Page 113 of Black Sheep

His jaw flexes, and a chilling look weaves over his face. “I was a soldier, Cleo. I couldn’t afford to get sentimental about my duties.”

I don’t have an answer for that so I nod. “Did you fulfil your mission?”

“Yes. I made it out in one piece.”

Something in his voice tugs hard at me. I’m almost too afraid to ask. “Only you? You said ‘we’ before.”

His eyes darken. “It was a two-man mission going out. It wasn’t coming back.”

My eyes prickle. “I’m sorry—”

“It shouldn’t have happened. Crunch would still be alive if MMFR hadn’t clusterfucked their intel.”

Ice rams my spine. “MMFR? Finnan’s and my father’s company? They…he’s responsible?”

“For every one of the people who died in Taranahar that night. All the evidence I’ve found so far on MMFR points to a sloppy operation. The mercenaries were barely trained. Taranahar wasn’t the first mission they fucked up, but it was the worst. They were in it just for the money the contracts brought. They didn’t care about human life. And now he wants me to help him get off scot-free.”

“Oh my God.”

“Do you understand now, Cleo? Why he has to pay?”

Despite knowing the cruelty that Finnan was capable of, the sheer amount of blood on his hands is shocking. But I also feel guilty relief that Axel wasn’t involved. “But how are you going to make him? He’s dangerous, Axel.”

His small smile chills me to the bone. “I said I wasn’t there when it happened. But I was there directly after. I have everything I need to end him with what he did at Taranahar.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

His face closes completely, a mask of desolation overtaking every other emotion. “Because dismantling his operations with the Bratva and the Armenians isn’t enough. He needs to pay for everything.”

“What—?”

“I’ve told you about Taranahar,” he slices across me, one hand coming up to hold my chin steady. “Tell me why.”

I can’t tell him everything, not until I’m sure my mother will be safe from him. So I tell him the fraction of the horror that I can.

“When we went to Boston, he found out my father put a six-million-dollar trust fund in my name which I could access on my twenty-fifth birthday. If I waited, it would double on my thirtieth birthday. He wants the twelve million, and he’s been…blackmailing me since to keep me in line.”

Axel’s face is a mask of unadulterated rage. “Jesus…” His voice trails off then he tenses as if he’s been knifed. “How has he been keeping you in line?”

“Axel—”

“How?”

I would’ve been less afraid if he yelled out the word. The deadly cadence of his voice is chillingly terrifying.

“With…videos.”

His face loses all color. “What videos?”

He doesn’t know your mother survived.

My whole body is caught in a trembling I can’t stop. “Videos that show his guards threatening people. There was one of…you. He had two of his bodyguards film while you were asleep. One had a baseball bat. The other held a vial of heroin. I was told to cooperate or he’ll have you beaten and then injected—” I stop, shuddering.

Axel’s lips are white with fury. “I get the idea. How many more were there?”

“Dozens. Of people I knew, people I didn’t know. Some of them he actually hurt when things didn’t go his way.”

Axel rolls off me and launches to his feet. He paces the side of the bed, his body bristling with rage. I sit up and pull the sheet up over myself.

---