chains was more determined than ever before to make sure Boss listened to him. He’d been loyal to the man and to Killer of Kings. Every single job he’d been assigned, he’d completed. All of him, every part of him, had been all about the company. There’s no way he was going to give up the one thing that made him human.
Boss had helped to make him a man, a human killing machine.
Lori was the one who made him better; she made him feel.
El Diablo raised a brow when he looked at her.
“You can’t guarantee that shit.” He spoke in a way not to alert Lori.
Chains smirked.
These two men had been near his woman a handful of minutes and already they didn’t want to hurt her feelings or scare her. She had that aura that drew men, making them want to protect her.
It also helped that her own family had cast her aside.
Killer of Kings were men with dark pasts. Their histories were what nightmares were made of.
Lori had a past.
She’d been forgotten, and the men felt guilty for highlighting that.
The drive toward Boss took way too long. The sway of the car made him sleepy. It had been a long couple of days. All he wanted to do was curl up with Lori in his arms and go to sleep. There would be time for that soon enough. For now, he had to protect Lori with his very life.
****