Page 21 of Remi's War (Four Dark Horsemen 2)

“Remi, ple—” Whatever he wants to say disappears in an agonizing yell when I step hard on his hand, hearing the bones crack under the pressure.

“Poison or a gun, Robert. Choose.” I glance at my wristwatch, the arrow coming close to five o’clock and reminding me about my plans later on. “You have exactly one minute to decide. Tick tock.”

He opens his mouth and closes it, winces, then opens his mouth again, uttering something, and I lean forward a bit. “What was that, Robert? Louder!”

More tears flow from his eyes as he finally whispers, “Gun.”

“Excellent choice.” Rubbing my chin with the gun, I question him. “Why did the boss kill Theodore Walsh?”

Although he organized quite a show with the car accident where Walsh died tragically with his wife, it wasn’t hard for me to figure out someone killed him once I dug into the subject deeper.

According to various staff members, Theodore was a proud, good man who valued integrity and loyalty, and he treated his employees with respect. He adored his wife and loved his brother who, compared to him, preferred art and ignored family business. Yet Theodore never held it against him.

Completely opposite to the boss, so why he decided to strike a deal with him is beyond me.

The man signed himself a death warrant on that day.

By the surprise flashing on Robert’s face, this wasn’t the question he expected, and he swallows hard, pondering it a little too long for my liking, and I kick him again. “The boss loved him and considered him a perfect groom for his daughter. So he gave him fifteen percent of the shares in his empire. They silently agreed for Theodore to marry his daughter, and then the shares would go back to their children.”

Ah, yes.

Way better than anyone beneath his status—after all, the boss values one thing only.

Wealth.

And if you do not have it, you present no interest to him.

Unless you decide to stand in his way.

Then he just eliminates you from his path.

Twirling the gun on my fingers, not missing how his eyes trail after my every move, the fucker must be afraid I’ll accidentally shoot him.

A lot can be said about the people who died by my hand, but dying because of an accident is not one of them.

“Why would Theodore need these shares?”

Robert’s breathing speeds up, and he gulps for air several times before answering. “He lost several million back then on the stock market, and his corporation faced some trouble. The boss’s deal seemed like the answer to all his prayers.” He shifts a little, wanting to sit up, and then groans in pain when more blood pours from his wounds. “But after a few months, he managed to get all his assets back and tripled his income. He still wanted to keep his word though.”

“But then he met his future wife.”

Robert nods. “He married her, and the boss was livid. Theodore refused to give him his shares back, because by that point, he’d already discovered his side businesses.”

Right.

Illegal brothels with rich clients who would pay anything as long as their kinks stayed hidden in the darkness and didn’t taint their reputations.

“Did he blackmail him?”

“Theodore believed that women worked there against their will.” My brows lift. “They didn’t. Your… the boss.” He quickly corrects himself before he calls the boss by his real name. Or rather what I would have called him had he not stripped me of my family name. What was rightfully mine. “He hired only willing women and men who didn’t mind earning some cash. He was… nice that way.”

A nice pimp who orders an infant shot and arranges a car accident for his enemies.

My laughter reverberates through the space, and he stills, blinking in surprise, but after a prolonged pause, he elaborates further. “The boss warned him several times, but Theodore didn’t listen. So the boss killed him along with his wife. Asher was stupid when it came to business, so he assumed he would get his shares back easily.”

Getting up, I push the chair back and enjoy his scared huff before strolling through the dungeon, thinking over his confession about the events from twenty-three years ago, finding them incredibly stupid.

All he had to do was blackmail Theodore to get him to sign the papers.

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