Page 46 of Beautiful Vengeance

Kiyomi’s pulse thudded in her ears as she confronted the monster before her. This was what she’d wanted. To face him alone. She let the anger and hatred coalesce into a fire in her gut, giving her strength to endure what was about to happen.

“You really thought you could do it, didn’t you?” he mused, sneering as he stared into her eyes. “You thought you could break in here, take out my men, and kill me?” He laughed again, raking that chilling gaze over the length of her. Still arrogant as ever, confident in his power and his training even though he was the one at gunpoint. “I find that…untenable.”

“You were going to sell me,” she hissed.

He raised a taunting black eyebrow. “Oh, I’m still going to sell you, pet. After I’ve had my fill of you. The buyer’s going to pay even more than our original agreement.”

She might be able to get the intel out of him verbally. “The so-called ‘Architect’?” she said in disdain.

His stare burned into hers. “So you do know about her. I wondered.”

Idiot had just confirmed it was a woman. After she killed him, Kiyomi would take his phone and any other electronics she could find in here and let Amber work her magic. “What does she want with me?”

He shrugged, the smirk reappearing. “She recognizes perfection when she sees it.” Then his expression shifted. Showing a glimpse of the monster beneath the mask. “No one betrays me, Kiyomi.”

His hand flashed up, a pistol in it. She dropped into a battle roll as the bullet slammed into the tile behind her, swung out a foot and knocked his chair off balance. He caught himself and swiveled to face her again, but too late.

She kicked the weapon from his hand and moved in close to grab his wrist, taking away his leverage before he could reach for anything else. They stared at each other, both breathing fast, her weapon inches from his face. Rahman’s eyes burned like glowing coals as he stared at her in a terrible mixture of fury and lust.

Snarling, he wrenched her wrist down and broke her grip, twisting her pistol free. It clattered to the floor beside them.

Kiyomi didn’t move. Didn’t look away from him. She waited for the triumph to show on his face. For that arrogant look she hated so much, and thought of her Valkyrie sisters. Of Marcus. They gave her strength. “You’re mine,” he growled at her.

He thought he had her. That he had won.

She was about to show him just how wrong he was.

Grabbing the clip in her hair, she split the two halves of the butterfly apart and slammed one stiletto through the back of his hand, pinning it to the armrest.

His eyes bulged, his mouth opening on a scream of agony she muffled instantly with a hand clamped across his mouth as he struggled to pry the blade free with his other.

“How’s it feel to be this helpless, you evil motherfucker?” she snarled, then drove the second blade up and under his jaw, jamming it through his carotid pulse. She twisted it while he screamed and flailed at her with his free arm, his right hand still pinned to the chair.

Blood spurted as she yanked the thin blade downward with a savage jerk, opening his carotid and jugular wide. He clapped his free hand over it, screaming into her palm as he tried to bite her.

Ripping his phone from his pocket, she leapt back and landed on her feet with the second blade in hand, ready to stab him again. Her heart pumped fast as she tucked the phone into her pocket.

Rahman was already sagging in the chair, his eyes already growing unfocused as he slumped sideways, his hand falling away from the slash in his neck. The sound of her rapid breaths was harsh in her ears, the powerful lash of adrenaline and triumph making her muscles quiver.

She’d done it. She’d killed him. Now his reign of terror was over.

A distant slam in the background was her only warning before the unmistakable crack of gunfire shattered the silence. She whirled to face the wide-open door, then dove for the pistol Rahman had dropped.

The shooting was coming from outside, toward the rear of the house. Men shouted. More gunfire came from the rear and then the side, then the faint sound of running footsteps.

Kiyomi raced to the wall beside the door and waited, centering herself, ready to fight for her life with everything she had left. She had what she’d come for. She wasn’t going to die now that he was finally dead.

Something slammed into the front doors. Twice. Three times.

Kiyomi tensed, prepared to fight to the death for the chance to live.

One more slam and someone burst inside. Kiyomi waited until the intruder got close, then ducked through the doorway to fire.

She froze.

But it wasn’t more of Rahman’s security rushing in to kill her.

It was Marcus in pure operator mode.

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