A Matter Of Justice (Grey Justice #4)(5)

“The cameras haven’t picked up anyone who looks like Irelyn,” Gallagher said, “but you said yourself she’s good with disguises. What we do have is proof that she was in the city when at least three of the killings took place.” He held up a hand. “I know, I know. Not damning evidence but too damn coincidental.”

“Different weapons were used for all five?”

“Yes.”

“So…” Grey glanced down at the files. “These three here, James Martin aka Marty J, Marco Valenz, and Frank Seymour… They’re the ones that we can place her in the same city when they were killed?”

“Yes. We can put her in Chicago around the time of Marty J’s murder. She was in Toronto the week that Frank Seymour was found. And she flew into London two days before Valenz bought it.”

Valenz, a low-level assassin, had been a particularly disgusting piece of work. For the past few years, he’d been trying to beef up his résumé by taking on jobs others might shy away from. Last year, he had been responsible for the deaths of two teenagers. A classmate of one of the teens, with more money than brains, had paid him to kill off his rivals for a particular girl. The kid had been found guilty of murder for hire, but Valenz had continued to evade capture.

By any decent person’s standards, assassins weren’t good people. However, many of them did have certain principles. Grey had always likened that mentality to how fellow criminals treated pedophiles and rapists in prison. Child molesters were considered the lowest of the low. Likewise, most assassins would not agree to kill a child. These three men—Marty J, Seymour, and Valenz—had all been exceptions. And that was why, even as much as he hated the thought, Grey knew Irelyn could very well be responsible for their deaths. Nothing could get Irelyn’s ire up faster than the mistreatment of a child.

But if she did commit the killings, why? What was going on? She had to know she was setting herself up as a target. The community was cutthroat and ruthless, but they did take exception to someone systematically mowing down their own kind.

What the hell was she thinking? And how the hell was he going to be able to keep her alive when he couldn’t even find her?



Calais, France

Sacred Heart Children’s Home





“She’s doing so much better than when she first came to us,” Sister Nadeen assured her.

Standing beside the bed, Irelyn brushed back silky blond wisps of hair from the sleeping child’s forehead. The unscarred portion of the little girl’s face held a rosy pinkish color, consistent with a healthy child. The other side was a mass of scars that would never look normal. No matter how many surgeries were performed, Somer Dumas would never have soft, unlined skin. A boyfriend of the child’s mother had seen to that.

“Is she eating better?”

“Much. She’s found a few friends here.” The nun smiled. “I even heard her giggle the other day.”

Her chest tightened as her heart lurched. A giggle from this special angel would sound like music. Irelyn didn’t know that much about Somer’s earlier life, before the drugs had taken over her mother’s mind and the abusive boyfriend had arrived, but she doubted the child had experienced many reasons to giggle.

She touched Somer’s hand, noting how it grasped the teddy bear that Irelyn had sent her. “What can I do? What does she need?”

“She has everything she needs. Compared to how she looked when you brought her in, she’s a miracle.”

Irelyn agreed with that assessment. She had stumbled upon the little girl by accident. She’d been stalking a killer in Nice when she’d heard the soft whimpering. The child had been thrown into a dumpster. Irelyn had no idea who’d put her there or why. Her only focus had been on getting the little girl help.

Once the child had been treated, Irelyn had moved heaven and earth to get her away from that environment. It didn’t take a psychiatrist to tell her she was projecting her own childhood onto the little girl. There were too many similarities to pretend otherwise. That didn’t matter. This child would not fall into the hands of another monster. Not the way she had.

A few days after Irelyn found Somer, the little girl’s mother had been found dead of an apparent overdose. No other relatives could be located. The child needed a family and Sister Nadeen had found the perfect one for her. A young couple had been on a waiting list to adopt for a long while. Though they had two other children, they wanted to add to their family by adopting another one. The adoption process would take a while, but once completed, Somer would have a new, ready-made family who would love and care for her.

Irelyn had researched the couple thoroughly. From all accounts, they were good people, but Irelyn would keep a careful eye on them just in case.

She took a step away from the bed and focused on Sister Nadeen. She had met the nun almost eight years ago. She was one of the few people Irelyn knew would never betray her. “I’m going away for a while.”

“For how long?”

“I’m not certain. I just—” Irelyn swallowed, cleared her throat. “You’ll see she gets everything she needs? I’ve made provisions for her as well as the rest of the children. If you need something, email me at the regular address. I’ll check it each day.”

“I’ll do that, but you’ve already been very generous.” She took Irelyn’s cold hand in her warm one. “Are you all right, my dear? You seem a bit pale.”