Page 52 of Beautiful Vengeance

“No. It was our target.”

A kill like that, up close and personal, signified a strong emotional connection to the victim. She had experienced that phenomenon herself several times, most recently when she’d killed that asshole Glenn Bennett, the CIA officer she had fucked once upon a time to get what she needed.

He’d known too much. Then he’d panicked, and talked too much. So she’d slit his throat and left his severed tongue lying on the floor for talking too much.

Rahman’s killer had hated him too. Janelle felt a rush of pride and affection.

Ah, Kiyomi. So full of fire and resolve even after all you’ve been through.

Was it any wonder why she was Janelle’s favorite? And if Janelle was right about everything she’d hypothesized so far, then now that Rahman had been dealt with, Kiyomi would be going back to the UK as soon as possible. To where she and the others seemed to feel safest right now. Janelle’s hired team had failed, but this might give her a way to finally track her prized target.

“So we’re not implicated in any way?” the woman asked her. “There’s no way for them to trace anything back to you? One of the men you sent is still missing. Rahman might have talked.”

“It doesn’t matter.” She wasn’t worried. Rahman never knew her identity. But for precaution’s sake, she needed to be proactive and act accordingly. “What about the surveillance team in the UK?”

“They haven’t seen anyone coming or going from the estate yet.”

“Tell them to drag it out for another few days. We may see something by the end of the week.” If the Valkyries had been staying there, it was possible that a team of them had flown to Syria to provide Kiyomi with backup.

Janelle would have to search recent flight data in and out of airfields near Damascus. “Inform me if you find out anything more. In the meantime, I’m initiating the next phase and mobilizing the others. Stand by for further orders.”

Disconnecting, she began packing up her designs. She’d always lived a nomadic and somewhat Spartan existence, never knowing when she would need to move, and not wanting to leave any damning clues behind.

The trio of framed photos on the windowsill were the only indications as to her true identity. Two were links to her past, and the most likely key to her future. The third represented the dream she’d longed to achieve for almost thirty years.

She packed them away where they wouldn’t be seen amongst her things. Moving quickly, she gathered up her sparse belongings and her weapons while her next moves formulated in her mind.

In her closet she paused, her eye catching on her reflection in the mirror hung on the back of the door. The image was still somewhat of a shock, almost as if a complete stranger was staring back at her.

The woman in the mirror bore no resemblance whatsoever to the one she was inside. In her mind’s eye she was still young and beautiful with a hard, toned body, able to seduce any man she wanted. All that might be behind her now, but the future was more promising than ever.

No one knew what she was capable of. The only ones who had, were all dead.

Her gaze hardened in the mirror. Green eyes that reminded her too much of people from her past. They turned cold as she fought the rage that had been her constant companion since childhood. Her entire life had been a competition. A fight to prove she was the best.

Eliminating competition came as naturally to her as breathing. Once she set her mind on something, nothing would stand in the way of achieving her goal, and it was no different now. If she could do what she’d done to start the Program in the first place, nothing else even came close.

Sacrifice was necessary—as long as she was the one who came out on top. And she always would, because she was a survivor.

She drove out of the garage and closed the remote-controlled door behind her. A cleanup crew was en route. By the time they arrived, she would be waiting to board her plane to the UK.

Her Valkyries were proving a difficult target thus far. That only made the hunt more enjoyable, the outcome more satisfying. Now it was time to join the hunt in person.

Janelle smiled fondly as she drove toward the freeway. She was so damn proud of them all. It would hurt to kill the thing she loved most, but nothing worthwhile ever came without loss.

As the original Valkyrie, she knew exactly what it cost to come out on top. Once she had the final piece she required, she would begin her lifelong ambition of creating a new force of the most perfect female assassins the world had ever known.

****

Was this real? Sometimes it was still hard for Kiyomi to believe.

She had never dreamed that she would ever allow her heart to get involved when it came to a man, but Marcus made it impossible not to.

In the safehouse living room she quickly packed up the last of her gear into her duffel and caught herself watching him as he did the same. The moment she looked at him, a sharp pain pierced her chest.

In the space of a few days, everything had changed for them. He’d unlocked something inside her she hadn’t known existed, and now the thought of losing him tore her up inside.

No, she told herself sternly.You know there’s no choice. It’s safer for him if you go. You knew when you first slept with him that this was only temporary.

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