I position my bag underneath my chest and adjust the scope. In the sight, the target area comes into focus, exactly .59 miles away from me now, due east. It’s a long shot, but doable. Totally fucking doable. For her? Anything.
On the far end of the parking lot are three big piles of gravel. A dump truck rumbles into the lot, sending up dust, screwing with my line of sight. Rominovski’s business front is hauling and materials; as shady as they fucking come.
The dust settles and right between the crosshairs, I see it. That black fucking Mercedes, double-parked on the far end of the lot.
My body knows what to do automatically now. So I slow my breathing. Calm my nerves. Focus my vision.
And wait.
* * *
It’ssundown and the sun is at my back now. I haven’t moved in hours, but I’m still just as laser focused as when I got here. Even more now, because now it’s closing time. And Rominovski’s time is officially up.
A secretary leaves, then a couple of guys in hard hats, then some fucking slick-ass guy who looks like he was born to cook the books.
And then, it’s only the black Mercedes left in the lot.
Tick-tock. Tick-fucking-tock.
The door swings open and out he comes. Shiny gray shirt, sweat stains under his armpits. In the scope, I watch him pull a gold lighter from his pocket.
I shift my finger from the trigger, straightening it out, keeping it loose, and then carefully put it back in place.
Between the crosshairs I watch his fucking face. The man who killed my parents.
The man who made my sister live in fear.
He lights his cigarette, and takes a long unhurried drag. Then raises his face to the sky to exhale. Long, and slow, and unworried.
“You motherfucker,” I whisper. And then I tighten my trigger finger.
For Kat.
Boom.
CHAPTER23
Trent
Itook a fucking life and now the only thing I want to do is make a new one. With her.
I come back on foot, going slow, making sure I’m in the clear. I get home long after dark, after I know she’ll be asleep. I purposefully stayed away for a few hours, letting my system quiet down, making sure as fuck that nobody knew where that bullet came from.
But nobody did a thing. And I take pride in that, as I open the front door, knowing Rominovski’s dead on the ground, like the piece of shit that he was.
I lock the door behind me, lock up my rifle in the gun closet, and then quietly make my way upstairs to Kat.
She stirs when I open the door. “Is that you?” she mutters on a yawn.
I’m unbuttoning my pants before she’s even got her eyes open. “It’s me, baby girl. It’s over.”
I hear her swallow in the darkness. “Really?” she reaches out to embrace me.
Pants off, shirt off, and I take her in my arms. Home. Safety. Where I belong. “Really.”
I kiss her deeply, possessively. She tastes like fucking heaven itself. I hold her tight in my arms and roll over onto my back so she’s straddling my aching cock in her little white panties and her long-sleeved pajama top. Fuck me. I have no idea how someone can be so fucking cute and so fucking hot at the same time.
“We need to talk,” I tell her, and see her stiffen.