Page 45 of Beautiful Vengeance

By the time Trinity and Eden jumped in the back seat, almost twenty-five minutes had passed since Kiyomi left. He took the lead, speeding down the darkening streets while the last, weak rays of sunlight faded in the west.

The sights, the scent of the dust and the smell of grilled meat took him right back to his final deployment here, triggering a gut-deep anxiety he couldn’t shake. The back of his neck prickled, a subconscious warning he couldn’t ignore as he thought of the blast.

His men screaming all around him. Then the pain. The torture.

He shoved the memories back. He’d take on hell itself to save Kiyomi. Saving her was all that mattered.

Theyhadto reach her in time. Because if they didn’t, Marcus couldn’t bear the alternative.

****

Now or never.

Kiyomi had waited as long as she dared. For the past twelve minutes she’d watched Rahman’s security come in and out of the gated property. Just as she’d thought, they were getting ready to move him.

No way she was going to let that happen.

The growing shadows swallowed the alley as she snuck down it and toward the privacy wall surrounding the house Rahman was in. She’d just checked the interior yard from a balcony across the street. He had to still be in there because she recognized two of his personal bodyguards patrolling the inside yard. He didn’t go anywhere without those two.

Two well-placed shots from her silenced pistol took care of them. Security cameras would likely pick them up, but it didn’t matter. By the time anyone noticed what she’d done, it would be too late.

Her hand closed around the grip of her weapon as she chose her moment. She’d planned everything out as best she could on the way here, confident that Rahman and his men wouldn’t kill her on the spot when they saw her.

Ironically, for the moment, the Architect was her best protection. Kiyomi could endure anything short of death until her team got here—and she was betting that wouldn’t be long. Even if they were pissed as hell about what she’d done, they would still come for her.

In the meantime, she had a personal score to settle.

Blocking out the rage and hatred, she slipped into stone-cold op mode as she scaled the wall and landed lightly in a crouch in the yard. As she’d hoped, no other security rushed her.

She hugged the shadows as she ran across the yard for the window at the side of the house she’d chosen for her entry point, making sure the camera mounted there didn’t spot her.

By the time she’d pried open the window and started to boost her body through it, they must have seen the camera footage. Because just as her foot touched the floor, two men rushed toward her from the back, Rahman’s head of security in the lead.

She shot them both in the chest. Both fell, but the head bodyguard was still moving, trying to raise his pistol.

Kiyomi walked up and stood over him, staring into his ugly face for a moment before she put a bullet through it. She shifted her attention to the room at the back of the house. If Rahman was in there, he might have seen everything from a laptop.

The bedroom door was closed tight. She stopped a few feet from it to gather herself, then attacked.

She kicked the door open and burst into the room, her heart jolting when Rahman whirled to face her in his desk chair.

He froze, that eerie, dark gaze locking on her. His stunned expression faded as he stared at her in the sudden silence, then a fanatical gleam entered his eyes, contorting his handsome features into a cold smile that sent a shiver up her spine.

“Well, well,” he said in heavily accented English, raking the length of her body with eyes filled with a sickening mixture of lust and hatred.

Her stomach contracted into a hard ball even as she held her pistol steady, the barrel aimed at his head.

“Where are my guards, Kiyomi?”

“Dead. And soon, so will you be.”

Rather than look afraid or even concerned, he laughed softly. “You came back.”

“To kill you.” Her finger was on the trigger. Something held her back from pulling it. A shot to the head was too easy. No. When she killed him, she would make it hurt.

He smirked, the rage taking over the desire in his eyes. “I don’t think so, pet.”

Pet. God, she wanted to puke. He’d called her that before he’d realized she was more than she’d seemed.

---