Chapter 133: ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE

AUTHOR’S POV

TWO WEEKS LATER

Nicholas did in fact know what to do.

Now, dressed completely in black, Nicholas moved through the crowded conference hotel with one hand buried in his pocket and his hood pulled low enough to keep most of his face hidden.

Politicians, businessmen, security personnel, and their assistants filled the large meeting hall ahead of him, moving between tables and speaking in low voices.

Nicholas stopped just outside the entrance and looked through the crowd without appearing too interested. He scanned the faces one by one, pretending to be someone who had simply gotten lost while looking for the right room.

The earpod in his ear suddenly came alive. "Three tables to your left," Cassian said quietly. "The man in the dark gray suit. Sitting beside the woman in red."

Nicholas shifted his gaze without moving his head too much. "I see him."

"Don’t stare at him," Adrian warned from the van. "He hasn’t noticed you."

Nicholas lowered his eyes and walked farther into the hall.

Outside the hotel, a dark van was parked among several other vehicles. Adrian, Cassian, Roman, and Elijah were inside, each focused on a different laptop. Several screens showed different sections of the hotel, while another displayed information about the people attending the conference.

Adrian kept one screen focused on Nicholas’s position and quietly guided him whenever he needed to move around someone or change direction.

"Wait," Adrian said when Nicholas reached the edge of the crowd. "Security is moving toward you. Two steps right."

Nicholas obeyed immediately.

"Good. Keep walking."

On another laptop, Roman watched the hotel’s security system. The moment Nicholas passed beneath one of the cameras, the screen flickered and the footage disappeared from the recording system. "Camera’s gone," Roman said.

"Next one in five seconds," Elijah warned.

Roman’s fingers moved quickly across the keyboard. "Already handled."

Inside the hall, Nicholas barely reacted. He had become used to hearing their voices in his ear while moving through places like this.

For weeks, the four brothers had been helping him. Adrian watched his surroundings and fed him directions. Roman dealt with the cameras and security systems. Cassian tracked the people Nicholas was looking for and kept him updated. Elijah monitored everything else that could go wrong.

They knew what they needed to do. And they had taken matters into their hands.

Nicholas looked at the man in the gray suit again.

That was him.

One of the Alphas who had been arrested after everything at the warehouse came to light. One of the men whose crimes had been exposed along with Blackthorne’s. He had spent days in custody before somehow securing bail and walking back into the world as if the things he had done were something that could simply be handled by lawyers.

Nicholas had learned all of their names.

He had learned where they went, who they met, which events they attended, and how much security they usually had around them. He had stopped thinking of them as powerful men.

They were simply names on a list.

His list.

The man eventually stood from his table and excused himself from the conversation. Nicholas waited several seconds before following him, keeping enough distance between them that it looked natural.

"He’s heading toward the east hallway," Cassian said.

Nicholas turned the corner. "Roger."

"Bathroom entrance ahead," Adrian added. "Clear."

Nicholas continued walking.

The man disappeared through the hallway leading toward the restrooms, and Nicholas followed him. A few seconds later, the corridor was empty.

He walked into the restroom and the man startled, looking at him. "Who are you?"

Nicholas smirked and pulled out a gun. "An Omega who is about to put you where you belong. The party is loud, no one will care. Say hi to Gareth Blackthorne for me." Then he pulled the trigger.

The man crumpled to the floor and Nicholas dragged the body into a stall, before quickly leaving.

"First one done," Nicholas said quietly.

For a moment, nobody answered. Then Elijah spoke. "Second target is on the seventh floor."

Nicholas pulled his hood farther over his head and headed toward the elevators.

His second target for the night.

There was another Alpha in the same hotel, another man who had been arrested and released after the investigation into Blackthorne’s organization. Nicholas had originally planned to deal with him another day, but when Cassian found him inside the hotel, Nicholas changed his mind.

"Seventh floor," Cassian said. "He’s in a private lounge."

Nicholas stepped into the elevator with several other guests. He stood silently at the back while they talked among themselves, keeping his eyes on the numbers above the doors.

When the elevator reached the seventh floor, he stepped out.

"Left," Adrian instructed. "Then straight."

Nicholas followed the directions until he reached the lounge. He saw the second Alpha almost immediately.

This one noticed him too and the man’s expression changed.

Nicholas stopped and for several seconds, neither of them moved.

Then the Alpha recognized him. "You—"

Nicholas moved before the man could finish.

The man tried to create trouble, making the encounter more difficult than the first, but Nicholas had spent the past two weeks training.

He tackled him to the ground, wrapping a rope around his neck and tightening it.

The man struggled, kicking against him, but Nicholas didn’t let go until the man went blue in the face and died.

Nicholas stood there for a moment, breathing hard.

"Are you okay?" Adrian asked immediately.

"I’m fine."

"Don’t rush," Adrian said. "Wait until the hallway is clear."

Nicholas straightened his clothes and checked himself before leaving the room. There was nothing obvious on him that would draw attention, and there was nothing left behind that would connect him to the two men.

"Hallway clear," Cassian said.

Nicholas walked. He passed through the hotel as calmly as he had entered it, keeping his head down and his hood up. Nobody stopped him and no one called his name. By the time he reached the exit, he looked like any other guest leaving a conference.

Outside, he crossed the parking area and climbed into the van.

The doors shut behind him and for a second, everyone looked at him.

Then Elijah leaned back and gave him a small smile. "You did well."

Cassian closed his laptop. "Two in one night. That’s more than we planned."

Nicholas sat down and removed the earpod. "The second one wasn’t supposed to be there."

Adrian scoffed. "It certainly made our work easier though."

Nicholas said nothing. He looked through the window as the hotel disappeared behind them.

This was what his life had become after his mother was buried. He had grieved for a few days after his mother’s death, wondering what to do. Then he found out the Alphas were using their positions to escape jail. And Nicholas believed in justice.

That was when he stopped grieving quietly and started hunting.

One by one, he had found them.

One by one, they had disappeared from his list.

The brothers had never tried to stop him. They knew exactly why he was doing it, and although they did not always like the risks, they stayed beside him anyway.

Tonight had brought the count to six.

Nicholas leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

Six down.

Two left.

Adrian drove them back toward the mansion while the others returned to their laptops, already checking the information for the remaining two names.

Nicholas opened his eyes and stared at the road ahead.

There were only two more people standing between him and the end of his list.