Page 2 of The Villain

“No,” I said and scoffed. “I mean, I am happy. I have enough.”

I had the club. Freedom. Security. Life on the open road.And purpose.Holy hell, did purpose change a life—savea life.I looked back at the images on the computer, our purpose plastered all over them:vigilante justice.

Our ex-military motorcycle garage and club were equal parts good business and a good cover. By day, we worked on expensive motorcycles, and by night, we used our unconventional skill sets to bring hundreds of criminals to justice by unlawful or lethal means. The criminals we hunted were the ones who used money and power to shield themselves from punishment. The ones who hid in plain sight, bribing the law for its protection.

“You can want more.” Rhys spoke, bringing my attention back to him, his hands propped on the desk as he tipped forward. “She already took enough from you, Dare, you don’t have to let her?—”

“Don’t,” I warned in a low voice. “Just…don’t.”

Shewas like fucking Voldemort—I didn’t want to talk about her, didn’t want to hear her name.Ever. She’d taken Ryan’s last breath—the only one of us who hadn’t made it home from thatlast mission, and I wouldn’t let Rhys or any of the other guys waste a single breath on the woman who’d betrayed me.

“You should take a break.”

“I will when we find him,” I gritted out.

Dr. Ray Ivans had worked at GrowTech, a biochemical engineering giant, and was involved in the cover-up of Rob’s parents’ deaths almost two decades ago—a cover-up that climbed a ladder of criminals right to the top of the billion-dollar company.

Magnus Sinclair. Les Wheaton. Ray Ivans. Lloyd Wenner. Bernard Belmont. They’d all been involved in concealing the cancerous flaw in one of their new pesticides. Rob’s parents became sick while working on the project, and Ivans downplayed their concerns and falsified their medical records to hide that the chemicals were killing them.

After their deaths, Ivans vanished. Belmont claimed the doctor had fled the States with all his documentation—leaving behind no proof of his crimes—but we knew better. Belmont paid him to disappear and start over. Paid for him to have a new face, a new identity, and a new life. But after so long, Belmont got tired of paying to hide a ghost.

I scrolled back to the beginning of the hotel’s security feed from two months ago, zeroing in on the few seconds that had captured Ivans entering the lobby and making his way to the mezzanine.

Dressed in a tux, he headed for the ballroom, where a black-tie fundraiser for GrowGood, an NPO associated with GrowTech, was being held. I followed his path to the door, where he disappeared into the crowd and off the cameras completely. If only we’d known then who he was.

Instead, Harm, Rhys, and I were there to track down a band of international jewel thieves who’d targeted and kidnapped Rhys’s girlfriend, Merritt. We thought their ringleader was the man who sliced my face when we captured him. In a twist of fate—and a bullet to that man’s chest—we realized that their leader was none other than Ivans, who’d been using an alias and who had surgically altered his face to look nothing like the man who’d fled the States two decades earlier.

Rhys made a low sound of disapproval, but I ignored him and the odds stacked against me. I didn’t care if the footage I searched through was two months old, there had to be something on it—something I could use to figure out where he was hiding.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, needing Rhys to leave so I could focus.“I don’t want to talk?—”

Another knock sounded on the door. “Rhys?”

Dammit.Merritt’s voice was unmistakable even before she opened the door and poked her head through, her bright eyes finding Rhys in an instant.

The way she looked at him…the way he lit up…my chest tightened. I’d never have that. I wouldn’t let myself.I didn’t deserve it.

Love was dangerous.Deadly. It was the goddamn bullet you didn’t hear until it was buried in the center of your chest.

“What’s wrong?” Rhys stepped in front of Merritt, blocking my view.

Good. Maybe they’d both leave now.

“Nothing, I—” Merritt said and peeked over at me. “Something came for you.” She moved around Rhys and extended her hand. “Sorry, I grabbed a bunch of envelopes from the mail, and this was stuck between them.”

Interesting.I took the envelope from her and muttered my thanks, but she was already back in conversation with Rhys.

I stilled when I looked at the front. There was no address on it. No return address. No address to the garage. Only my name.Darius Keyes.

My heart collided with the front of my chest.Shit.The last time a letter had been delivered like this to our garage, it had come from the Most Wanted criminal on the FBI’s list.Damon Remington.Former FBI agent turned fugitive. A broker for the criminal underworld.If he was sending me a message…

Fuck it. I ripped open the seam of the envelope and yanked out the contents. A single paper.No. Not a paper. I flipped it over.A photograph.

Air pierced my lungs like a bullet, stopping my heart on a damn dime.

No.

It couldn’t be.

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