Flashing a wicked grin, Caillen couldn’t resist shouting to them. “It’s not my friends in high places you need to worry about, Gov. It’s the low ones who are going to crawl up from the sewers to cut your throat. You know, my brother assassins who’ll be honor bound to come after you and the rest of your sycophantic morons while you sleep. Forever Sentella! We’re cleaning the gene pool one fatality at a time.”
The mention of the phantom rogue agency of assassins out to challenge the corrupt governments that were led by the League and her goons sent the media into a frenzy and made the governor look around as if trying to find an assassin in the crowd. Like he’d be able to ID one. Beautiful thing about Caillen’s friends—by the time you saw them coming for you, your head was already rolling across the floor.
But as much as Caillen wanted to pretend otherwise, he knew his friends couldn’t help him today. He’d gotten himself into this and for once there was no escape.
I’m dead. Completely. Utterly…
Painfully.
Twenty minutes and counting…
Might as well accept it. It was what it was and he’d volunteered for it.
“I’m so sorry, Cai.” Kasen’s tear-filled words whispered through his mind from her last visit.
Not half as sorry as I am. Darling always said his sisters would be the death of him. Little bugger had been right.
C’mon. Better you than her. You know that.
Yeah, that thought not really comforting right now. I should have drowned her when she broke my favorite toy fighter as a kid. It’d been the only toy he’d had and she’d stomped it into pieces in a fit of anger because he’d stuck his tongue out at her.
It’s all right, Cai. Calm down. You’ve faced worse.
Yeah, but I didn’t die then.
There was that and he was getting tired of his brain bitching at him over things he couldn’t change. He’d kept his promise to his dad. Kasen was safe.
Him, not so much.
Sliding down the wall to crouch in the small space between it and his bunk, Caillen banged his head against the wall, welcoming the distracting pain. Why couldn’t the bastards just come and kill him already? The waiting was the worst part. No doubt that was their intention. Make it as miserable as possible.
Closing his eyes, he rubbed his hand over his face. At least he wasn’t leaving Shahara in a bind. Now that she was married, she had someone else who could protect and take care of her.
Which was what really pissed him off at Kasen. There’d been no sense in her making that run. Yes, money was good. But it wasn’t worth your life and it wasn’t like they were in dire straits for it. Not like they’d been in the past. Their freakishly rich brother-in-law would have gladly given her the money had she only asked Syn for it.
Stupid moronic idiot.
Selfish—
“You ready, convict?”
He dropped his hand and opened his eyes to see the warden in front of his cell with six guards. He was flattered they thought he’d be that much trouble. And his spirit was certainly willing to give them a fight and then some. However, they had a neuroinhibitor on him that prevented him from doing anything other than glaring at them. If he tried to attack, the inhibitors would bite down, flood his body with pain, lock his muscles tight and send him straight to the floor.
Worst of all, it’d make him piss his pants.
They would never have that satisfaction—not until he was dead and couldn’t control his bladder anymore. After all, he was a Dagan and Dagan, no matter the poverty or situation, were proud people.
Show no fear to your enemies. Only contempt. Never let anyone look down on you. You’re just as good as any of them. I don’t care who they are. Better in fact. In our world, Dagans are royalty and you, my son, are a prince.
His father had trained him on that and he held those words tight as he faced them.
Activating the electromagnets in his cuffs that caused his hands to lock together behind his back, the guards lowered the force field that kept him inside his cell.
Caillen curled his lip as he looked at them. “You could have waited until I stood up, guys. Kind of hard now.”
The warden returned his smug glare with one of his own. “We’ll wait.”
He snorted. Were they really that afraid of him that he couldn’t even stand up without them sweating?
Wow, Cai, even a hard-ass assassin like Nykyrian would be impressed with that feat.
Then again, they had good reason to fear. But for the inhibitor, he’d already be free and they’d all be bleeding or dead.
But not today.
Caillen leaned his back against the wall and wiggled his shoulders until he made it to his feet. The guards moved forward with trilassos—a noose attached to the end of a three-foot pole—to put around his neck so that they could drag him forward and keep him six feet away from them.
He laughed at them and their fear. “Bloody wankers.”
They tightened the noose around his neck until he was coughing from lack of oxygen.
“Careful, men. We don’t want to kill him in here.”