“Ah, well…fuck. Sorry you feel that way.” He wouldn’t apologize for the actions Cruz had taken to protect Lyn almost a year ago.
Cruz had incapacitated several kidnappers when he’d pulled Lyn out of a warehouse in downtown Philadelphia. More than one man had ended up behind bars as a result, but only one of them had been a former military veteran. Actually, that wasn’t true, either. Forte had an idea of who this guy was referring to.
Cruz had gone head to head with an ex-Navy SEAL, dishonorably discharged. There were bad examples of humanity in every branch of every military in the world, and this guy had been one of the irredeemable. He’d been willing to stoop to stalking, kidnapping, and potentially killing Lyn just to get ahold of Atlas.
There were good men and women both actively serving in the armed forces and retired from them. But like any other aspect of the universe, there were twisted, bad individuals in the mix, too.
Seemed like it was his turn to come face-to-face with his share of them. Again.
A soldier could survive to walk off a battlefield, even go home. But life had a way of making every day a different kind of fight.
“You know the company I work for was impressed?” The man spit to one side, on Sophie’s medical boot. “You all kept it quiet. Neat. Minimal issues with the local law enforcement. Excellent public relations, they said. Your entire community went on believing you were all hometown heroes. I couldn’t resist starting out our little party with a present to make sure all that blew up in your face.”
If it’d gone as planned, Sophie would’ve gone up along with the car. The man probably thought he’d been clever. Even better if he’d succeeded.
Anger burned low in Forte’s belly. He banked the emotion, leveraged it to keep his thought process sharp. Keeping his joints loose, his posture relaxed, he had his finger off the trigger but ready for the split second he could acquire his target.
There’d be a window of opportunity. He needed to wait for it. “No. I didn’t know anyone was impressed.”
Always interesting when you could give the truth to the person who hated you for it.
“They wanted to bring you on as an asset. You and your mutt trainers were supposed to be valuable additions. Fucking eliminate my friend and they want to offer you fuckers a position, serving with me? I don’t think so.” The man tightened his hold on Sophie’s hair and brought his gun to her skull.
Her eyes glistened, but she kept them open and on Forte, watching him for any cue. The calm faith in her gaze split his heart. His brave, beautiful, smart Sophie.
“I did receive an offer. I didn’t accept.” He only wanted to antagonize the idiot to the edge of reason. He didn’t want to push the man into enough of a rage to finally kill her.
“No? You mean not yet.” The man ground out the words. “But I had a better idea, especially when this contract came in. I volunteered for it. You know, there were assassin organizations back in the old days.”
Did the man actually know some history? Could be.
“Define old days.” Forte invited him to keep talking, hoping the man would get tired of holding Sophie so tight.
“More than decades, centuries ago.” The idiot tossed his head. “Exact time doesn’t matter. What matters was those organizations had an initiation system.”
This was sounding more like the backstory of a video game than an actual history lesson. There could be some valid history in there somewhere, but it was lost in this guy’s interpretation.
“Back then, the final rite of passage was for one initiate to kill another.” An ugly grin split the man’s face. “I like it. I came out here figuring I’d get paid to kill this bitch and I’d take the opportunity to make sure to take you out, too. Man of your reputation? It’d be worth a raise for me to prove I’m that much more of an asset.”
Well, that explained why Sophie hadn’t died outright. She’d been smart to keep the man talking. The idiot wanted to talk, wanted the validation of revealing to everyone how clever he was. But there were only so many words inside the man’s head, and he was running down the clock now.
“Okay.” Forte smiled in return, taunting him. “So kill me.”
It’d be a Wild West quick draw. And he only had one chance.
“Oh no.” The man shook his head, his gaze sharp. “You can watch her die first. You can go to hell knowing you weren’t better than me.”
Sophie’s arm swung up in an arc, and she twisted to add more momentum to her backswing. The thing in her hand contacted hard with the side of the man’s head. The gun came away from her head, and he lost his grip on her hair as he stumbled a step to one side.
Forte raised his arms, took aim, and fired.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sophie curled around Haydn, covering him with her body as well as she could. She imagined how painful it would be to be shot in the back or the head. And she tried to brace herself for it. At this close range, even if Brandon had managed to shoot her attacker, she was going to be hurt.