Read Revenge: An Alpha Billionaire Romance for Free Online

the end of the first Gulf War. This would have been right around the time you were getting your first teeth. It's not on the official list of deployments, but we were sent up to try and pacify a country that was embroiled in a civil war that's still going on today. The 75th Rangers might get the glory and the blame for that Charlie Foxtrot, but we were there, too.” He pauses, and shakes his head before continuing.
    “The problem was that we couldn't find anyone worth turning the country over to. Each warlord was just as depraved and morally bankrupt as the next. It wasn't even a matter of having to choose between the lesser of two evils, it was more like deciding by randomly tossing a dart at a list of names. I saw things... I did things that made human life very, very cheap. I saw plenty of people killed, and for a lot less than some embarrassing photos.”
    “It still isn't right, Nathan. Whatever happened twenty years ago... that was then, this is now. And what the hell's this about Katrina's parents?”
    Nathan starts reassembling his pistol, slowly making sure each piece is perfectly aligned before he makes tiny adjustments with a miniature screwdriver set. “Samuel and Theresa Grammercy were killed when their car exploded in a parking garage near the Fair Grounds ten years ago. Katrina survived because she was fifty feet away, partially shielded by a concrete pillar that protected her from the worst of the bomb blast.”
    “A bomb ordered by my father,” I say bluntly. “You can say it; I want the truth.”
    “It may have been ordered by Peter, yes,” Nathan says quietly. “It may very well have been.”
    “And is it possible that maybe you were involved in planting that bomb?” I ask. Nathan slides the barrel of his Colt back into the sliding upper part and checks the action.
    “If you're asking me if I have experience with explosives, the answer is yes. Special Forces trained me in those and a lot more. But I didn't kill Samuel and Theresa. I didn't really like Samuel, but he was a family man, and someone who was doing a little bit of good in this town. I certainly would not have blown them up in front of their daughter. Besides, weren't you two close back then?”
    “We were good friends,” I admit. “I met her when I was six, I think? We were in the same class through most of elementary school.”
    “Did you have feelings for her? She was blossoming into a young woman right about the time her parents died, and you were... well, if my memory is correct, that was about the time you started showing an interest in women.”
    It's my turn to remain silent as I think back on the past. Had I been interested in Katrina? I remember thinking she was cool, and not yucky like I thought most girls were back then. And she was really cute, in a way that... oh, fuck this, I can't tell Nathan all this. I can't even be honest with myself. “She and I... she was a special friend, which makes what happened in the limo not just embarrassing, but painful, Nathan. Regardless, I don't want her killed over it. It's not right, dammit!”
    Nathan finishes putting his Colt back together and jacks the slide, checking the action. It slides back with a deadly hiss. Everything is perfectly clean and steely efficient before it catches in the open position. “You keep saying that word, 'right'. Tell me again, Jackson. What do you know about right and wrong?”
    I square my shoulders and look Nathan in the eye. I don't know where I'm getting the guts for this, but I suspect it has something to do with Katrina. “I know enough to say that's it's wrong to order a young woman to her death over some embarrassing pictures. Especially when she might have a valid reason to hate your guts.”
    Nathan flicks his wrist, and the slide on his pistol snaps back. He checks the sights quickly before setting his Colt down on the table and giving me... a smile? “Come, have some tea with me. I just acquired some charcoal-roasted Taiwanese Li Shan