Page 65 of Beautiful Vengeance

His stomach dropped. “How many?”

“I think at least seven. Maybe more. Where’s Kiyomi?”

He grabbed his keys, started running for the door. “She just left with Trinity and Brody.”

“We’re calling them now but you need to get them back to the house and arm up until we can get there to reinforce you.”

“I’m going after them,” he said, grabbing a rifle from behind the secret panel before wrenching the study door open and running for the front entrance. “Alert me when you get close.”

“Okay.”

He disconnected and dialed Kiyomi’s number. Throwing open the door, he rushed for his Land Rover, mobile to his ear and fear twisting his insides like a snake as it started ringing.

Answer the phone…

****

Kiyomi bit down on the inside of her cheek and stared unseeingly through a haze of tears as Brody drove along the country road away from Laidlaw Hall.

The urge to look back at it one last time before it disappeared from view was overwhelming but she didn’t dare. She was barely holding on right now, the pain in her chest making it hard to breathe.

She’d hated hurting him. Wished there was some way they could stay together, but under the circumstances it was impossible. And it wasn’t fair to let him wait for her, to give him false hope that she’d come back to him one day. There was a good chance she wouldn’t survive to the end of this mission.

If by some miracle she did, she was coming back to Marcus.

Her cell rang in her pocket. She pulled it out, only because it might be important, and joy leapt inside her when she saw Marcus’s number. “Hey, miss me already?”

“Come back,” he said, the urgency in his voice making her insides twist.

She closed her eyes. “Marcus—”

“The Architect is Megan and Amber’s aunt, and she’s coming with a team to get you.”

Her spine snapped taut. Up front, Trinity was on her cell now too, speaking in an urgent tone. “What?”

“Come backnow. We need to kit up and hold them off until Megan and the others arrive.”

“Brody, stop,” she ordered. He hit the brakes, his head swiveling around to look sharply between her and Trinity. “The Architect is coming for us. Go back to the manornow.”

“Hurry,” Trinity added, phone still to her ear.

Brody pulled a tight U-turn and sped back the way they’d come.

“We’re on our way. Two minutes out,” Kiyomi told Marcus. The manor came back into view as they reached the crest of a hill. Marcus’s old Land Rover was roaring down the driveway toward the gate. Coming after them. “Go back,” she urged him.

“Stay on the line with me.”

“I will.” She turned to look through the rear window. “No sign of anyone so far.”

“Just get here.”

Brody was speeding along the road, the engine revving. “We’ll be there in thirty seconds,” she told Marcus.

“Which entrance?” Brody asked.

“Main one,” Kiyomi answered. They were coming to the bottom of the hill now.

Up ahead, a vehicle came into view at the top of the next hill. Coming toward them fast. Large. Maybe an SUV. The back of her neck prickled. “That them?”

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