Page 251 of Allegiance

Jinx sipped her coffee.

Then, she continued.

“We’re a family, and once you stop fighting us, we can help you fight whatever it is that you’re waging a war against, Remmy. We’re your best asset, and we’ve all been through some shit. If you need a friend, I’m there.”

He glanced over.

“I’m not a good person,” he said.

She waited, but he said nothing else.

“Because you killed Teague?” she asked.

He laughed sardonically.

“No, that makes me a good person. He was a foul piece of shit. I meant something else.”

“Like?”

He closed his mouth.

“I killed a pregnant woman once,” she said. “The military sent me on a mission in the Philippines. The woman was the target, and so was her husband. Only, they needed him alive—not dead. So, I didn’t question it. I found her, I saw her out shopping, and pulled the trigger. It ended her in seconds, and it ended the child too.”

He said nothing.

“She was trafficking people. She was kidnapping children and selling them into child labor to businesses that wanted a cheap workforce. She also sold her own children to make a buck.”

He was horrified.

“Jesus.”

“Only, I didn’t know it at the time. As a Snake, we’re told the job, given the dossier, and we do it. We don’t question. We don’t wait. We just do it.”

He was curious.

“Without any knowledge?”

She shook her head.

“No. None. It wasn’t my job to ask why. It was my job to do and let the chips fall where they might. One might call me a murderer,” she said. “Only, I saved countless people, and I saved that child from a loveless life where he or she was nothing more than a slave.”

“Did you sleep after?”

Jinx considered her answer, and went with honesty.

“No. I didn’t. That’s how you know if you’re a good person or not. Viper…she could kill and sleep just fine. I had nightmares and was a mess. It’s why I was sent here. I was broken after being captured. This place healed me. These people healed me. Maybe one day, you’ll open the door and let that happen.”

He closed his eyes.

And took a chance.

“I cheated on her.”

Remmy pushed to get through it, and it wasn’t easy.

“Before she was killed, I had an affair with Artemis Dubois. She tricked me into bed, drugging me, and when I woke up…”

“That’s not your fault.”