I glared back at him, his familiar words pulling away the curtain of déjà vu, as if I hadn’t already given myself this same speech before in my head.I was well aware of what this industry did to people, and well aware of what it had done to me.I wasn’t the same woman Jason had met in Rome either.I was a new animal—one who wasn’t afraid of monsters anymore.
“Sorry, Matt, but if you think I’m going to abandon him now after everything he’s done for me because he had to get a little blood on his hands then you’re sadly mistaken.”
The man fucking snorted.“Oh, its not just a little blood that’s on his hands.He’s fucking drenched in it now.And I’m willing to bet that if he somehow survives this, he’ll wish he hadn’t.One day, all those bodies are going to catch up with him, and when they do, he’s not going to like what they show him,” he reasoned, his voice tempered by just a touch of sincerity.“Honestly, Jaden, he’s probably better off letting Darren put him out of his misery, so I really wouldn’t get your hopes up for some romantic reunion.”
I could feel my face twist into an ugly scowl before dropping my empty rifle for the Sig I still had in my pocket, aiming it at Matt’s stupid face.
“Fuck you, Matt.We have a better chance at a reunion than you and Kayla, you delusional fuck.”
Unphased by my threat, Matt quickly raised his Glock, pointing it directly at me.“Shut the fuck up, Jaden.You’re the reason I lost her in the first place, you lying little bitch.”
“That’s right, I am,” I affirmed, stepping closer to him, and then swiftly kicking him right in the balls.He doubled over, groaning loudly while giving me the opportunity to disarm him, then pistol whip him across the face so hard that he fell back onto the stairway.“And I’ll be damned if I let you think for one second that you’lleverget her back.”
Matt chuckled lightly as he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth where I hit him.“You fucking women,” he began, groaning to himself as he adjusted his ball sack in his pants.“Always thinking ahead of yourselves and never living in reality.”
I cocked a brow at him.“Says themancurrently staring down two barrels who acts like he’s walking out of this house alive,” I replied bluntly.“I was going to keep you around long enough to help me find Jason’s team, but I think I’ll manage without you just fine.”
Matt grinned something ugly, his eyes brightening under the guise of what could only be nefarious intentions.“What team are you talking about?”
The question made my stomach clench with dread.
“The one that Sid spoke of.The one that was supposed to be sent here to find me!”
“Oh, you mean the team I disposed of right before I got here?Yeah, I wouldn’t expect them anytime soon,” he answered smugly.
I could feel my chest growing heavy as I watched the smirk on Matt’s face bloom into a full-blown bloody grin.
“You’re lying,” I forced myself to say.He had to be.
He tilted his chin, and his eyes suddenly grew dark.“Am I?”he taunted.“You think I’m going to allow those fucking Boy Scouts to keep me from what’s mine?Not on your life.They’ve outlived their usefulness.And so has Jason.”
An animalistic snarl instinctively ripped from my throat at what I had always known to be the truth.“I knew they couldn’t fucking trust you.”
Matt shook his head at me.“I already told you, Jaden, trust doesn’t exist in my world.You only live long enough to serve my best interests.That’s it.Threaten them, and I will eliminate you.You should be intimately familiar with that philosophy by now.”
I could feel my teeth grinding into each other, the pressure causing my jaw to ache as angry tears welled in the corner of my eyes.“Oh, I am,” I growled, clutching the guns in my hands tightly.“More than you know, in fact.But while you benefit from keeping certain people alive to serve you, I find that orchestrating their deaths is far more beneficial, especially your cousin’s.The tricky part is getting the right person to pull the trigger.”
Narrowed dark eyes glowered back at me.“What in the fuck are you talking about?”
My smirk practically split my face in half, knowing I officially had his full attention now.
“Just likeyou fuckingmen,” I mocked him, “Regina also had an ego problem that was easy to exploit.It wasn’t difficult to provoke her into pushing Dominic to go to Honduras, where I hoped he would run his mouth like Darren feared he would.Which, by the way, I would never have known about had you kept your mouth shut about Javier.It’s why Darren rarely discusses business in front of me, because he knows how much of an opportunist I am.So thanks for that.It was very instrumental in making all of this happen,” I added, waving my hand at the growing destruction around us.
A scowl deepened Matt’s features as he absorbed my words.“So you’re saying you used my cousin to push Darren’s youngest brother into a situation that you knew would most likely get him killed in hopes of starting a war?”
I nodded enthusiastically.“Yep, all thanks to you.You’ve actually been a surprisingly helpful little pawn in all this.Isn’t it funny how irony works?I use Regina to kill one of Darren’s brothers, hoping it would start a war between Darren and that cartel, and when that worked, I then use his last remaining brother to kill Regina, knowing it would start a war between you and him, and then I use Darren to kill him.I mean, it’s practically poetry, don’t you think?”
You would have thought Matt’s eyes exploded with how large they suddenly became.“Wait.What the fuck?What did you say?”
“Oh, you heard me right.I was dying to tell you this in Chicago, but it obviously would have spoiled everything, so I couldn’t.”
“Are you seriously sayingyou’re the onewho got Regina killed?”he snapped, his body twitching like he was ready to launch himself from the steps.“That you startedall of this?”
“I mean, Regina kind of got herself killed at her own husband’s funeral by admitting to me within earshot of his grieving brother that she had convinced Dominic to go to Honduras against his brothers’ express orders not to,” I explained, replaying the fun little memory in my head.“It probably didn’t help that I also, within earshot of said grieving brother, insinuated her motive was to inherit Dominic’s estate as his widow of only two weeks.It really wasn’t a hard story to sell since there was probably some truth to it anyway.It wasn’t like it was outside of her character.”
Matt sucked in a labored breath.“You little bitch,” he rasped, his tone full of disbelief as realization finally dawned on him.“This is all your doing.You knew about my promise to my uncle, that I vowed to kill anyone who hurt Regina.”
I nodded.“Yeah, I did, and what a banger it turned out to be,” I replied, the smugness on my tongue tasting better than ever.“Another little secret brought to me by you since Kayla told me that one.”