Zaeed couldn’t say he was surprised by the betrayal. Hurt? Yes. Agitated? Beyond belief. But not surprised.

In his line of work, betrayal was typical. If you hadn’t gotten betrayed in a month, you were either lucky or about to be murdered. Attempts on his life were as uncommon as they were inconveniencing. No, betrayal was no surprise.

He just, foolishly perhaps, hoped it wouldn’t be them.

The hurt of being betrayed by the one person he’d call a friend was quickly drowned out by the anger in his chest. Even as six of his own men held him down, and he stared down the barrel of the gun, only three words were scraped from his tongue with force.

“I’ll kill you.”

It wasn’t a threat -- threatening the holder of a gun was heedless. It was a promise. An easily made one. It didn’t matter that they were trying to kill him. Whatever relationship they had before was gone. Now, they were nothing. Now, he’d get his revenge.