Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 104729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Six more bullets. Blood drips from everywhere as I stand beside Michael.
“What’s it going to be …?” I ask, and Michael lifts the gun. The final bullet. The kill shot.
This man will die if Michael fires again.
“Who do you work for?”
Silence. Just that damn smirk. Like he knows the outcome regardless of the games we play.
“Are you ready to die for this? Is that how this will end?”
“Enough of this shit!” Michaels says, finger on the trigger.
“I am okay with death.” A sick twisted smile spreads across his face as Michael pulls the trigger. “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
The words he utters are cold needles stinging my body. “No!” I shout, rushing over to the man, but as I do, his eyes flutter closed, and then his head hangs limply. I lift it, his eyes are open, but there is nothing behind them. “No … Wake up.” I turn to Cristian. “Get the doctor. We need him to live.”
“It’s too late for that.”
My knees give out.
“What the fuck just happened?” I hear from behind me, and I turn to see Michael looking down at me.
“I don’t know,” I mutter because I don’t.
I have no fucking clue what is happening.
Like a zombie, I find my way out of the room and back up to the main deck.
Phoenix is there waiting for me, her eyes wide with fear, and it is only then I realize I am bathed in blood.
“It’s not mine,” I grit out.
“What happened?”
But I have no words to explain it. Nothing makes sense. Nothing at all.
It takes me a while, three glasses of scotch and a few long breaths, to calm the hell down.
After every last drop is gone from my drink, I slam the glass down.
“Can someone tell me what the hell just happened?” Phoenix asks.
Cristian and Michael both look at me, but neither speaks. This is my story. My freak-out. This is on me.
“Did the man tell you who he works for?” she asks.
“No.” The tone of my voice is brash, and Phoenix shivers.
“Did he say anything?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?” Her question is simple, but my answer isn’t.
“‘Only the dead have seen the end of war.’”
Her eyes go wide, and I know she remembers. I know she knows that only one man has said that to me. Only one man used that sentence, over and over again. It was only one man’s motto …
“Your brother.”
“My brother,” I confirm.
“What does this mean?”
“Beats the fuck out of me, but I have every intention of finding out.”
Standing from where I’m sitting, I look over at Cristian.
“Get Cyrus on the phone,” I say.
He nods and sets about doing that. Michael and Phoenix look as confused as I feel.
“Alaric,” Michaels says. “Thank you. I owe you my life.”
“You mean something to Phoenix, and she loves you. That’s enough for me.” As I’m about to say more, as I’m about to apologize for everything I did to him for those four years, Cristian comes back and hands me the phone.
“What’s going on? I didn’t think I would hear from you so soon.”
“That incident with Ivy …” Out of respect for him, I won’t talk about that in front of my men or Michael.
“What about that?” he fires back, angry over it still and rightfully so.
“The guy who helped you … Jason. Jack—”
“Jaxson?”
“Yeah. I’m going to need you to get me in touch with him.”
“What’s this about?” he asks.
“Better you didn’t know.”
“Duly noted. I’ll get you his contact info.”
I hang up and sit back down. I’m going to need another drink before I make this call.
Two minutes later, I’m on the phone with Jaxson Price and I’m telling him what just went down.
“Can you explain that one more time?” he asks over the line.
“Four years ago, my brother died … and I have reason to believe … Fuck. I don’t know what I believe.”
“A man hired to kill the one man who can confirm he didn’t kill your brother is dead. Am I getting this straight?”
“Yes.”
“And the one man, he quoted your dead brother?”
“Right again. I’m thinking that when my brother was estranged, he might have worked with whoever is doing this. Maybe for revenge?”
“That sounds plausible. Crazy but plausible.”
“Maybe this person wanted our businesses and killed my brother to start the war.” That’s the explanation that Phoenix came up with, and it seems more plausible now.
“It definitely appears that way. So, you need me to track all your brother’s acquaintances before he died, and see if there are any hits?”
“Yeah. I’m going to be sending you a care package. Let me know what you find.” I probably should warn him it’s a finger. “You’re going to want to open it by yourself. That’s your warning.”
He lets out a chuckle. “Easy enough and duly noted. I’ll make sure no one can see whatever you placed in the box. I’ll have the information back to you within a few days.”