Nix. (Den of Mercenaries Book 3)(79)

Acceptance shone in his eyes. “She deserves better than all of us.”

Kit pulled the trigger.

Stowing his gun away, Kit ventured back out with a backward glance, removing an envelopes of money along the way—one for the pregnant woman who had never seen his face before, and one for the men around the television that would swear Juan Santiago had enraged a smuggler that decided to kill him for crossing him.

But as he climbed back into the truck and started back out on the road, Kit was already thinking of his next move.

It was time he and his brother had a conversation.



There were two kinds of men in the world—those that fixed problems, and others that were the cause of them.

Most days, Kit fell into the latter—even if by fixing, it meant taking someone’s life—and for a time, he thought Uilleam fell into that category as well. But when he returned from his trip to Mexico, armed with damning knowledge, he realized that his brother fell more in the middle.

And that was not a good thing.

“Perhaps you should have invited the Wild Bunch on this littler excursion,” Aidra said as she checked the slide of her gun. “Confronting your brother in a compound full of his mercenaries doesn’t seem like a rational thing to do.”

Kit had sought Aidra’s aid, not in just coming with him to the compound—though he wouldn’t have needed her for this, really—but in her thoughts. He’d needed someone to confide in, and she was the only person he knew without a shadow of a doubt that wouldn’t break his confidence.

She had also thought there was ulterior motives behind Uilleam’s interest in Luna, but even she hadn’t pictured this outcome.

No one could have.

“I never thought I would see the day when you were afraid to face a mercenary,” Kit said as they drove beyond the gate to the compound and parked. “I taught you better than that.”

“They are being trained by Z, no? I don’t put anything past the man.”

It wasn’t often that Uilleam listened to reason. He liked to think he was infallible, but for once, he hadn’t attempted to stay in the open after the shooting. Instead, he went underground, and there was no better place than a remote facility that was guarded by men he paid large sums of money to.

“Besides, it’s just a conversation,” Kit said, though he knew that was a lie. It wouldn’t just be words he gave his brother.

“Those usually don’t go well for the two of you. If you recall, you threatened to throw him off a roof in Berlin because he made a few million pounds off a contract you were negotiating. In answer, he decided to torch three of your cars and allowed a family of homeless tweakers to take up residence in your loft in the city—they ended up condemning that place, didn’t they?”

And back and froth it went until they grew tired and moved on.

It was what they did.

But this …

This wouldn’t be nearly as pleasant as that time.

“Uilleam may not answer to anyone else, but he will answer to me.”

Kit would ensure it.

Abandoning his car, he had no trouble getting into the building and up to the floor where Uilleam was reclining in a bed with his phone in one hand, and his gaze on the television set up on the other side of the room.

Gone was the hospital gown, and though he didn’t wear a suit as was his custom, he was still better dressed than the last time Kit had seen him.

Besides the lack of color in his face, Uilleam didn’t look as though he had been in a fire fight mere days ago, or that during to operation to save his life, his heart had stopped beating for a few seconds.

Those that raised hell often lived the longest.

“Twice in one week, I’m shocked,” Uilleam said, his voice groggy as his gaze moved from the TV, to Kit, and stopping on Aidra. “At least you’ve brought beautiful company. Aidra, you look lovely as always.”

Despite her efforts, his assistant wasn’t immune to Uilleam’s charm. She offered a shy smile, though she didn’t move from Kit’s side.

“What can I do for you, brother?”

“I know, Uilleam.”

“I’m sorry?”

“About Luna,” he reiterated. “I know what you did.”

There was a wheel of emotions that played over Uilleam’s face in wake of Kit’s statement. First, surprise, then anger, and finally a hint of smugness that Kit hadn’t expected.

“You think you know?”Uilleam laughed, the sound harsh and grating. “You know nothing.”

“What did you hope to accomplish? Did you think to use the truth of what you had done to make her upset with me?”

His jaw hardened in pain as he climbed out of the bed, but Uilleam didn’t let it show. “The fact that you’re asking me that question only proves my point.”

“You’ve yet to make one.”

“I assume you found Juan, did you not? A man too stupid to realize that he meant nothing to the woman that would rather see him destitute than at her side despite everything she had given him?”

Kit folded his arms across his chest. “If there is a point to this, you’re not making it.”

Uilleam was smiling, smiling as though the entire thing was a joke. “They paid me to kill her, yet you haven’t asked yourself why she’s still alive, have you?”