Page 72 of Connor's Claim

His lips curled in a cool smile. “No, Everly. I eliminate people who need to be gone. In most gangs, that means rivals who cross us. We operate a little differently.”

“You kill.” The words were uncomfortable in my mouth. I banded my arms around myself to ward off a shiver.

“I kill. I do it well. I enjoy my job.”

“Who?”

“Cassie described the men on Arran’s club list as the worst of the worst, but she was wrong. There’s a tier below that. The men who serve time for crimes so bad the news channels can’t report on the details. Or ones the police aren’t able to prosecute because of lack of evidence, such as witnesses who are too damaged to withstand a trial. If they’re in my city, it’s my job to take them out.”

Another car slid into the yard, gravel popping under the tyres. It was the one that had gone off route. Three men departed, and one opened the boot.

They dragged out a fourth person. He kicked out at them, his mouth gagged and his hands tied behind his back. But his movements were fumbling as if he’d been drugged.

Tonight’s victim.

I swallowed. “Who is he?”

“Victor Green. A rapist.”

Rapist. I stared at the man, a sour taste flooding my mouth. “Who did he hurt?”

“His girlfriend’s teenage daughter. He served eight years for what he did to that kid, then they released him back into the community because it was a first offence and he’d behaved himself behind bars. He was given a room in a halfway house only thirty minutes from where she lives. Where do ye think he went the first opportunity he had?”

My horror grew with each sentence, and absolute hatred filled me for the disgusting specimen. “He went to see her?”

“We were watching him. Took him down and found a coil of rope in his pocket along with a knife. She never knew.” He cracked his neck. Then his gaze landed on me. “This is what I enforce. Arran plays a part, too. He wants Genevieve to see because the two of them are going to get married and he wants no secrets. I don’t give a fuck about marriage but I do about ye. You’re mine, so ye need to see this. Watch me, not him, if ye prefer. Understand what I am.”

With a possessive growl, he grasped my neck and pulled me in for a kiss. My pulse sped, and I returned the kiss with an edge of desperation.

Then he released me and tugged up the skeleton bandanna he’d tied around his throat, handing me one to do the same. We climbed out. Genevieve emerged at the same time, her face equally covered but her eyes bleak in the moonlight. She came to me, her hand reaching for mine.

Her fingers shook.

For some strange reason, mine didn’t.

Two men moved in behind us, and Connor and Arran strode out to take the prisoner by an arm each. They hauled him to the building we’d parked near. Following, I took in the grim surroundings. The decaying boathouse with rusted metal panels.The thick smell of the river. It was so isolated here that the grunts and muffled shouts from the rapist barely travelled.

Up some steps, we entered the building.

Behind the frontage, the far side was half open to the elements, a gap presumably where boats would come in and go out and a gantry of steel grate flooring reaching out over the water. Deadwater River was tidal, and the water rushed fast, heading out to sea. The sound filled my ears.

“Wait here,” one of the men ordered me and Genevieve.

I stopped, out of the cool breeze that swept through the building but close enough to see the dangerous glint in Connor’s eye.

Years ago, he’d killed a man who’d hurt me. The colleague of my father’s who’d attacked me in my house. When he told me, I’d been shocked, but it had worn off. The remaining, stronger emotion was one ofrelief. For the sake of the girl this man had hurt, I wanted the same feeling. Knowledge that a bad person was off the streets.

Genevieve huddled closer, her fingers gripping mine.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “This is necessary.”

“You sound like them.” She took a shaky breath behind her bandanna but straightened, loosening her grip a degree.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Connor. He was saying something low to the man, then lifted his chin to Arran who cut the gag away.

“You’re fucking insane if you think you can intimidate me,” Victor-the-rapist said. “I know people. I’ll fucking bring the house down on you all.”

“Victor Green, ye were found outside the home of Phoebe Smith and her ma,” Connor intoned. “We were watching ye. We know what ye were going to do.”