72. Wynn
WYNN
Ciel and I walked into the train station side by side. Wearing dark hoodies, backpacks, and sunglasses, we looked like any other traveler. My eyes scanned the room until they locked onto our target. I nudged Ciel. He followed my gaze, and the two of us slowly made our way over.
In the front pocket of my hoodie, my hand clenched around my pistol. The crowd ebbed and flowed as usual, but our man stared up at the schedule board, ticket clenched in his trembling hands. Ciel and I stepped up behind him, one of us on each side.
I clicked my tongue against my teeth. “Sean Porter.”
The man whipped around, eyes wide. “Wha—” he stuttered before I pressed the barrel of my gun against his back.
“Don’t move.”
He froze.
“Not a sound,” Ciel warned from his other side. He jerked his head to the right. “Come with us.”
I herded him with my gun against his back like a cattle prod. His feet dragged as he shuffled forward, eyes wide, looking around like someone could come to his aid and save him from this.
“You really thought you could escape the city without us noticing?” I said quietly.
“I did what you said,” he replied quickly. He was even jumpier than when we visited his apartment. Our men reported that two days ago, he had purchased enough cocaine for an extended trip away from his dealers. “I did everything you wanted.”
Ciel snorted. “You did a shit job, but we pulled through.”
Porter protested. “But you won! Greco is dead!”
“So you thought that meant you were free to go?” I scoffed. Together, Ciel and I pulled him into a bathroom. “No one gave you permission to leave.”
Porter swallowed heavily, watching with wide eyes while Ciel shoved a broomstick through the door’s handle so no one could intrude on our private moment.
“What about your wife?” Ciel asked, rubbing his palms on his hoodie. “Or your kids? Just going to leave them with no warning or notice?”
“I—I’ll go back home,” Porter said, voice shaking. He glanced over his shoulder at the barred door. “Please. I’m not an evil man. I just got caught up in some shit things. I’ll do better, I swear.”
I let out a heavy sigh. “You know we don’t believe that for a second.”
Porter’s face paled, and he took a step backward. He bumped into Ciel and then startled like a baby deer.
“I w—want—I want to talk to your leader,” he stammered. “Leona Vero, right? The redhead?”
Ciel hissed. “Don’t speak her name.”
“I want to apologize to her,” he whispered. “Please. I can make it right. Just don’t kill me.”
Ciel rolled his eyes and gave me a get on with it look.
Though it was sometimes fun to play with our prey, neither of us could stand this man.
He was only part of the rot within this city, but I still had the list of buyers who used the Albanian’s services.
Now that Greco was dealt with, this was just the start of our purge.
“Leona wanted to be here for this,” I said, lifting my gun and pointing it at his head. “Want to know what we told her instead?”
Porter shook his head back and forth. He got on his knees and started begging, right there on the dirty floor. “Please. Please, please.”
“We told her, queens don’t take out the trash,” Ciel said. “She has better things to do.”
I pulled the trigger and splattered his brains all over the train station bathroom.
When Ciel and I returned home, the family—minus Max—was in the kitchen and living room, making dinner and watching TV.
The news ran cycles of stories about the notorious crime lords, Piero Greco and Maximiliano Volpe, and their men being captured.
Leona was curled up on the couch next to Caspian, watching with a heavy frown.
“Hey, darling.”
“Wynn.” She sat up and reached for me. I sighed in relief when her arms wrapped around my neck. “Did everything go okay?”
“We don’t have to worry about Sean Porter anymore.”
She nodded grimly. “Thank you. The world is better without him.”
“I already blasted his crimes across the internet,” Ciel added, greeting her with a hug. “Everyone will know what kind of man he was.”
Her hand twisted into the blanket covering her legs. “Do you know your next target?”
Ciel cupped her cheek and drew his thumb across it. “Yes. We’re going through the buyer list one by one.”
“Thanks, guys,” she said. “Next time, I’ll come to help.”
“We can handle it,” I said. She’d been recovering since her injury, but we could all see she was depressed about Max. The more she could rest, the better. “If we need backup, we’ll bring Ryu or Cas.”
“Happy to come whenever,” Cas said from Leona’s other side.
“Ryu is getting restless,” she said with a sly grin. “He’s been extra sassy recently.”
“I heard that, brat!” Ryu shouted from the kitchen, where he and Obi were making dinner. “I’ll show you fucking sassy.”
Leona giggled. Obi walked over while wiping his hands on a dish towel. “Our plans for the mercenary organization are almost complete. I’d like to run them by you and Ciel before we initiate the mission.”
“Got it. After dinner?” The mercenary agency that Greco hired had come after us twice. They knew who we were, and they still took the contracts. We couldn’t let that stand. We were going to wipe them all out.
“Sounds good.” Obi gave Leona a quick kiss on the cheek before he returned to the kitchen.
I sat down next to her on the couch and wrapped my arm around her shoulder.
She leaned against me, resting her head on my chest. Max being in prison had already been hard on her, and we still weren’t sure how long he’d be gone.
Frankly, we were all feeling the gap. Weeks ago, I was ready to kill him.
But after everything he’d done, and all we’d been through together, he felt like part of us now. We wouldn’t be whole until he was free.
“I’m going to Willow’s haven in a few days, once we’re done with the mercenary agency,” I said softly. “Want to come with me?”
“Of course. I’ve missed Penny, Claire, and the girls.” She smiled, and it filled me with warmth. The shadows that used to plague my heart were burnt away in the face of her brightness.
“Me, too.”