Hell Bent (A Rogue Warrior Thriller Book 4) by Ian Loome

Author:Ian Loome [Loome, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Published: 2024-04-21T00:00:00+00:00

26

Tito sat leaning against the wall of the rear main office, surrounded by empty chairs and desks, the room bathed in the faint glow of the emergency lights. He had the pistol in hand, hanging suspended between his raised knees. He looked despondent.

Sister Eva occupied a typing chair behind the last desk. She’d rarely felt helpless in her second life as a woman of God, but the situation was growing more dire by the minute.

“They’re going to get that door off, and then I’m going to have to shoot back,” Tito eventually said. “I… I just don’t want you all shocked, like at the convent, when things get violent.”

“Nobody has to be shot,” she said gently. But she wasn’t sure it sounded convincing, or that she even believed it herself.

He raised his head and looked over at her. “You think I’m just another criminal.” He made it sound like a statement.

“I don’t think that of anyone.”

“Anyone?” He scoffed at that. “Please, Sister… you’re telling me you think the guys on the other side of that door have some sweetness and light in them?”

“I think anyone can redeem themselves in God’s eyes. Maybe not always in humanity’s. But even the worst of us has someone they loved, something that mattered to them. Something other than themselves they’d fight for. It’s too easy to just think in black-and-white terms, good and evil, right and wrong. Everyone has more or less of either, but I don’t believe I’ve met a soul who couldn’t be saved. And in my experience, people appreciate being saved.”

“Huh. Like Manolo.”

He sounded almost wry, she thought. “Manolo?”

“Angel’s enforcer, the guy who’s probably out there leading them. He has this thing… He always tells his men about how he owes Angel for saving him.”

She studied him. He looked grim most of the time. It made sense in the circumstances. “They’re your friends.”

“They were, some of them.”

“And Manolo?”

“I barely know him.”

“But he cares about his boss because he figures his boss cared about him.”

“In a sick sort of way… yeah,” Tito said. “Like me and Bob. I don’t know him, either, you know that, right? Es verdad! He just showed up one day, picked me up off the street. Acted like people should act, you know? Why’d he do that? Why’d he take that chance?”

“Maybe he wasn’t thinking about it,” she said. “Maybe he’s decided his default stance is to just be the good guy, even when it costs him. I think he’s… well, he’s tortured by a lot of things in his past, and he wants to make it right. And to him, that’s helping people out. I can relate to that.”

Tito looked skeptical. “No, I can relate to that. But you? How so?”

“I wasn’t always a nun, Tito.”

“No?”

She chuckled. “No! Of course not. We don’t come out of the womb dressed as penguins!”

He smiled broadly at that, revealing big, white teeth. She hadn’t seen Tito smile before. It was good.

“So… what did you do before this?”

“Before this? Before this, I ruined lives.

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