L'S

a dozen other secrets: I was dying. Slowly, and it felt as brutal as anything I'd ever inflicted on my enemies. The doctors broke it to me two months ag

damn thing as I strangled him, then ordered my men to take out every breathing thing in his house. There's no other way to be cle

ny foolish notion of love or care, but because I need someone who would be so shattered, so controlled, that even after I'm gone, they wouldn't dare step out of line. Avery

very trace of pain. Only my doctor knew, and if he ever let slip a word, he'd lose his tongue. This secret gets

e, boss. To someone else's wife, no less. You did the whole thing in her absence, and now the word'

e to a pulp. He'd broken their bones that day, small as he was, then dragged me to Blackwood. For that alone, I'd take a bullet for him, and he'd do the same for me. He was Blackwood's first recruit and would have taken

d you to find?" I deflect

but dropped

sitting here. I want every

s. "But they keep coming back with the same answer. The guy's a gho

im with my own hands two months ago. Y

proper investigation. I told you going that extreme mi

kill for no reason. I locked eyes with him. "Ryan, if you value

me like he wanted to say more, but I cut him off. It was ju

e got work to do

veneer-a dark gaze, perfectly styled hair, and a neatly trimmed beard-lay a ruthlessness most couldn't begin to understand. He was deceptive, a predator hiding behind an innocent face, and I trusted

sh clothes, curled up in a corner, her eyes rimmed red, traces of recent tears. I didn't care. I focused on something else, one insistent cur

brushed it off as nothing, but then it came back, night after night, the same vision. It was relentless, to the point where I'd begun researching her, only to di

o warm up to Avery. She's just like me, that girl-distrusting, quick to shut people out. I'm the only one who can make her smile. She's mine, in blood and in spirit