Page 124 of Lesson In Forgiveness

Before she could make her move, she heard the unmistakable sound of a scuffle from further away. Grunts and thuds, fists striking flesh.

Someone else was here.

Realizing she was distracted by the fight, it occurred to her that the sniper posted in the upper window might also find himself drawn to the action. Without thinking, she took off into open territory, zigzagging in sweeping movements in case she ended up in the rifle’s sights.

She made it to the fancy wooden doors of the clubhouse without incident, stifling a moan as her breathing rasped painfully through her abused throat. As she eased open the door, there was a godawful crack, far too close for comfort.

A lone gunshot, then silence.

Donaghue, she reminded herself, discovering she was torn between going to help whoever was in trouble and ending the whole sordid saga. Donaghue was the reason any of this shit was happening, and he needed to die for his sins.

Rape, murder, torture.

He checked every one of her approval boxes for immediate termination; it was a shame, really, that he hadn’t popped up on her radar long before now. She could’ve prevented a lot of death, a lot of grief, although perhaps an early intervention might have skewed more than one person’s fate.

For better, for worse; who knew?

“Lay down the knife, Ms. Fairfax. I’d hate to kill you before getting to play with you.” The voice was soft, almost feminine in an ick way, and carried notes of both New York and Ireland. “I’ve waited some time for this moment. Women are inarguably the bane of my existence, but you… you’ve surpassed that by a mile or more.”

Oh goodie, he wasn’t going to piss her off with a game of hide and seek. “Phalen Donaghue. I’d hoped you’d tucked your tail under and run. I like a good hunt.” She smiled into the dark interior of the club. “I like mounting the heads of rapists on my wall even more.”

“You must have quite a collection by now.” A lighter flared not ten feet away, then a cigarette puffed to life. The flame illuminated Donaghue’s face for several seconds, giving her a glimpse of cold, dead eyes. “I was excited when you took the contract on Mitchell. It was an incredibly bittersweet moment for me. Do you know why?”

Ignoring the directive to drop her knife, Tabitha began flipping it idly through her fingers. “I’m sure you’ll bore me with the tale.”

He chuckled, and the scent of cigarette smoke drifted toward her. “No doubt you’ve learned of my past. My swift departure from Ireland and all that. When I got to New York, a whole new world opened up for me. Yes, I started at the bottom of the order with the cannon fodder and the grunts, but I had ambitions. A dream, and a carefully laid out plan to achieve it.”

She rolled her eyes. “Murder and maim your way to leadership.”

“Effectively. I gave thought to keeping my hands clean initially. Commanding others to do the wetwork. But loyalty runs one way in the mob, dear girl, and the only way is up.” The glowing tip of the cigarette moved in the dark as he gestured. “So I searched further afield, all the way to Virginia. Yes, that’s got your attention, hasn’t it? I paid a visit to a rather charming couple, full of ideas and scientific breakthroughs.”

She almost, almost took a step back.

“They were recommended, you see. Anyone in the market for a well-trained contract killer went to your father in those days. After all, when the products on offer have been selectively bred and programmed to do nothing but take orders and kill on command, where else would one go?”

It was just the smell of the smoke turning her stomach, she thought desperately. He was lying, distracting her with a story he was weaving from information a hacker dug up, that was all.

“Dominic was proud of his creations. He spent hours parading them in front of me, expounding their attributes, their skills, their special talents. Young men not yet twenty, most of them. And then,” he exhaled slowly with a groan she often associated with a pedophile lusting after young flesh, “there was you. Supple, lithe, no blood on your hands at that point. Flat chested, such a narrow waist. But those eyes and that hair… you were a fucking siren in the making.”

Pain ceased to exist; all she felt was cold.

Seeping into her bones.

Sinking into her soul.

“A demonstration, I demanded. I needed to see you in action. I watched your father toss you in a room, bare footed, unarmed, and send in three men after you, canes in hand. Big, vicious males hired to do one thing and one thing only.” He lowered his voice to a lascivious whisper. “Destroy you.”

It triggered a memory. True, there were so many similar instances of that scenario that they muddled together, but something in his voice was bringing the past into sharp focus.

“It took you six minutes and thirty-nine seconds to disarm and neutralize those men. Dominic wasn’t pleased you left them alive, mind you, but your performance was impeccable. Astounding, for one so young and outmatched.” Annoyance filtered into his tone, hard and brittle. “Dominic turned down a quarter million in cash for you that night. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in crisp bills. He insisted you’d be making four times that per kill once you reached maturity. I didn’t doubt that, but my budget wasn’t as healthy as it is now. So we made a deal.”

Tabitha blinked and recoiled against the light that flicked on suddenly. She raised her hand to shield her eyes from the glare. “If that’s true, I was lucky.”

“Were you?” Smug, Donaghue let loose with a chilling laugh. “The quarter million secured me one of your brothers. As a consolation prize, your father gave me the gift of watching him fuck you. Not long broken in, he told me. You’d been a virgin two weeks beforehand, but he’d made sure to be thorough in the breaking process.”

Bile rose up her throat as she lowered her hand, numb from the forehead down. She watched the man in front of her stub out his cigarette in his palm before stalking toward her, and the memories she’d repressed so well came spilling back, drowning her.

She hadn’t recognized him in the photos Aisling sent to her. Her brain had protected her from the horror of that night, but there was no protection now.

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