Chapter 34 Cian
CIAN
Exchanging pleasantries with Hawk is sickening, but it’s the only play I have left.
I did everything I could to make sure my shot didn’t kill Faina.
Did she make it?
Or did I just send her to a watery grave?
Unable to tell, I shift focus. Hawk is still my target, and getting him to lower his guard will make it easier for me to drive a steak knife through his lying throat.
“How long, exactly, have you been trying to get into the States?” I ask as we lazily walk around the top deck.
Hawk shrugs. “Decades.”
“But you had contact with my father when he was Captain?”
“Oh, absolutely.” Hawk lies through his teeth. “A great man. You know, it was respect for his dealings that stopped me from going after him in Ireland. I’d tell you to ask him for stories about me, but you know.” The smile he gives me is sickening. “Shame to see such a great man in that condition.”
I barely restrain myself and instead nod. “It was tough. I always felt like he was on my side. And no one else bothered to visit him as much as I did.” Another lie, but playing into Hawk’s view of the world might be my only option. “So, when are we heading back to the States?”
“We’ll dock in the morning and I’ll fly you over,” Hawk replies, digging a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket.
“As soon as you land, I’ll have some of my people meet you there and we can start rebuilding from the ground up.
You’ll need to be vocal about our partnership, you understand.
But it will work for both of us because anyone who looks at you as weak will see that you have my backing and you’re not in any way easy to pick off. ”
He really has thought all of this out. “It will take some time to rebuild trust. I’ve been gone a long time.”
“Don’t worry.” Hawk smirks as he lights up his cigarette. “I’ve been keeping New York busy in my absence.” He offers me a smoke and I instantly decline.
“I’m still struggling to understand what you get out of this.” Slowly, I increase my distance from him. “Why not just kill me and take over?”
“Because,” Hawk snaps. “No one will listen to me. My reputation was destroyed the second I—” Cutting himself off, he sighs deeply.
“Look. Your name carries a lot of weight and with you on my side, I can do a lot of great things. But I need you beside me to do it until people understand that I’m not to be messed with.
When you’ve destroyed something people hold dear, then that stains.
And frankly, I had no idea your family was so adored. ”
For someone intent on taking over New York, he really didn’t do his research. “We’ve always taken care of the little guy,” I remark. “Buys a lot of good will.”
“Bit hypocritical, though,” Hawk remarks. “Helping them in one breath and flooding the streets with drugs the next.”
“It’s good business.” The last thing I need is a morality lesson from this asshole.
“Whatever. It’s just something I need. Don’t you have that craving? The urge to be known for something great?”
“What will you be known for?” We reach the end of the deck overlooking a sparkling swimming pool down below.
“I control the world. I’ve been everywhere, seen everything.
I’ve sold weapons that have started wars, given princesses away, tipped the economy in countries into ruin.
And now, finally, Hexagon will enter the States and settle down and when people ask me what motivated me?
” He turns to face me and spreads his arms wide.
“I’ll tell them I did it just because I could. ”
That’s it?
Just because he could? The ego on this guy is fucking sky high. I glance down at the gun on his hip, quietly debating how successful I would be in stealing it from him and killing him.
“Actually, we should be setting off any time—”
The yacht lurches suddenly and vibrations tremor through the floor. Hawk shoots me a tight smile and pulls a radio from his pocket. “Sorry about that,” he says as he clicks the radio on. “Hector, what the hell is going on down there?”
Silence.
“Hector!”
More silence.
My heart begins to pound.
Is it Faina? Or something else entirely? The radio crackles and a male voice tries to speak, but other than a few sounds and gasps, I catch on to nothing. Slowly, I step toward Hawk and keep his gun in my peripheral vision.
“Hector, you’re making me look like a fool and I—” He abruptly stops talking and very slowly lifts his head, gazing out into the pitch-black ocean. Then he snatches his gun from his hip and whips around to face me, aiming it at my chest.
“Cian.”
“What the fuck?” Raising both hands, I step back. “Is this really how you want to start this fucking partnership?”
“I knew I shouldn’t have—”
CLANG!
With a wide swipe, Faina suddenly leaps over the railing behind Hawk and smacks him clean over the head with a fire extinguisher.
He crumples to the ground like a sack of bricks while she stands over him, panting.
Blood stains her shoulder and neck, her hair is soaked and hanging in straggles around her face, and she’s magnificent.
“Faina?” She’s alive. Oh my God, she’s alive! “Faina!” Rushing toward her, we meet halfway and clash instantly. Her hands cup my face and she kisses me repeatedly, breathless.
“I’m okay,” she gasps. “I’m okay! I can’t believe you fucking shot me but I’m okay!”
“I’m so sorry, I’m so—watch out!” Our reunion is cut short by Hawk surging up from the floor with blood steadily pouring down from his hairline.
He raises his arm and points his gun at Faina, so I shove her away from me as hard as I can while stumbling backward just enough to miss the bullet as Hawk opens fire.
He follows Faina with his weapon raised, so I scramble upward and throw myself forward, grabbing his wrist and jerking it up and away. At the same time, I throw my knee upward. It collides with his chest and he grunts, then together, we fall backward.
“You motherfucker, I should have known!” Hawk yells as we grapple for control of the gun. “I knew a weakling like you couldn’t be trusted. You only survived because you’re a fucking roach!”
His fist collides with my jaw and pain explodes through my face and neck as my head snaps back.
It’s fleeting because anger consumes me along with the determination to protect Faina.
