Epilogue

Two weeks later…

Crouching over the mark, Echo twirled his knife in the open wound. The sexual predator had died a few moments ago, but that didn’t bother him.

He drew a pattern and then lifted his hand to stab into the meaty flesh several more times.

“Let’s go, baby.”

Smiling, he wiped the end of his blade on the dead man’s shirt and stood.

“Where?”

“We have a big day tomorrow with the guys,” Ice said.

Tucking his blade away, Echo stepped away from the body and took the flashlight Ice held. He panned it over the man’s body and studied his handiwork. The mark was sitting in the front seat of a shit brown, four-door sedan and Ice poured hydrofluoric acid all over, completely covering the body. It wouldn’t take long for the liquid to destroy tissue, bone, and all evidence.

Echo took Ice’s outstretched hand and Ice pulled him into his arms. When Ice tipped his head down, Echo lifted up on his toes to meet the long, lingering kiss. The man pulled him farther away from the scene, killing the light so they had to use the infrared glasses to avoid tripping in the dense Northern California forest. Some fifteen minutes later, they reached the dirt road where they’d left their loaner car. They stopped at an all-night diner on their way back to Ventura.

“Feel better?” Ice asked, lifting his hand to his lips.

“I do,” Echo said around a mouthful of burger and fries.

There was nothing better that he could think of. He got to live the life he wanted with Ice, a man he was quickly coming to adore, plus keep on killing bad guys.

What more could a guy ask for?

A few weeks later, Dave made changes in the assassins’ organization, Savage had taken over leadership of Erebus. Thane also joined Erebus and seemed content with being near Savage.

After all the kids had been rescued, placed with Child Protective Services, and set up with appropriate counseling, things were starting to settle into a routine. Aside from Josiah, who was three, the other kids had been between the ages of eight and ten; luckily too young yet to have been ordered to kill anyone.

Dave ended up keeping Cash, Apollo, and Azrael at his place. Although, it had taken Real some time to get the boy to commit to staying put. Azrael went to therapy as well as Cash and Apollo, and they seemed to be doing well.

Ice still worried about Azrael.

Killing Solomon seemed to have put the teenager on a path to murder and Echo agreed. Dave wouldn’t hear of any of them joining Erebus until they were of legal age. That was only two months away. Not much time at all. Plus, what would really change? The three boys would still be altered from Solomon’s abuse and way too young to know what the hell they wanted out of life.

He only hoped that over time, all the boys would change their minds about this line of work.

Because if there was one thing Ice did know—if Azrael wanted to kill, he’d find a way. If not with Erebus, then as a gun for hire. Dave had agreed with him when they’d talked about it, so Ice remained hopeful that Azrael would choose to live a normal life.

Fisher never did show up to any of the locations, but Wrath told Ice that Justice had gotten ahold of him before shit went down.

Something had happened between Rogue and Wrath at one of the locations, but Wrath wasn’t saying. All Ice knew was that Rogue had disappeared shortly after learning Solomon was dead and the kids had been rescued. Ice knew Wrath was still looking for the assassin. Dave wanted both Rogue and Fisher back in the fold. It was better than the alternative.

Savage started changing the way they worked together and began paring them up instead of solo hits.

Along with all that, there had been other changes over the past two weeks and the main one for him and Echo was they finally got a place together. One of Dave’s friends found it for them, and helped with the quick closing. It was located on Ventura beach and hella expensive, but worth every penny.

Getting to come home with Echo made life worth living. They’d even grocery shopped together. Of course, the first time had been nuts because Echo kept throwing junk food in the cart while he’d been trying to pick out vegetables. All in all though, he fucking loved it and so did Echo if the light in the man’s eyes was any indication.

“You about done?” Echo called, his voice floating in from the balcony.

“Yup.” Ice placed three pieces of garlic bread on each spaghetti filled plate and carried them to the balcony of their home.

“Good, the sunset is coming.”

“We got another hour.” Ice huffed beneath his breath, sliding the door further open with his foot.

“I heard you. You’ll pay for that tonight.”

Ice laughed. Grit barreled out of the sliding doors and down the stairs leading to the beach before sprinting at the waves and barking..

Setting the plates down he hurried to grab them both beers from the fridge before taking his place next to Echo at the patio table. They had just enough time to scarf down their food and when the sun sank into the smattering of clouds, colors of orange, gold, and yellow shot across the sky.

Echo linked their hands together and sighed. At the touch of lips on his fingers, Ice turned from the view to the beautiful man beside him.

Echo smiled and squeezed his hand tighter.

Ice was more content than he could ever remember.

This right here was where he belonged, where they both belonged. He got to kill the scum of the earth and also be with the man he’d given his heart and soul to.

Life couldn’t get any better.

THE END

Preorder Justice and Fisher’s story here—Agony