Trusting Nicole (The Last Hangman MC #4)(63)

Someone walks behind me and lowers the gun before taking it from my hand. “It’s over, Nic.” Ant says and hugs me. “You did good.”

“You think?” I chuckle softly and turn around to hug him back.

“If you had a dick you’d be patched in right away.” I can’t help but laugh.

“Damn it! You always have to burst my bubble.”

“That’s what I’m here for.” He kisses my head and walks me back over to Gabe.

“Had you not shot that f*cker I’d have beaten him for ever thinking of hurting you,” Gabe says as he pulls me in for a hug.

“Alright, enough with the hugging, I need to see Jase.” I smile.

“He’s going to need it.” Ant sighs and points at Jase leaning over a body. I walk closer and gasp when I realize it’s Sergei.





CHAPTER 28




Jason

As Nicole takes care of Slider, I crawl over to Sergei who’s lying on the floor with Nikolai tending to him. Someone managed to hit him in the chest and he’s bleeding out fast.

“It’s my time.” I hear Sergei tell Nikolai, stopping him from calling for help.

“Are you sure?”

“Da. Is Jase okay?” I smile softly hearing him ask about me.

“I’ll live.” I say and lean over him.

“What did he do to you, Son?” He asks, coughing up blood.

“Don’t talk. It’s going to be okay,” I say, knowing damn well it’s not. Sergei and I might not have always seen eye to eye but he was the only one I had growing up and even if he did do some f*cked up things, he doesn’t deserve this.

“I need to tell you something.” His thick Russian accent is getting weaker.

“What?”

“You deserve to know the truth about your parents. Go to my safe in my office and you’ll find the entire truth, Son.”

“What are you talking about?” I look at him in confusion but he breaks into a coughing fit, blood pours out of his mouth.

“Mine is the face you saw that day, Son. I’m sorry,” he whispers before a fit takes hold of him. I look at him, feeling helpless as he chokes on his own blood. There’s nothing I can do and it’s killing me. He reaches for my hand and squeezes it. “I’m so sorry, I hope you can forgive me.” Are the last words he’ll ever say as a second later, he takes his last breath.

I watch the man who raised me die in front of me. His confession replaying over and over in my head. I don’t know what he’s talking about. All I know is that he changed my life, for better or worse I’m not sure, but I owe him my life. I wouldn’t have survived if he hadn’t taken me from my parents’ house.

I look at his lifeless body and think about what he said. Mine is the face you saw that day. It hits me. He’s the man who shot my parents. He’s the reason why I’m an orphan. He’s the reason I’m all alone in this world. I rest his hand over his chest.

Instantly the man I once knew becomes a stranger. The life I once knew becomes my very own nightmare. I became the man that I was loathing all these years. I’m no better than him.

I hear a couple of gun shots, but I’m unable to take my eyes away from Sergei’s dead body, wondering what Nicole ever saw in me. Granted she didn’t know the truth about what I was doing but now she does, she should run far away from me knowing what I’m capable of. So why isn’t she?

I look up as I see tiny feet stop by my side.

“I’m sorry.” She kneels down and pecks my lips.

“He killed my parents.” I blurt out.

“What?” She looks at me, confused.

“He just told me.” I sigh.

She wraps her arms around me and holds me close to her small frame. “I’m so sorry, Love.” She kisses my head.

“Why are you with me? I’m just like him.”

“You’re nothing like him. He didn’t give you the choice. You did what you had to do to save your life. None of us here are judging you. We all understand. Stop beating yourself up for what he made you do. Did you ever kill an innocent person?” I shake my head and regret it instantly. “You’re not a bad person, you just surrounded yourself with the wrong people. You were just a kid when it started, you couldn’t have predicted the future. You survived all these years. Hell, even with all the shit you were put through today, you made it out alive. Things happen for a reason, had none of this happened, you wouldn’t have found a new family and me. I mean I’m pretty freaking awesome.” She smiles kissing me softly. She is pretty freaking awesome.

“You keep telling yourself that, Sis.” Gabe chuckles.

“Dickhead,” she retorts.

“You gonna be okay, Brother?” Gabe holds his hand out to me to help me up. It’s both scary and reassuring that he, out of all people, would still call me Brother.

“I’ll live.”

“That’s the most important thing.” He holds me up and helps me as we walk out of the warehouse. Aleck supports my other side and I can see Nicole out of the corner of my eye with tears in her eyes. Her brothers are accepting me or at least tolerating me, and that helps to start piecing my dark shattered heart together.