Free Sanctuary 02 - The Only Easy Day (CMS) (MM) by RJ Scott

one shot? Did you hear any other shots? Did she die straight away? Did you hear her say anything—"
    "What the fuck?" Nik interrupted with shock in his voice. "You can't ask shit like that? This is your family, not some ice mission in the ass end of nowhere." Joseph rounded on the other man, anger gripping him tight.
    "Yes," he began patiently, "I'm aware she's my stepsister. But, unless I know it all, I can't even begin to find out who killed her." What was it with civilians and their misplaced sense of what was right?
    "It was quick," Morgan offered gently. She was standing and h-he had the gun like this." He held a hand out as if holding a gun. Hands visibly shaking, he dropped them to his sides and then added, "It was just one shot. In the head. She didn't say anything. She just…" 

    "Just what?" Joseph pushed out. His throat was tight with emotion, and he didn't want to hear what Morgan said as much as he needed to hear it to find out why.
    "She fell to the ground, and she was dead."
    "She was definitely dead?" Joseph felt like his heart was being ripped from his chest, but he had to know. Had to. Morgan raised a hand to his own head where the scar Joseph had noticed earlier marred his temple.
    "Her face," he said. Casting a stricken look at Nik, he held out a hand in silent plea. "It was gone."

    * * * *

    Joseph wasn't entirely sure how he made it to the bathroom. He remembered making his excuses in a shocked, wooden voice and pushing past Dale, who had made the doorway his home. He locked himself in the nearest room where he could be sick. There was hardly anything in his stomach, but the dry heaves made his eyes water. Slumped back against the wall, he held his head in his hands. Harvey's beautiful daughter, his stepsister, was gone. Her face…
    Images from war caught him tight, and he could see in his mind's eye what a destroyed face looked like. At least she'd died quickly. He'd seen soldiers die horribly with wounds so bad he couldn't understand how their bodies held on to this world so hard. Sickness rolled through him again, and the pain in his chest worsened as he imagined how she had lost her life. Somewhere alone. For the first time in such a long time, he actually felt grief so hard he wanted to cry, wanted to rail at the world. He didn't.
    He couldn't allow himself the luxury of heartache.
    Instead he focused on his hands and each palm, and he made a promise to Elisabeth there and then. He would take a gun and make whoever killed her, and whoever had ordered her killed, beg until the bastard was hoarse with screaming. Then Joseph would shoot him in the stomach and leave him alone to die a death so horrible it would finally even the balance in the world.
    It was the only way he could look Harvey in the face and tell him justice had been done for his daughter.
    Dale hadn't stopped him when he pushed past, but Joseph had seen a glimpse of something in the other man's brown eyes. Compassion. He wondered what they were discussing as he sat there in the bathroom like a freaking idiot. He didn't need or want compassion. He wanted cold hard facts so he could get this job done and get back to Oceana. Why the hell do I feel so fucking sick? 

    Not sure how long he had been sat in the bathroom, he concentrated on slowing his heart rate and attempted to control the nausea. He focused on what he could control and wondered what kind of shit these do-gooder
    bodyguards and Morgan would throw at him when he went back out.
    What he found wasn't exactly as he expected. No one in the room said a word. Nik was pacing, and Morgan was staring out of the window. Dale had come back into the room and was leaning against a wall with his eyes closed.
    The tension was so thick he could have cut the air with a knife. He had clearly come into the middle of a heated discussion about something. He ignored Morgan's look of sympathy and the absolute ice in Dale's expression that had replaced any kind of compassion. Instead he focused