Your greatest mistake

Chapter 6

Loralie and I have an insatiable chemistry. Even I couldn't deny that. It was easy to abstain without her because I was worked to exhaustion. Then I spent my week with Loralie taking my pleasure and hers, enjoying those fleeting moments.

I never thought there would be a moment in my life that I would be wishing I got a girl pregnant but here we are. Each time we meet I learn a little more about her, and the more I do, the harder it is to let her go. Knowing what she will face if we fail doesn't make it any easier. I am beginning to worry if I might be the one making things difficult for the possibility of a baby. I have been beaten, shot, stabbed and tortured in so many ways I never even thought of what that might mean to making a baby someday.

I am excited for this job to be over as my week with Loralie starts tonight. A bullet flies past me, bringing my thoughts back to my task at hand. Some asshole has just done a runner after shooting one of my men. Honestly he's one of Victor's men, and the idiot was not smart enough to know he made a mistake before it was too late. When we get back from this I'm firing his ass.

The only thing I have to be grateful for is that Victor has let me have Adam, Zac and Lyncon with me now, making my job so much easier to deal with. Victor won't let them in on most information, but they know what they need and Victor is learning how well we work together.

"After this drinks are on you," Lyncon says, loading his gun again at my side.

"Why is it always me?"

"Are you kidding? The shit we go through without knowing a damn thing about what is going on. I think we deserve more than a lousy drink." Lyncons's tone is mischievous and playful.

As much as we all know I'm always shouting everything after a job like this. I still play along to lighten the mood. I know full well they deserve anything I can give them just for staying by my side.

"You knew full well what you were getting into before you started."

"That may be so but everyone knows you can't break up the dream team."

"Are you both done? How about we get this done so you all can get to your drinks, and I can get back to my fiancée." Adam's tone is exasperated from our inability to take anything serious.

I sigh playfully and nod to Lyncon who knows the time for play is over. He moves off from my side as Zac and Adam do the same, setting up a pincer movement.

I am running down the docks. We are weaving in and out around and supplies are littering the dock, ready for whoever collects them.

Another bullet flies past and I duck behind a larger wooden crate. I know he's not alone as I hear more gunfire from both sides of me. After a few more shots it goes quiet and I have no doubt it is Lyncon and Zac who snatched the victory.

I hear a click behind me and freeze.

Bang!

I turn to see a man on the floor with blood oozing out of a bullet wound to the head and Adam towering over him, his gun raised.

"How the hell did you miss him?" Adam snaps. "Whatever is distracting you needs to be put away right now. Focus! You can't be my best man if you're dead." The moment he's finished chewing me out he moves off, checking some docked boats.

I shake my head, forcing myself to get it together. My head is so full of a conflicting war about having a baby in general, let alone bringing one into this lifestyle, but he's right, I can't be torturing myself about babies when I have to be alive to have one.

I see movement to my right. The man I'm after shoots out from the back end of a docked boat Adam is searching. I don't risk Adam getting fired at in such a close range so I move forward quickly and loud, distracting the man.

I hear the sound of a speed boat coming near. My eyes dart to the absent-minded occupants. As I see him try to jump onto it as it passes by, I raise my gun taking the chance, and fire.

Bang!

I see his body fall to the water.

Bang!

Bang!

Michael, Victor's right hand man, kills the two men in the speed boat.

"What the fuck?" I snap.

Those men were innocent. You could see it clearly. They had no idea he was jumping onto their boat."

"The moment you fired your gun you signed their death certificates and any others who are witnesses," he states casually.

It has been four months working with these people and I still can't get my head around how they work. I know bad men, I have done shitty things, but this is a level I have never seen before. I thought I was the devil before, now these guys make me look like a saint.

This asshole I just shot was pinching money from one of Victor's side projects, which means a business so bad it's underground.

Zac, Adam, and Lyncon are back without a scratch on them as I trusted would be the case. They all begin to walk towards me but suddenly they stop and begin to walk in the opposite direction. I turn to see what made them go.

A limo pulls up at the end of the dock and I see Victor get out, dressed to the nines as usual, in an expensive black tailored suit and matching overcoat sitting on his shoulders.

"Good job, my boy!" he laughs, puffing on a cigar. Things have never been so smooth since you joined our team," he beams.

"I don't know how when lerch over here keeps killing everyone," I say, indicating to Michael who doesn't seem fazed with my remark at all.

Victor laughs, slapping me on the back, "This is the big leagues, my boy. You will know there are no loose ends, everything has to be like clockwork."

We walk to the end of the pier where the body is being fished out of the water and thrown onto the speed boat that has been retrieved, while another man is dousing the boat in gasoline.

After everything is set up they push the boat out. It glides across the water as Victor turns and walks us back to the other end of the pier to the limo.

"I have complete faith in your abilities my son and with some time and the opportunity, I think you could be greater than I ever was."

I stop. "What do you mean by that?"

"Didn't your mother tell you? When I retire you will be taking over the business."

"What? No, she didn't. I thought one of your loyal men were being trained to take over for you."

He laughs a full-body laugh. "From the moment you were born you were promised to me, the one I would train to take my place, and now here you are, together at last."

I feel a cold chill take over me. This was not what I was promised. They were after a child to raise for the business, not me! I can't take all this in. I think it shows on my face because the next moment Victor turns, abruptly springing his gun on me. He smiles a cold, chilling smile as his dark brown hair is tousled gently by the night breeze.

"You're not getting cold feet, are you son?"

His icy, grey eyes freeze me in place. This man terrifies me to my very core unlike any other I have ever met. He demands respect and fear in a simple look.

Bang!

He fires the gun. I hear the bullet fire from the barrel and whiz straight past my ear.

BOOM! The boat explodes behind me and I feel the heat from the explosion prickle at the back of my neck.

"No sir," I reply, unflinching like the perfect good dog I have become.

"That's what I want to hear," he grins, returning the gun to the holster inside his coat and disappearing back into his limo.

I watch the limo leave as I realise this just got a whole load harder.