Anders

Prologue

Bobby

I hated working on rainy days. It made everything else inherently messy. I prided myself on my ability to do my job swiftly and cleanly, but the rain made mud and it just changed the whole atmosphere. If it was going to rain, I preferred to be working from home. At least then I had access a beautiful blowjob as a congratulation for a job well done.

I'm Bobby Lowery and among many things I was a notable crime lord. I could go into detail about the things I was involved in, but it was a long list. The highlights were the obvious things: drugs, smuggling all sorts of things and my particular favorite thing, murder for hire.

I didn't start out as some underling in a criminal organization and then worked my way up. I started out as a kid, tall for his age, playing football practically as soon as I could walk. Even as a kid I was always rough around the edges. I ran faster so that I could drop my shoulder and hit harder.

I was a punisher.

By the time I was in high school I was known as The Beast. I was bigger than even most of my coaches, I had a chip on my shoulder and a taste for blood. Other teams would try and target me to get me out of the game, but I would drive them into the ground. That was the game for me. I couldn't give a damn about the other stuff.

After high school I went straight into the military. I had other options, but the idea of getting into the thick of battle somewhere appealed more to me than a potential college football career that could be parlayed into an NFL career. And I damn sure wasn't attracted to more time inside of anyone's classroom.

So instead, I became a Marine and then, when that wasn't enough, I joined the Special Forces. There was a demon inside of me and the things that I saw and was ordered to do fed into that animal. But I was never satisfied.

I could never be me.

Don't ask, don't tell meant that any errant thought I had that didn't fit with the image of the womanizing bachelor bad boy I portrayed myself as, got buried deep down in the bottomless pit that had existed within me my entire life. I played the part so long it became a part of my psyche and was completely reflexive.

I hated it, but I had done it so long that I didn't think it would ever change. I would die alone in this lie and maybe people would mourn who they thought I was. My body would be buried beneath a headstone that depicted my mask and, even in death, I would never be at peace.

But then I met Blake Anders.

She recruited me once I was honorably discharged. Apparently, some guys I served with were working for her and, when she needed fresh blood for some new projects, they mentioned me. At first I was just the muscle when she was acting as a fixer. But soon I was an outright mercenary.

The promotion was welcomed, and I excelled. She saw potential in me and, when she needed someone with a particular skill set to help in a kidnapping and torture mission that would surely end in a creative murder and body dump, I was once again promoted.

That particular case was my first time working with Bryan. I'd heard of him and the consensus was that he was a certifiable sociopath that shouldn't be underestimated under any circumstances.

Bryan was unassuming and seemed completely normal. I expected someone akin to Heath Ledger's Joker, but instead I got this mild-mannered guy in a tailored suit. I knew he was gay the moment I met him, but he was calm. I wondered how a guy like him got into this kind of work and it made me contemplate his sister's ability to coerce people to do her bidding.