𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 // 𝐧𝐢𝐤𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐢 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬𝐨𝐯

𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧. 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Nightmares

     The job came from a poor family who had saved up their wages for years to pay for it. They lived in the countryside of Kerch, but the mother traveled alone to Ketterdam to wait for the two most infamous ships to dock in one of the harbors.

She had been a sickly woman, her skin pulled taut over her bones, her face pale and malnourished. Estelle was grateful that she didn't have to see the state of the rest of them.

She hadn't talked much. The only real thing she had to offer was the money and a formal proposition that described everything the job entailed. Even though she hadn't looked like much, she had the look of revenge in her eyes, hungry for vengeance.

Many years ago, before she had a husband and children, the woman made a deal with an investor. She knew how to weave beautiful designs and the investor could help out with getting the word out and making more money.

He had lied. The investor stole the money the woman made and ran off, leaving the woman's prosperous family without any. Their provisions ran out, they had to sell their house and soon, they began a life of living in a wagon.

She wanted everything to be taken away from him.

She wanted what was rightfully hers.

So she hired Nikolai and Estelle. How they did it was entirely up to them, but she wanted the money that was hers. Anything else they found they could keep.

Now, an offer like this was...a rarity. She'd already paid them and then told them that they could take anything they wanted that wasn't hers when they got there. And she'd hired two pirates. Privateers, as Nikolai preferred.

Naturally, Nikolai saw no reason to delay the job. Estelle, however, still had questions.

"You don't want him dead?" she wondered. "Most people do."

"And those are the jobs you usually turn down," the woman replied seamlessly. "I don't care what you do with him, I just want my money. My children, my husband, they're starving. We won't last much longer without food or proper water."

Estelle stared into her eyes, leaning forward in the crowded bar. "Why didn't you go to the Merchant Council about this?"

"I did," she said, eyes blazing with resentment. "They didn't believe me. Said he earned the money by rightfully investing in businesses and I just had a bad season while he had multiple places he invested in. I simply got the bad end of the barrel."

"But this investor pulled the trigger," Nikolai jumped in. "I'm sure they believed it was Ghezen instead."

She nodded. "They did. Said it was his will to be done."