Page 47 of Beautiful Vengeance

Chapter Fourteen

Weapon up, Marcus swept past Kiyomi to check the entire room, searching for other targets. “Clear,” he called out to the others.

Willing his heart to climb back down his throat, he holstered his weapon and spun to face Kiyomi, ignoring Ty and Jesse as they rushed forward to check the rest of the place. Kiyomi was covered in blood and he didn’t know if it was hers.

“Are you hurt?” he demanded, stalking forward to seize her by the shoulders. Her face was pale, her eyes dilated, a pistol in her hand.

“No. I’m fine.”

On the other side of the room Rahman was slumped in the chair, stone dead, a vicious wound in the side of his throat and a blade pinning his hand into the wooden armrest.

Shoving out a breath, Marcus grabbed her and pulled her into a fierce hug, closing his eyes on a hard exhale. He’d rip into her later for what she’d done. Right now he just needed this reassurance that she was okay.

She was trembling a little, her breathing shaky. It was warm in the room and he was pretty sure the shaking wasn’t from shock, but from a backlash of adrenaline after killing the bastard who had tormented her day and night for the past several months.

He bent and scooped her up in his arms.

“No,” she protested, “I’m—”

“Quiet.” No damn way he was letting her out of his sight for an instant. The others could retrieve her blades and try to minimize any evidence that might lead back to her.

He strode from the room, his limp more pronounced, the additional weight sending pain shooting through his hip and thigh. Bloody hell. Before his injuries he could have swept her up in his arms and carried her for miles.

“I got his phone. But we need all the electronics,” she said, turning to look behind her. “There’s a laptop on the desk.”

Trinity stood outside the bedroom door, her stare glacial as she locked eyes with Kiyomi. “I’ll get it.” She walked past without another word, and Marcus swore the temperature dropped several degrees from the amount of frost Trinity was giving off. Not that he blamed her.

“Who did you engage?” Kiyomi asked as he carried her to the front doors.

“Hit team. Not Rahman’s.” Four men dressed in black, armed with rifles and pistols. “We killed three, wounded and captured the fourth.”

Her attention sharpened on him. “The Architect sent them?”

“Don’t know.” Right now, he didn’t even care. All he wanted was to get her the hell out of there safely before they had any more surprises.

“Rahman confirmed it was a woman,” Kiyomi said to Marcus as he carried her out of the house. Ty and Jesse were standing guard in the yard where two more of Rahman’s men lay dead. Kiyomi had taken out two others earlier.

“He told you that?” Outside the wall, Eden and Megan had both vehicles pulled up as close as possible.

“Yes. But I don’t think he knows her identity.”

He grunted and kept going. Amber was waiting by the side gate, watching the sidewalk. She waved them forward, rushed ahead to pull open the back door of the second van. Marcus bundled Kiyomi inside it and climbed in beside her.

She turned toward the door. “Wait, what about the prisoner—”

“He’s already in the back of the other van,” Marcus growled, anger beginning to bleed through the relief.

He pushed it aside, focused on keeping the team safe as the rest of the members rushed out of the house and climbed into the vehicles. Trinity jumped into the front passenger seat of their vehicle just as the first van pulled away from the curb. Eden followed it.

A cold, brittle silence filled the vehicle as they raced away from the scene. Law enforcement would no doubt be on the way, the shooting reported by the local residents. As soon as word got out about the attack and Rahman’s death, security forces would be alerted.

Getting the team out of Syria was now ten times harder.

Marcus squeezed his hands into fists and took a slow, deep breath to take the edge off the anger eating at him. He waited until he was sure they were in the clear and heading back to the safehouse before speaking. Just as he opened his mouth to tear into Kiyomi, Trinity beat him to it, swiveling in her seat to nail Kiyomi with a hard stare.

“I told you we’d get him. I gave you my word. But that wasn’t good enough. You ditched us so you could go off on your own and take care of your vendetta. Do you know how fucking furious we are at you right now?” Her deep blue eyes snapped sparks at her. “I’m so disappointed in you.”

Kiyomi’s chin came up, a flush hitting her cheeks. “His security team was in the process of getting ready to move him. I wasn’t losing my chance.”

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