GoodKnight: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  I had to find him, and then convince him that we all needed him. I needed to find a way to make him see that he could still have a life without Kate, but that was going to be difficult. I wasn’t sure that even his kids could bring him back at this point, but I had to try. I would use anything to get him home.

  Not everyone at Reed Security understood Knight, but I did. Even Derek didn’t agree with everything Knight did. He had come to understand him over the years, but he still didn’t stand beside him in every case. They were too different. Knight had a very skewed sense of justice and right and wrong. Most of the guys had never been in the position that Knight had. They hadn’t watched their friends being sent out to slaughter. It had warped Knight. Having served with him, I understood him better than anyone.

  But Kate had been his compass that directed him back on the right path. Without her, he was flailing in the wind. I wasn’t sure that he would listen to me. He was crazed right now, and his grief was driving him to wipe out anyone involved with her death.

  My phone rang and I quickly answered. “Tell me you have something.”

  “Okay, it looks like Burke and Samuelson are both out of the office right now, but Harding, Selleck, and Green all have a meeting in Washington D.C. this week.”

  “That’s where he’ll hit then.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. He’ll want to save Burke for last. And he won’t be able to resist having three targets in the same place. He’ll want to take them all out at once. Send me their itineraries.”

  “On it.”

  “Thanks for the help, Becky.”

  “Any time. And Hunter?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Be careful. I know that you want to save Knight, but he’s reckless right now. Don’t do anything that could get you killed in an attempt to save him.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  And that was the shit part about all this. I knew that if I went to find Knight, I could very well end up dead. But if I stayed home and did nothing, I would never be able to forgive myself.

  I pulled my gun as I approached the Capitol Building. I had to be insane. I was walking toward a government building with a gun. It was a good way to get sent to jail. I had tracked all three senators to the capitol, but as far as Becky could tell, they hadn’t left yet. It was late at night, which meant that if they were still here, Knight was most likely with them. The question was where.

  With all the security around the building, I had to be extra careful to avoid cameras and guards. This was insanity, and I cursed myself again as I rounded the corner to the front lawn of the capitol. If I got caught, I wouldn’t be able to explain myself. I crept along the grass, my eyes catching something in the distance. It looked like there was someone lying on the ground with someone standing next to the body. I cursed, sure that Knight was there, killing someone at this very moment. But as I got closer, I saw that it wasn’t just one body. It was three.

  Glancing around, I quickly checked for any sign of anyone watching. It looked clear, so I approached cautiously. But as I got closer, I wished that I had never come here. Three bodies lay on the ground, all decapitated. And the person I thought was standing above them was actually three stakes with the heads of the senators pushed through the stakes at the top.

  I had to turn away before I puked. It was a gruesome sight, and in the daylight, it would be even worse. I couldn’t stick around though. I had to get out of here before someone assumed that I had done this. I quickly moved back to my truck, calling Cap on the way.

  “Yeah?”

  “I need Becky to hack into the video feed at the Capitol Building and erase all video footage.”

  “Why?” he asked warily.

  “Knight was here. He killed three senators and shoved their heads on top of spikes right on the front lawn of the Capitol Building.”

  “Like they used to do in England?”

  “Just like that.”

  “Well, I guess the message about them being traitors will get across that way.”

  “Cap, my truck is in the parking lot. I can’t be tied to this in any way. I need her to erase everything before they find those bodies. The minute they’re found, the police will be after any footage they can get their hands on.”

  “I’ll put her on it, and I’ll have Rob hack into the feed from the streets. We’ll make sure they can’t find anything.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Where are you going now?”

  “I’ll start checking out motels. He probably won’t stay in D.C., but I have an idea of where he’ll go next.”

  “We’ll do what we can on our end.”

  “Thanks.”

  “And Hunter, tell Knight…never mind. He doesn’t want to hear from me right now. Just get him and bring him home.”

  “That’s the plan.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Knight

  I walked into the motel room and slammed the door behind me. I was covered in blood. That particular kill had been especially brutal, but it was worth it as the pain dulled with every hit. Now…now I stood in this dark motel room, all alone and feeling just as shitty as the day I lost Kate. My eyes slid closed and the video of her being shot replayed in my mind again. The fear…the tears…the lifeless eyes.

  I stumbled back against the wall as the pain took over. I felt like I was being gutted all over again. The sharp pain in my chest couldn’t be worse if it was the night I had been stabbed in the fire. I slid down the wall, trying to hold in the tears and the pain. I couldn’t fall apart. My plan wasn’t complete yet. My whole body started shaking as the tears fell. I had let her down. I had gotten her killed with my own recklessness. My kids’ mother was gone and I wasn’t the man to take her place, to guide them. I loved them so much, God, I did, but I wasn’t the moral compass that could guide them through life.

