Chapter Twenty-Six
Idris
She’s been quiet since she wrote the message. I clean her hands in the car, and then she stares out of the window as I pull into a parking lot and check over who’s left. I shoot a message to Spider as well to make sure the police reports on Lola get leaked and that the images stay up online. It’s important to Alena. I can see it. I can see she wants everyone to know.
She wants those who were hurt to know justice was done.
She wants those who did the hurting to know we’re coming for them.
She wants it to mean something, for them to pay and suffer like women like her did. My little bitch has a soft heart under all that bloodlust and scars. She wants justice, but instead of trusting those meant to protect her, she’s now getting it herself.
Like a true fucking warrior.
“We are going after the guards now, lowlies. We’ll kill them and then Nikolic,” I vow.
“We finish it,” she murmurs and looks over at me. “Make them all pay. I want them all dead so this city is safe once again. We have to.”
“We will,” I promise as I cup the back of her neck and lean in, pressing my forehead to hers. As I stare into those determined eyes, my heart does a flip, the cold, dead organ beating for her. It’s the only time it ever beats faster. It doesn’t even increase its rhythm when I’m killing or almost dying.
Only for her.
“I won’t kill you, she was wrong,” I find myself telling her, searching those golden orbs.
“No?” she whispers.
“No. You’re the only thing in this world I fear,” I admit, and she blinks in confusion. “I don’t fear death. I don’t fear pain. I don’t even fear everything that comes between that and this. All I fear is you. Letting you close or walking away from you. Alena, Bitch, you reminded me why I do this. For them, for the faceless innocents who suffer in this vile world. I took this job to protect them, to save them, and along the way, that got lost. Tonight, you reminded me why, and now… I fear you. You have the potential to be the only one who gets close to the monster everyone fears. If you betray me, if you die, if you walk away, I’ll become the monster they all fear again, maybe even worse.”
“That won’t happen,” she whispers, her eyes filling with tears. “But I’m nobody, just a nobody.”
“You’re not a nobody to me. You’re everything.” I swallow, the words are hard. I don’t let people close, but she burrowed her way into my black heart during our path of vengeance. Her strength, her mind, her conviction, and ability to walk in the dark with me is slowly becoming everything I didn’t know I needed nor wanted. I expected her to be weak, to break, but she surprises me at every turn.
And because of that, she wormed her way into my very fucking soul. The thing I didn’t think I had anymore. What happens when this is over? I don’t know, but I fear her because…
Fuck, because I care.
We stare at each other, neither of us knowing what to say or do until my phone vibrates, alerting me to police approaching the restaurant. We both turn and watch them pull up with their sirens blaring.
“I fear you too,” she confesses without looking at me. “I fear how important you have become to me. I don’t want to depend on anyone. Down in that hell hole, I found myself, found that I need no one.” She looks at me. “But I want you.”
What else is there to say?
We both know this thing we have going has a time limit. It cannot last. An assassin can’t… love. Trust. Have a weakness. And she needs to heal and find a place to feel safe again.
I can’t be that.
Or can I?
* * *
We don’t speak muchafter that, instead refocusing on our mission. The streets of the city run red with the deaths we execute together. We move quickly through the list as night seeps in, the streets busy as the city comes alive, but tonight, it’s filled with hesitation. Even strangers on the streets feel the anticipation of violence in the air.
The next one we hit leads us to the stables on the edge of the park. The horses are all in their stalls, apart from four that are tethered up and ready to be taken out. There are a few workers milling around, but I flash my gun and jerk my head, clearing them out. They get the hint and run, leaving us alone with the man we are here for.
He’s in a stall at the back, wearing a shirt and tight jeans with AirPods in his ears. He’s clearly here to ride his horse or check on it. Idiot doesn’t even hear us coming, too busy jamming out to… yep, Vengaboys.
Fucking hell, this one needs to be fast.
I open the stall, and the horse huffs at me and turns. It alerts the man, and as he spins around, I go to grab him, but Alena is there. She takes a rake and knocks him the fuck out with it. I turn to her, blinking as she shrugs innocently. He’s passed out on the floor, nose bleeding. Reaching down, I grab his legs and drag him from the stall as Alena coos at the horse.