Grabbing his hair with one hand, I wrench his head back, hoping the blow from the fire extinguisher continues to disorientate him while digging my fingertips hard into his wrist. He yells at me in rage, then his knee collides with my crotch and I see stars.
My vision blurs and my grasp on him slips long enough for Hawk to free himself. He scrambles back to his feet, lifts his gun, and aims at Faina a few feet away.
“Fucking bit—”
His words are consumed by an almighty boom that rises from inside the yacht, followed by an incredible explosion that rips through the entire yacht and sends a gigantic ball of fire shooting straight up into the sky.
We’re all thrown backward, hitting the deck hard as metal, wood, and more all cascade down around us like timber rain.
The fire stretches its claws high into the sky, bringing plumes of smoke with it, and then the deck starts to dip.
Toppled over chairs and loose items from the dining table start to clatter and slide down toward the cavernous hole that’s feeding the fire, and my heart lurches.
“No!”
Faina’s scream brings me back to the present and I scramble up.
Hawk and Faina are locked in a brawl where Hawk’s doing everything he can to try and impale Faina with a knife he snatched up from somewhere.
Shit, where’s his gun?
It must have slipped from his hand in the explosion and he lost it.
I scramble up, scanning around until I spot it slowly sliding across the upper deck toward the inferno.
Sprinting toward it, I throw myself forward and catch it before it slides too far, then I’m back on my feet with a twinge of pain in my leg.
Faina backhands Hawk and he stumbles away from her.
He lunges forward, but I’m right there with him, tripping him up and spinning, then kicking him hard in the chest. He flies backward with a ferocious yell.
I brace down and shove off with my left leg and despite the pain, I don’t waver.
My fist slams into his face and he falls down flat, then I raise the gun and point it at his face.
“I’m a Gifford through and through, you son of a bitch. That’s the one thing you forgot about. Being on top isn’t about how many people you kill or the money you make. It’s the fucking loyalty you instill in people. Something you forgot.”
Pulling the trigger and killing Hawk is the most satisfying thing I have ever done, and the bang rings in my ears for a few seconds as I stare down at his motionless body with blood leaking from the bullet hole between his eyes.
But there’s no time to savor the moment, no time to enjoy that the monster is dead because the sinking yacht begins to tip precariously and I’m about to slide down the deck until Faina grabs my hand.
“Come on,” she yells, and yet I’m so relieved to hear her voice that it sounds like she’s whispering softly in my ear. “We have to go!”
Go means abandon ship.
We run across the deck away from Hawk’s corpse as it slowly slides toward the raging inferno in the middle of the yacht and down a set of stairs. Faina’s grip on my wrist is unwavering just like my trust in her to lead me wherever she thinks is safe.
Luckily, she seems to have a plan in mind and we don’t stop running until we reach the lower deck where a small outcrop leads to a set of smaller speedboats.
“Holy shit,” I grunt as she leaps over the gap and lands in the speedboat. “Do you know how to drive one of these things?”
“I’m about to learn,” she calls. “Get in!”
I’m less graceful entering the speedboat, and just in time too because the second we dismount from the yacht and land in the water, another explosion rips through the yacht.
Distant screams reach my ears over the loud creaking of metal and crackle of flames, but none of it is enough to make me care.
Faina jerks the speedboat into gear and we lurch forward, causing me to collapse down into the seat as she starts again and we race away from the inferno.
I stay seated, staring out at the departing yacht which is now completely ablaze. It cuts across the horizon like an orange scar and every so often, small explosions light up like popping popcorn across the waterline.
Coldness envelops me and a sudden deep boned exhaustion rises, making my eyelids heavy.
Hawk is dead.
The snake that started it all.
The arrogant fucker who destroyed my family because his ego couldn’t handle that we were better than him in every way that counted and mattered.
He’s dead.
I hope Cormac’s proud of me.
Faina suddenly appears in front of me, standing between my spread knees with her hand on her hip.
“Who’s driving?” I ask.
“Autopilot,” she says. “It’ll take us back to shore.”
“Shit… I’m so sorry.”
“What for?” She sinks into my lap and is the most welcome warmth I’ve ever felt in my life.
“Planning all of that on a whim and praying you’d trust me. The things I said were horrible. I just knew out of the two of us, you’d be able to do something while I kept him busy. Brains and brawn y’know?”
“I know.” She sits across my lap and loops one arm around my neck, cradling my face with her other hand. “You’re lucky I can swim.”
“Shit, I didn’t even think—”
“Shush.” She lightly kisses my lips. “Don’t worry about it. I trusted you. You said what you had to say.”
“I didn’t mean any of it.”
“Promise?”
My arms tighten around her waist. “Promise. Although…” Peering past her, my attention returns to the burning, sinking yacht. “How did you manage that?”
“Rocky. I found a satellite phone and called him. Turns out he’s pretty adept at explosions. I don’t fully understand it, but he explained it was the equivalent of blocking all the important parts of a car and running it at high speed until it explodes.”
“Shit.”
“Yes.”
“I…” Closing my eyes, I press my face into her neck. “He’s dead.”
“Bastard.”
“He’s really dead.”
“Yes.”
“I can’t believe it.”
“I know. We did it. I’m so proud of you.”
Opening my eyes, I lean back and slide both my hands up to cradle her face. “I’m proud of us. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Faina murmurs just as I capture her lips with mine.
It’s the perfect kiss under moonlight with fire blazing in the background and the quiet kiss of waves against the speedboat. It feels like a moment I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.
A life about to be cut short because the moment we collide with the beach, lights and assault rifles surround us and Richard Whittle is standing nearby with a shit-eating, smug grin on his punchable face.