  I pulled out my gun, tapping it against my forehead as I tried to gain some control. I just wanted the pain to stop. I wanted to go be with her again. I wanted to stop the constant ache in my chest that reminded me I would never see her beautiful smile again or feel her skin against mine. With tears filling my eyes, I turned the gun on myself, placing the barrel in my mouth. Just one pull and it would all be over. All the pain and all the longing would be gone. I squeezed my eyes closed and put my finger on the trigger.

  Just do it. Just pull the trigger and end this.

  A hard grasp on the barrel of the gun yanked it from my mouth. My eyes sprung open to see Hunter kneeling in front of me.

  “This isn’t what she would have wanted, man.”

  “She’s not here anymore,” I said, sucking back the tears.

  “She’s still with you. Hud, I don’t care what you think right now, if you do this, you’ll never see her again. I know that you think you can end all the pain, but that’s not going to get you what you need.”

  “I can’t breathe without her,” I said quietly. “I keep seeing…I just can’t fucking breathe.”

  His hand wrapped around the back of my neck, pulling me toward him, pulling my forehead to rest against him. My tears ran like a river down my face and my body shook in pain, but Hunter just sat there, listening to my pain and anguish. I didn’t care if I looked weak. If anyone walked in right now, they wouldn’t see some pussy on the floor crying. They would see a broken man that had nothing left to live for.

  “Nothing helps,” I said quietly. “I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. All I see is her. I let her down and now she’s dead.”

  “Nothing is ever going to help. I know you think going on a killing rampage is going to ease the pain, but you need to actually grieve. You need your kids.”

  I scoffed at him. “I can’t be around them. I’m no good for them. I’m no good for anyone.”

  “You can’t really believe that,” he said in astonishment.

  “Look at what I did. I should have left things alone. If I had never killed Senator Blakely, I would have never dug through his safe. None of this
would have ever happened.”

  “Yeah, including uncovering a plot to kill off at least half the population on earth.”

  “And that made it worth losing Kate?” I asked scathingly. “Nothing will ever be worth losing her.”

  “Maybe not, but what you did saved lives. Hell, you saved everyone at Reed Security by pushing. You knew something was wrong and you refused to back down. I know you fucking paid for it, but I can’t regret that you saved my family. Hud, all of us would have stopped digging. Imagine where we would be if the virus got out. It would be too late and none of us would have been able to do anything to save our families. And you know Kate, she would have done anything to treat any patient. She would have been one of the first people to get sick. Like it or not, this was always going to happen.”

  I pushed away from him and stood, swiping at my face. I cleared my throat and snatched my gun back, setting it on the nightstand. “Yeah, well, there’s only one more to go and then it’s done.”

  “That part is done. There are still others involved, others that did their part to make sure that the senators got away with this shit.”

  “Caldwell will make sure they’re taken care of.”

  “And then there’s the lab,” Hunter said carefully.

  “What about the lab?”

  “You know we can’t just let the government go in there. They’ll take the virus and hide it away. That just leaves it for someone else to get their hands on. We need to take down that lab. Sinner style.”

  I huffed out a laugh. “So, let him go blow it up. I don’t give a fuck anymore.”

  “We need you,” he insisted.

  “You don’t need me to blow up a lab. When the last senator is gone, that’s it for me.”

  “What? You’re just walking away?”

  “I have to. My kids are safer if I’m not around.”

  “Your kids are safest when you’re with them.”

  “Was Kate safest with me?” He didn’t say anything and I nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

  “It wasn’t because of you. Knight, everyone has a weak point.”

  “I didn’t. Before her, no one got through me. Then I met her and I started getting shot left and right. She made me weak, and those kids make me weak too. And if I’m weak, I can’t protect them. But if I walk away, I can focus on just getting rid of the criminals.”

  “And who’s going to watch your kids? Who’s going to make sure that they grow up the right way?”

  I stared him down. Anyone at Reed Security was qualified. I would trust any of them to make sure that my kids had everything they needed. “Pick someone. Hell, Cap already has a herd of kids. They’ll fit right in.”

  “Just like that? You just hand them over and you don’t give a fuck what happens?”

  “I can’t!” I shouted, my whole body shaking in rage. “I can’t be around them. I can’t see them every day and not think of Kate. I can barely make it through the day now without having a meltdown, and that’s only because I’m killing the people responsible for her death! And you think I should go be around them?”

  “So, you’re just going to walk away. Fuck everyone that’s put their trust in you, that’s stood by you through everything. Fuck Cap, even though he made it possible for you to have a life again. Fuck me! Fuck the other two guys that helped you escape so you could live your life!”

  “Exactly!” I shouted. “Because without her, there is no world in which I can exist. There’s nothing without her!” I gripped the back of my neck and paced the room. Every second, I was losing it just a little more. I couldn’t hang on that much longer. I needed to move on to my next target. I needed to end this and then… “You should leave.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Pappy, if you ever gave a shit about me. If you care at all about my kids, you’ll walk away from me and never look back.”

  He sat down on the bed and kicked up his legs, taking the remote and turning on the tv. “Yeah, I don’t think so. I walk out of here and you’ll blow your brains out. I can’t have that on my conscience.”

