Page 31 of Beautiful Vengeance

He stayed at her side as they passed through the inner security doors to the next room, where Rycroft and Trinity were waiting. “He wasn’t there,” Kiyomi told them.

Rycroft gave a nod, spoke briefly to the military official who had granted them all access, then motioned for Kiyomi and the others to follow him out of the room. He waited until they all were down in the underground lot before speaking.

“What do you want to do about Rahman?” he asked, looking between her and Trinity.

“Fly to Damascus as soon as possible,” Kiyomi answered, drawing sharp looks from Marcus and Trinity.So I can nail his ass personally.

Trinity watched her for a moment, then nodded. “You two go ahead and drive back to the manor,” she said to Kiyomi and Marcus. “Alex and I will talk everything over, and I’ll let everyone know what our next step will be as soon as I know.”

Kiyomi wanted to stay and fight for the Damascus option, but she didn’t know Rycroft well and Trinity was team leader. Kiyomi trusted her implicitly. If there was a way to get a green light for an op in Damascus targeting Rahman, Trinity would make it happen.

She turned to Marcus. If she couldn’t stay and fight for what she wanted, then she wanted to leave and selfishly eat up all the time she could get alone with him instead. Because if she went after Rahman, there was a good chance she might not come back from it. “Shall we go?”

With a nod he crossed to where they’d parked their rental vehicle, a new Range Rover with tinted windows. He unlocked it and opened her door for her, earning a smile from her. She loved how old fashioned he was in his manners. And it gave her butterflies just thinking of the way he’d kissed her last night. “Thanks.”

He glanced at her as he started the engine a few moments later. “Are you all right?”

“Fine.” Rahman was still free but he wouldn’t be that way forever, and at least this way her plan might still happen.

Outside the building, the London traffic was insane as usual. It took them almost thirty minutes just to get across the Thames via the Vauxhall Bridge Road, and forty more to reach the M40. Not that she was complaining. Being alone with him helped settle her chaotic emotions.

“I’m starving,” she announced when they finally merged onto the motorway. “Can we stop somewhere on the way and grab something to eat?” Yeah, she was using stall tactics, not wanting the few hours they had alone to pass too quickly.

“Aye, I could do with some scran too.” He changed lanes and they finally picked up a bit of speed as the traffic thinned out a little.

Neither of them spoke for the next several minutes. Then he asked, “If you go to Damascus, how will you find him?”

“Amber. She’ll have to come too.”

“And if you find him, then what? You’ll all capture him together?”

“For a start.” Unless they got a break about the Architect before then. The only reason they would need to capture Rahman rather than kill him outright was to extract that intel. If he was no longer needed for that purpose, she could move on to the more satisfying phase of her plan.

“Are you so sure that’s where he’s gone?”

“Sure as I can be. It’s what he usually does, moves around in between visits to his power base in the capital.” She should know, she’d spent weeks studying and following him before entering his circle. He was a disgusting pig disguised in a pretty package.

“How large a team would you take?”

She shrugged. “Five people maybe, I dunno. That’ll be up to Trinity, since she’s team leader.”

“If you go, I’m coming with you.”

She jerked her head around to stare at him, caught off guard. “Why would you do that?”

His jaw flexed, his eyes fixed on the road ahead of them. “Because I want to be there and help get that bastard.”

Warmth flooded her at the steely edge to his voice. “That’s really kind of you, but—”

He cut her off with a hard look. “I’m well qualified and still capable of holding my own on an op, even with my physical…limitations.”

“I know you are,” she said quietly, sorry she’d wounded his already bruised pride.

Watching his former teammates conduct the op without him tonight must have been hard, and she’d just jabbed the equivalent of a sharp stick in that newly opened wound. “I’d have you on my team any day, because I know how skilled you are, and because I trust that you’d have my back.”

That seemed to appease him because the tension in his shoulders eased. “I would.”

“I know.” But hearing it from him made her heart turn over. As incredible as it seemed, this amazing man who had suffered so much wanted to protect and avenge her.Her. Not some fantasy version of herself that she’d played for so many others throughout her life. Just her, baggage and all.

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