Page 38 of Explosive Vengeance

You’re mine now. I own you.

Fayez Rahman, the man who had done his best to break her and almost succeeded. It shamed her now to remember that there had been moments where she’d prayed for death to escape the suffering and degradation. His smile was even colder than his gaze, his oily chuckle enough to make her skin crawl.

She drew a slow breath, a slight twinge shooting through her ribs as she pushed the memories away. She had escaped that prison cell in Damascus because of Amber and Jesse. Against all odds, she had survived, though that experience had changed her forever. “I’m okay.”

“You’re going to be,” Trinity said. “And we’re glad to have you on this team.”

That made her smile. She’d been too young to remember her mom or dad when she’d been put into foster care and then the Valkyrie Program as a child. She’d never had family, until now. “Are you coming back across the pond anytime soon?” Kiyomi liked Amber, but she had an incredibly special bond with Trinity.

“As soon as Megan brings Chloe there.”

That couldn’t happen soon enough for Kiyomi’s liking. A low-grade hum started up, deep in her belly. The anxiety she now battled constantly and fought to hide. It embarrassed her. “See you soon, then.”

“Absolutely. I’ll update you both if I hear anything more on my end. Take care of each other.”

“We will,” Amber said, and ended the video chat. As soon as the laptop screen went dark, Amber turned to her.

Kiyomi stepped back and started to turn for the door, but Amber stopped her with a hand on her arm. Bracing herself, Kiyomi focused on her.

Clear, green eyes studied her for a long moment. “Remember what I promised you?”

“Yes.” That Amber would help her find and end Rahman one day.

Amber nodded at her precious laptop. “Lady Ada and I are keeping our eyes and ears open for a lot of things, him included. I know where he is. When you’re ready, come talk to me. We’ll get him.”

The words might have made a normal person laugh it off or recoil in horror. But they weren’t normal and never would be. And Amber’s willingness to help her with this meant so much that Kiyomi had to swallow hard to push the lump from her suddenly tight throat. “Thank you.”

Amber nodded once. “Anytime. And maybe the reminder will help you sleep better.”

“Maybe.” It surely couldn’t get worse.

She left the room and started down the hall to her bedroom at the end. The aloof and mysterious master of the house had for some reason given her the most beautiful bedroom in the manor. The Blue Room was done in shades of blue and cream, a soft, soothing palate perfectly suited to the luxurious furnishings and a view that overlooked the formal garden and back lawn.

A few steps down the hall, she stopped. As much as she loved the privacy and tranquility her room offered her, she was all tangled up inside and the recent heavy rain had kept her cooped up in the house for the past two days. She needed air. Space.

Peace.

She craved it the way addicts craved their drug of choice. Solitude was something she needed to survive. Living here with people constantly coming and going was completely foreign after so many years spent alone, with only her handler to turn to.

The fresh, bright scent of lemon-oil greeted her as she descended the main staircase to the ground floor. This manor house was truly spectacular, but it wasn’t her home and she’d kept to just her room and the shared living spaces out of respect for the owner’s diminished privacy. Besides, the gym, gardens and sprawling grounds provided more than enough room for her to be on her own when she needed to be.

She strode straight for the gym, that horrible, out-of-control agitation growing with each step. She needed to release it, or explode.

A pair of boxing gloves sat on a bench inside the glass door. Unable to be bothered with worrying about her hands, she pulled her sweater over her head and stalked to the heavy bag hanging from a hook in the ceiling, and attacked it.

Punches. Kicks. Combos. Throwing her whole body weight behind each blow, using the painful impact of her knuckles to center herself. She vented her rage at the helplessness she’d been forced to endure. The degradation and shame she couldn’t seem to escape or shut off. Not just from her captivity, although that’s what had broken the dam inside her.Everythingshe’d been forced to do in the name of duty.

She didn’t last long. Maybe twenty minutes at most.

Gasping, trembling with fatigue that told her she was far from recovered yet, she bent over, hands on her knees while she got her wind back and dripped sweat onto the floor. But the frantic, corrosive anxiety was quiet now. Vanquished by the violent exertion.

Outside the gym door, she stepped onto the aged flagstones that led to the crushed gravel path. It split into three at the door, going left and right along the house, the third straight ahead through the formal garden. She breathed in the crisp air, taking in the view as she cooled down. Fall had changed the landscape in the past few weeks, bringing the golden and amber tones to the trees that matched the honey-colored limestone of the house.

The roses were still in bloom as she walked over to the small gazebo set into the corner of the walled garden. A stone fountain mounted on the wall beside it sprayed water through a lion’s open mouth, the quiet, rhythmic splash soothing as she sat on the garden bench overlooking the fish pond.

Breathe, she told herself, shutting down the residual chaotic thoughts that hammered against the mental barrier she put up.Just breathe.

Seconds later her eyes opened at the quiet thud of a cane and the trot of paws on the gravel path to her left.

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