Hitman's Revenge (a Forbidden Bad Boy Romance) Read Online Free Page A

this.
    I eased the window up and climbed in, up and over the sash, stepping into a dark room.
    Patiently I waited before taking another step.
    The sound of heavy breathing filled the air. Though it was dark in the room, I could easily make out the sleeping lump of a body on the bed, but first I needed to confirm that he was my target.
    If he wasn’t, and I killed the wrong person, I would lose all credibility and any future jobs that could come my way.
    Walking over to the bed, I slipped on the ski mask that allowed me to conceal my identity while I confirmed his. If he wasn’t my target, then I could easily escape the way I came and be written off as a burglar if he woke up. It was a part of my profession that I had tried to perfect over the years, but honestly there was no easy way to do it.
    I shone my penlight on the face lying upon the pillows, taking time to memorize the features before clicking it off. I didn’t need to look again. This was my guy.
    Adjusting my gloves, I grabbed the pillow from beside him and placed it over his face, applying pressure to make it quick.
    While I would have been more comfortable to take him out back and torture the hell out of him for what he did to that innocent child, I just wanted the job done.
    Quick and easy. He thrashed at first as he startled awake, gasping for air that would not come. Gritting my teeth, I envisioned the man beneath me to be Hazel’s captor and pressed down even harder, my arms starting to shake as I held the pillow in place.
    His legs bounced and kicked off the mattress as his fists tried to claw the pillow away from his face, but he was fighting a losing battle.
    Soon his limbs dropped to the side, going limp as he quit breathing. I held the pillow in place and started to count. I’d been caught out before in my early days, my target feigning death—holding his breath—and I’d removed the pillow too quickly. Since then I’d made sure.
    Once satisfied, I removed the pillow and checked his pulse.
    He was a goner.
    Calmly I replaced the pillow and took the same path back to the window, climbing through it before easing it back into place. This job had been quick and easy, but some were more complicated. Some jobs came with few or no instructions, only that they wanted the target dead. Others, however, tended to come with some sort of pain inflicted or a particular way for the body to be found. I had done it all.
    I removed my gloves, tucked them into my pocket and walked over to the next street, where the car was parked unassumingly in the residential neighborhood. Then I took off the mask. I wasn’t stupid enough to bring my own damn motorcycle, so a stolen car from a nearby parking lot was transporting me tonight. I would return it to the same lot once I wiped it down, erasing any chance of being discovered. “Easy in, easy out,” I muttered Nixon’s old mantra as I turned over the engine and pulled out into the street. If only finding and rescuing Hazel was going to be that simple.

Six

Jack
Twelve Years Earlier
    J ack watched as Hazel walked toward his car, her eyes downcast as she approached him. He knew instantly that something was wrong, that something had happened at school today. “Hey, Hazel,” he started, pushing off of the car to open the passenger door for her. “How was your day?”
    She mumbled something and climbed in, pulling her book bag into her lap without even looking at him. Usually she greeted him with a smile, her bubbly persona always making him crack up by the time they got home. But today, something was off, and he wasn’t so sure of what.
    Jack eased the passenger door shut and walked around his car, climbing into the driver seat but not cranking the engine just yet. Once they got home he would be expected to go down to the basement to train, and she would go to her room to do her homework, so there would be no time to talk without Nixon present.
    “You gonna tell me what’s wrong, or should I guess?”
    Hazel’s