Page 26 of Hunter's Game
“Hello, Daddy.” Her voice was ice. “Want to tell me more about how you murdered my mother?”
Merrick didn’t even look surprised. He sat behind his desk, looking perfectly relaxed despite the chaos erupting around them. Thompson had drawn his weapon, but Hunter’s gun pressed against the back of his head before he could aim.
“You’re just like her, you know.” Merrick’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Sarah had that same self-righteous fire. That same conviction that she could change things, make the world better.” He sighed dramatically. “Right up until I put a bullet in her head.”
The words hit Eden like physical blows, but her hands remained steady. “Why? She was your wife. She loved you.”
“She was a liability.” He shrugged. “Just like you’ve become. I had such hopes for you, baby girl. You could have had everything.”
“I had a mother.” Eden’s voice cracked slightly. “I had a childhood full of fear and violence. I had fifteen years of believing she abandoned me, when really you murdered her for trying to stop you.”
“She tried to take you away from me.” For the first time, real emotion showed in Merrick’s face—pure, possessive rage. “You were mine. My blood, my legacy.”
“Blood isn’t everything.” Eden’s finger tightened on the trigger. “Sometimes family is who you choose.”
As if on cue, more explosions rocked the building. The Blind Jacks were making their presence known.
Thompson chose that moment to make his move. He drove an elbow back into Hunter’s solar plexus, spinning away from the gun. Eden’s shot went wide as Thompson tackled her, sending them both crashing into a bookshelf.
She hit hard, stars exploding behind her eyes. Through blurred vision, she saw Hunter grappling with Thompson while her father calmly opened a desk drawer.
The gun that emerged was massive—a hand cannon that would take half her head off.
“I gave you everything.” Merrick’s voice was conversational as he aimed at her. “And this is howyou repay me? By working with the feds? By trying to destroy everything I built?”
“You gave me nothing but nightmares.” Eden spat blood from her split lip. “Everything I am, I built myself. In spite of you.”
His finger tightened on the trigger. “Goodbye, baby girl.”
Three shots rang out.
Eden flinched, expecting pain. Instead, she watched in shock as red bloomed across her father’s chest. He looked down at the wounds with almost comical surprise before collapsing.
Behind him stood Romano, his gun still smoking. Eden had almost forgotten he was there, watching everything play out from the shadows.
“Messy.” His cultured voice carried clearly over the chaos outside. “But necessary. Merrick was becoming a liability.”
Eden tried to move, but Thompson’s unconscious weight pinned her. Hunter was already in motion, his gun tracking Romano, but more armed men appeared in the doorway—Romano’s personal security.
“The problem with men like Merrick,” Romano continued conversationally, “is that they never see the bigger picture. They get caught up in personal vendettas, family drama...it makes them sloppy. Predictable.”
“Unlike you?” Hunter’s voice was hard as stone.
“Unlike me.” Romano smiled, and Eden finally saw the true predator beneath the polished exterior. “I prefer to keep things...professional.”
Understanding hit Eden like a physical blow. “You played us. All of us. My father, Thompson, even the federal agencies investigating the artifact smuggling.”
“Very good.” Romano’s approval made her skin crawl. “You are your mother’s daughter after all. She figured it out too, right at the end. Unfortunately, she was as predictably noble as your father was predictably violent.”
“You ordered her death.” The words tasted like ash.
“I ordered many deaths.” He shrugged elegantly. “It’s nothing personal, you understand. Just business. The organization is bigger than any one person’s moral crusade.”
“The organization?” Hunter’s gun hadn’t wavered from Romano’s head despite the additional armed men. “You mean the international intelligence operation using stolen artifacts to move classified data.”
“Among other things.” Romano gestured with a flip of his hand, and one of his men retrieved Thompson’s unconscious form, allowing Eden to finally stand. “The artifact smuggling, the money laundering, the corrupt federal agents...it’s all window dressing. The real prize is information. The kind of secrets that can topple governments or start wars.”
Romano spoke with calculated precision, each word chosen for maximum impact. His silver-streaked hair caught the light as he moved, the expensive suit unable to disguise the predator’s physical readiness beneath. Eden recognized the controlled breathing of someone who’d mastered his body as completely as his emotions.
