Nix. (Den of Mercenaries Book 3)(80)

Kit scoffed. “I know your schemes, Uilleam. You wanted to use her against the woman, no?”

“Yes, I did. I wanted to train her as a mercenary—I wanted her to thrive on the knowledge that her mother was a cunt, and when the time came, she would have no problem putting a bullet in her mother’s head.”

“Then why did you—”

“No, let me finish,” Uilleam demanded, gaze never straying from Kit though they were no longer the only three in the room. At some point, Zachariah had entered, but he didn’t interrupt.

“I had her taken, smuggled to the US, and left in a warehouse until I could make the proper arrangements. The first time I brought her to you, I hadn’t lied when I said Zachariah refused to take her until she was older—I hadn’t accounted for that in my original plan—but I hadn’t the time to babysit a kidnap victim while I worked. Do you know who I turned to, brother?”

Kit thought of Luna and everything she had ever told him about the kidnapping and the ensuing days after.

I woke up to smoke, she had told him once.

Because the warehouse she’d been was set on fire …

The warehouse …

“Putting the pieces together, I see,” Uilleam said smugly. “I called my dear brother to do me a favor, one that would have cost you nothing. Instead, you betrayed me, and for what? To stoke your own ego? Pathetic.”

Kit didn’t think, nor could he hear the cries of alarm as he grabbed his brother by the throat and slammed him back against the wall, holding him there.

Uilleam winced, his pain to great for it to be ignored. “Have you realized your mistake? Have you realized that it was because of you that Luna ended up in the hands of Lawrence Kendall. Imagine my surprise when I found her at that party—after all, you were the one to tell me no one had survived the fire at the warehouse.”

The f*cking warehouse.

It was so long ago that Kit almost didn’t remember, but there had only been one of Uilleam’s safe houses that he destroyed.

That f*cking warehouse.

He could almost remember the day Uilleam called him, asking for a favor as he often did. It didn’t matter that Kit had grown tired of his schemes and wanted to take a break from Uilleam, the man was relentless.

Especially because it was one of the few properties they owned together and both did work out of.

More and more, Uilleam began making demands, carrying out his own agendas that put Kit’s work in jeopardy.

At that time, Uilleam had been unreasonable—it was either what he wanted, or nothing at all.

Kit had thought to put a stop to it. No one had ever made a move against the infamous Kingmaker before, but he would. After all, he wasn’t a match for Kit, not really.

Once when they were children, Kit had asked his brother whether or not he was afraid of fire. Uilleam couldn’t have been more than six years old at the time, but it was clear whenever he walked past the hearth and stared with apprehension while the flames licked at the iron gate.

He was petrified.

It had been Kit that showed him the freedom in fire—in its purity.

From then on, Uilleam had made a bad habit of destroying things by fire when the mood suit him.

This was also why Kit had thought to burn the warehouse down.

The message was clear if one knew how to read it.

“So what have you come to say?” Uilleam asked, his voice only loud enough for Kit to hear. “I’m waiting.”

Kit licked his lips. “Who all knows?”

“I assume you would know the answer to that question, but by all means, share the answer with me. Because whoever thought it would be better to work with you and betray me, I owe them a present.”

“About you being behind the kidnapping,” Kit retorted. “Who all knows?”

“If you’re asking about my mercenaries, the answer is none. I made the deal with her Carmen and Luna’s father, only.”

Then he could contain this.

“You will not, under any circumstances, breathe a word of any of this to Luna. Are we clear?”

Uilleam pushed his hand away. “Why not? Afraid that she’ll grow to hate you?”

He didn’t think that.

He knew it.

He was responsible for everything that had happened to her.

“We need to go,” Kit said to Aidra, starting for the door, ignoring his uncle’s presence entirely.

“Give a man enough rope,” Uilleam called after him, “watch him hang himself.”

Kit was panicking despite his outward display of calm. His intentions had always been to bury what Uilleam had done, not wanting Luna to face the horrors of it all, but that was before he knew it was his fault.

Now, it wasn’t about burying the secrets.

He had to destroy them.

Removing his phone from his pocket, he dialed Fang. “I have a job for you.”

“Again? I’ll call—”

“No, you. Only you.”

Fang was quiet a moment. “What do you want done?”

“I’m going to send you information on three men, I want them dead within the next seventy-two hours. No witnesses.”

Fang whistled low. “Who pissed you off, boss?”

“Just see this done, and tell no one.”

“Right.”