3. Cash
CASH
I took a steadying breath and lined up my target. The wind kicked up just a little and I adjusted one click, checking the anemometer again. The target was perfectly in my sights. All I had to do was pull the trigger.
But I hesitated.
And the many other jobs that would come my way.
“What are you waiting for?” the voice crackled in my ear, reminding me I was under constant supervision.
I chuckled under my breath. If I slid my rifle ninety degrees, I could take out the fucker on the other end of my comms without him ever knowing there was a bullet with his name on it. Leaving the military didn’t do shit to rid me of my training.
I would always be a Hunter of Gunmen.
With my eyes on the target and my rifle at the ready, I took one last breath, fingered the trigger, and gave a light squeeze. “Target down.”
“Good. Get your ass back to the rally point.”
“Copy that.”
I quickly tucked Sally into the rifle case, then slung it over my shoulder to get to the rally point.
The jarhead who was watching me never really took his eyes off me.
Like me, he still relied on his training in both day-to-day operations and at times like this.
It didn’t matter that he’d left the Marines over twenty years ago.
Some things never truly left your bones.
Slipping through the darkness, I made my way across town to the vehicle that waited for me, tucking Sally into the back for safekeeping. I wouldn’t feel right about anything until she was back in the safety of my house under lock and key.
My house.
That was a unique way of saying , the old house where I rested my head. I hadn’t truly had a home since I walked out of OPS and left everyone, my wife and kids included, behind. This life on the road wasn’t really a life at all, but it served a greater purpose.
I pulled into the shipyard and killed the engine, but left the lights on. Hound was waiting for me already, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he paced in agitation. The man never truly settled down, and that was surprising considering the shit we had to deal with.
“What the fuck took you so long?” he snapped as I slammed the truck door.
At just under six feet, the man was more wiry than anything, but he had a bite to him that earned him his nickname Hound, along with the fact that he could sniff out a problem faster than anyone I knew.
Not that he had caught onto me yet, but I had a feeling he was growing suspicious because of the hesitation when I was about to take out my target.
“I did the job,” I replied, not showing even an ounce of uncertainty.
“You hesitated. I fucking saw you,” he snapped.
“What you saw was me checking the wind gauge a final time,” I said calmly. “The wind picked up?—”
“Yeah, I fucking saw you adjust—” He was always watching.
“And I had to be sure it wasn’t a gust of wind,” I cut him off. “I don’t pull the trigger until I’m sure I have a clean shot. If I was off even a little and he only ended up in the hospital instead of the morgue, we’d have one hell of a problem on our hands.”
Yet, he still didn’t fully believe me, that much was clear by the scowl on his face. He’d been retired from the Marines for well over twenty years, but that keen instinct hadn’t faded even a little.
“You should have taken the shot.”
“The job was done properly. This is why you wanted me on your side,” I reminded him. “I never explain myself and I never fucking pull the trigger until I’m ready. Get that through your fucking head right now.”
His nostrils flared in anger, but he backed off, finally accepting that the job was over and there was nothing more to say about it. “We need to head to Toronto.”
“New job?”
He shook his head. “A meeting has been called.”
We rarely met with anyone else. It was one of the rules of the organization that no more than five to ten members could meet at any given time.
There were Shadow agents all over the fucking world—an elite group of men who pulled the strings and manipulated the markets to keep a stable economy all over the world.
When things started going south, that’s when the Shadow Government stepped in, removing leaders and eliminating the waste.
There wasn’t a single country around the globe that wasn’t affected by the organization. But that didn’t mean we were doing the right thing. It became clear to me, the more time I spent with these men, that what they felt was right and what was actually right were two different things.
The Syndicate, for instance, was a terrible organization that should have been dismantled long ago. But because of the billions of dollars The Syndicate moved around the globe, they were a necessary evil.
For these men.
It didn’t matter that the drugs produced and sold were killing millions, or that women and children were being snatched off the streets and sold. No, the Shadow Government felt these were all essential parts of society to keep the world spinning.
