I tapped the bullet’s metal casing against my wooden desk.

My eyes were blood-shot red from insomnia. I rarely blinked. Too worked up after spending the night pouring over the documents Sylvia had discovered in her intense research about Madam.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The veins in my arms swelled and pulsed as my blood ran hot with a burning need to seek revenge. Madam had pulled it off perfectly. She’d thought of every angle, detailing the chain of events to the very minute they happened. She covered her tracks and had the tenacity to then convince me that I was the one at fault.

She would pay for this…

Breathing heavily through my nose, my heart beat wildly inside my chest—hard enough to cause my ribs to bruise. This went beyond my desire to stop Madam from bringing drugs into our city. Now it was personal.

I closed my eyes and imagined Nora’s and Patrick’s smiling faces. A sense of calm filled me.

Memories of them filled me with purpose. I missed those days when the future was nothing but sunshine. We’d shared so much hope, only to have it all come crashing down in the blink of an eye.

I set the bullet down and rubbed the back of my neck before rolling my gaze back to the paperwork spread across my desk.

All this time I’d blamed myself.

Felt guilty about having those drinks.

Thinking over and over what I would have done differently to prevent my son from getting killed, it was clear that nothing I couldn’t have done anything to stop it. Madam would have found a way eventually.

Lowering my head, I rubbed my eyes between pinched fingers.

I didn’t care how Sylvia acquired this knowledge. It was true. Down to the very last detail. From the planning of Nora’s late meeting with a new client, to me sharing a drink at the bar. With the way Madam was now coming after me—making it clear she no longer needed my services—she was revealing her cards, showing her true character. She wasn’t afraid to tell me how worthless I was to her, especially now that Oscar had filled the void I couldn’t. She’s found a new partner to use, manipulate, and control.

One by one, I lined up six bullets in front of me on the desk.

Stone.

Sylvia.

Kendra.

Angel.

Wes.

Adrianna.

The alliance was forming and we all shared one common enemy. An evil assailant who now faced a perilous future. I was coming for her, and I would make sure the others would, too.

Reaching across the desk, I took my revolver into my hand and swung open the cylinder.

Tears filled my eyes as I slid one bullet into each of the chambers. Five bullets for the five years that Madam kept this from me. Five bullets for the five years I’d lived without my son, without my wife. Five bullets for the five years I’d thought about taking my own life just to stop the immense guilt I constantly felt. The sixth bullet for Madam.

This wasn’t just about my past, though. It was about now and the healing of Kendra. I needed to get her back to feeling complete so we could share five more decades together.

Once the gun was loaded, I snapped the cylinder back in place and held it up in the air.

Closing one eye, I sighted in a target thinking how much it hurt seeing Kendra balled up in the dark shadowy corner of her apartment, too afraid to cry.

It killed me to see my girl broken.

I feared the worst.

Every horrific possibility my mind could conjure up flashed before my eyes.

I was afraid Madam had finally found a way to convince Kendra that taking her own life was better than fighting to keep what she already had.

My pulse slowed as aches and pains rolled in waves across my body.

I had let her down.

My eyelids drooped.

I didn’t deserve her.

I brushed my thumb over the trigger safety.

She was too good for me. Forgave me too easily.

I loved her.

“Hey.”

Kendra’s beautiful voice lifted the dark cloud of depression that had settled over me. Turning my head, my gaze drifted over her perfect body. “Hey.” I smiled.

The sun was beginning to peek over the horizon and the last of the night’s cool air drifted through the penthouse suite. Traffic hummed below. The world was waking up.

“I missed you last night,” she said.

“I couldn’t sleep.” I rolled my eyes back to the mess fanned out on my desk. Tipping my body forward, I gathered the papers in a pile and tucked them back inside the folder they’d come in. Offering Kendra my hand, I said, “Come. Sit.”

She settled her slender fingers into my palm as I pulled her onto my lap.

Her body was scantily covered and her perky breasts poked beneath the white tee she wore. There was nothing beneath. I smoothed my hand up and down her soft legs, over her arms, appreciating the feel of her smooth, warm flesh. Curling my fingers around the nape of her neck, I pulled her down for a kiss. Her lips parted and our tongues touched. “Did you sleep?”

She ran her nails through the hair on the back of my head as her sleep-tired eyes drifted down my shirtless torso. “A little bit.”

Last night she wouldn’t let me out of her sight. Too much had happened in too short a time to feel comfortable. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to hold on to me and not let go. What Sylvia revealed about her family inheritance wasn’t easy to grasp. One woman controlled us—used us—set us up for her own advantage. Thanks to Sylvia, we were on to her—this time having the evidence to back up our theory.

Kendra turned her head to the desk. A lone bullet sat next to the gun. I watched her pinch it between her fingers and pluck it off the desk. Holding it in front of her face, she asked, “What are you wearing to Tonya’s funeral?”

Running my calloused palm over the angle of her knee, I said, “I have it all planned out. You don’t have to worry about any of that.”

Her eyes locked on mine. “Mine, too?”

“Yours, too.” I smiled as my hand wedged between her silky-smooth thighs.

We stared into each other’s longing gazes as I ran the tip of my finger across the seam of her pussy lips. Kendra’s mouth parted as she hooked her arm around my neck. Beginning to whimper, she asked, “Did you finally look at what Sylvia discovered?”

My finger stopped moving when I glanced to the closed folder.

My heart ached as it squeezed.

After Sylvia left Kendra’s apartment last night, I’d refused to look. Instead, I focused on getting Kendra packed up to come back to my place. It was the safest thing to do. For both of us. Her apartment had been jeopardized and I’d make sure I had a chat with her doorman about the obvious flaws in building security. A corrupt DA and an investigative reporter were crafty and could be rather convincing when determined to get what they were after.

“Yeah,” I breathed.

Kendra took my face between her hands and pressed her lips against mine. Closing my eyes, she was a breath of fresh air—the silver lining in this hell I had been forced to endure.

When she pulled away, her eyes searched mine for answers but she didn’t press any further than just wanting to know I had gotten around to looking at what was uncovered. Besides, I wasn’t sure I had it in me to tell her. The weight of what Madam had done was fresh. The more I thought about how a money trail led back to Madam hiring a hitman to purposely cause me to crash—the same accident that killed my son—was too much to make any kind of sense of.

Leaning over her delicious thighs, I pulled our thirty-day contract from beneath the pile.

Kendra reluctantly took the paper and flicked her eyes over it, skimming the words. “We didn’t give her Sylvia. She’ll come for us, Kelly.” Her bottom lip trembled.

“I know,” I murmured when reaching for my gun. “And I’ll be ready,” I spun the gun’s cylinder, “for when she does.”