  “I still have a job to finish.”

  “So, finish it. I’m not stopping you.”

  I gritted my teeth together in anger. “I didn’t invite you to tag along.”

  “Well, that’s just too bad. See, I already got in a huge fight with Lucy over this. She didn’t want me to come. She said that this was a job you had to do on your own. I argued that I was your BFF and best friends didn’t abandon one another. So, see, if I went home now, she would think that I’m not really the man I claim to be. And you know that I get into a lot of shit with Lucy. I’m not about to let her say that she was right and I was wrong about this situation. You give a woman an inch and suddenly, she owns your life.”

  “Lucy already owns your life,” I said tiredly, sitting down on the bed.

  “Well, yeah, but she doesn’t know that.”

  I kicked back on the bed, resting my head on the pillow. I chuckled to myself, remembering the last time Hunter tracked me down to a motel room. He complained about the bed bugs, and I hadn’t slept in another motel room since, not if I could help it. Now I didn’t even give a shit. We had come so far since then. I went from being on my own, working jobs and not caring about life to having everything I could ever dream of. Now I was right back where I started.

  “Maggie threatened to cut off Cap’s balls,” Hunter supplied, flipping through the channels.

  “When does she not do that?”

  “This time she was serious. She even rigged up his bed with grenades, just like we always thought would happen,” he chuckled. “He laid down in bed and felt the pressure trigger, then heard the beeping. He started calling out to her, fucking yelling at the top of his lungs to get the kids out of the house. She comes sauntering in with a fucking detonator and her finger on the depressor. I swear to God, when we showed up, I was sure that he had shit his pants. Turns out they were those fake grenades that we gave Rocco for his baby shower. She was just pissed and wanted to watch him squirm.”

  My eyes started to droop, but I kind of wanted to know what he had done to piss her off so much. “Why’d she do it?”

  Hunter’s laughter died down and he turned to look at me. “She thought Cap should have come after you. She’s worried that you’re going to get yourself killed.” Then he shrugged. “Either that or she’s pissed that you didn’t bring her along.”

  He started rambling about something that Sinner had done, and the constant hum of his voice had me drifting off to sleep. When he shifted on the bed next to me, I came awake suddenly and grabbed for my gun, sure there was someone here.

  “You need some sleep, man. I’m not going anywhere.”

  I jerked awake, grabbing for my gun immediately. Hunter was lounging in a chair, eating some fast food and watching the TV. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and sighed. It was still dark out and when I looked at the clock on the nightstand, I saw that it was eleven o’clock. I had been out for a few hours. That was longer than I had slept ever since…

  “I got you some food,” Hunter said, shoving a bag toward me on the table.

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Yeah, you also didn’t need sleep. Eat the fucking food.”

  I snatched the food off the table, not needing him to bitch at me like a woman. The first bite was like sawdust in my mouth. Nothing was good to me. Everything tasted like shit.

  “So, what’s the next job?”

  “You’re not coming.”

  “Who said I was? Just because I asked where you were headed doesn’t mean that I’m joining you.”

  I stared him down and nodded. “Good.”

  “Oh, I’m definitely joining you. I didn’t face the wrath of Lucy just to sit on the sidelines. So, who’s the final target?”

  “Samuelson and Burke.”

  “That’s two targets.”

  I nodded. “It’s only one job.”

  “And what about when this is all ov
er?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, you’ve killed off pretty much everyone involved. I was a good day behind you from the moment I started tracking you, and every time I thought I found you, you’d already moved on. You’ve done what you set out to do, so what happens next?”

  I shook my head. I had no fucking clue. “I go back to my old life, I guess.”

  “Killing? No,” he said, practically slamming his burger down on the table. “Cap didn’t go to all the trouble of saving your ass and creating a new life for you, just for you to throw it away. You have kids-”

  “I have kids that deserve better,” I snapped.

  “Yeah? So, you want them raised by Cole and Alex? You’re just leaving them without parents and you’re good with that?”

  “Cole never liked me anyway.”

  “Well, that’s just tough shit, because you’re their father and they need you.”

  “No, they need their mother. I’m a lousy replacement.”

  “You can’t really think that,” he scoffed. “I’ve seen you around your kids. There’s no one besides Kate that you love more. You would do anything for them. You’re just too blinded by rage and sadness to see that they need you.”

  “Would you shut the fuck up?” I shouted. “I don’t need you telling me what my own damn kids need. I know exactly what they need, and that’s for me to not be in their lives. I burn everything I touch. I never should have been in Kate’s life. If it wasn’t for me, she would have married some nice guy, probably a doctor, and they would be saving the world together.”

  “Unlike with you,” he added.

  “Exactly.”

  “Just because you’re not healing the world doesn’t mean that you’re harming it either. You used to believe that you were making the world a better place by eliminating those that were hurting others. That doesn’t apply anymore?”