And that was something I couldn’t live with. However, taking them down was not as simple as one would hope for. Taking out the men of the Shadow Government was all that was required, but since they never met all at one time, it was impossible to figure out who was involved.
If I started taking them out one by one, all I would do is draw attention to the fact that I was a mole, a traitor planted in their midst to dismantle them and tear down the organization they all loved so much.
To tear them down, I needed intel. I needed someone who could aid me, and that man was my father.
I hadn’t seen him in well over a year, but we knew that would happen. It wasn’t like he could bring his son into the fold and then keep him by his side the whole fucking time. That wouldn’t instill much confidence in my abilities, nor would it prevent the one thing we needed to avoid.
Suspicion.
“Who called it?” I asked, wondering who would show up this time.
“Miles. We leave first thing in the morning.”
I nodded and headed back to my truck.
“Aren’t you interested in what the meeting is about?” he called out.
“I’m sure you’ll tell me in the morning.”
“Seven o’clock,” he said right before I slammed the door.
I raised my hand slightly, showing him I understood, then cranked the engine and headed home.
It wasn’t often I was able to sleep in my own bed at night, but this job had been only forty-five minutes from where I laid my head.
While it was better than a hotel, it didn’t give me the comfort I craved.
The moment I walked through the door, I closed my eyes, leaning back against the door with a sigh, pressing my hand to my chest. Fuck, I missed them. Each day that passed was getting harder and harder to deal with.
I missed my kids. I missed their smiles and laughter.
But I fucking craved my wife. I was desperate to feel her in my arms and my cock sliding into her sweet pussy.
I couldn’t even remember how long it had been since the last time I saw her.
Time didn’t seem to exist when I wasn’t with her.
I was just caught in an endless loop of fear for her life and our kids.
“You didn’t even fucking check the shadows,” the familiar voice called out.
Opening my eyes, a faint smile twisted my lips and I pushed off the door. At least I still had him. Barely.
“What are you doing here? Are you trying to get spotted?”
Knight snorted from where he sat at the table. “They won’t catch me. None of them are smart enough.”
I hesitated to remind him that they were, in fact, smart enough. That’s why we were having such a hard fucking time taking them out. Walking over to the table, I laid Sally across it and pulled out my own chair.
I could feel his dark gaze on me, checking up to make sure I was okay. Knight wasn’t on board with this plan, but he knew it had to happen if any of us wanted to survive. It was the only fucking way.
“Another kill?”
I nodded. “A businessman.”
“Anyone of importance?”
I shook my head. “Just another test.” They were all bad men. I wasn’t blind to the fact that they were testing me with targets that really weren’t of any use to them. But I pretended I was perfectly happy to do my part.
“If they don’t let you in soon, we’re fucked,” he reminded me.
My eyes finally met his, but I looked away quickly, still unable to look him in the eye after what I had done.
“You know what will happen if we do this,” Shadow snapped. “You know what they’ll ask of you.”
I looked at Knight, well aware that in order to end this, I had to join the Shadow Government.
And the only way to do that was to prove my loyalty to them.
They’d been watching for some time. They would know about my connection to Knight.
If he wasn’t so goddamn righteous, they might have recruited him.
But as it was, he’d already proven that while he was willing to take anyone out who threatened his family, he also didn’t tolerate anyone who killed good men and women.
They couldn’t bend and mold Knight. He might seem like a man on the brink, but he had a strong moral compass that couldn’t be adjusted for anyone. As for me…Well, I used to be able to say that. Then my brother was burned at the stake and I was forced to pull the trigger.
My actions since that day had inadvertently sent the right message to them.
They needed to know I had what it took to do the hard jobs.
And while I got retribution for Rafe’s death, I hadn’t cut the head off the snake.
So, I did what I had to. I pushed my family away, knowing it was the only way to keep them safe.
I twisted myself into a man I no longer recognized in order to finish the job.
And it worked.
Sort of.
“We need to do it,” Knight said. “It’s the only way.”
“No,” I said immediately, unwilling to go that far. I couldn’t.
“It’s a risk we have to take,” Shadow said. “If you want this to end, this is the only way.”