Page 146 of Vicious Little Princess

He was too well-trained to go down that easily, though, and he took hold of it and tossed it at the door, the impact blowing it open wide.

Then he came at me.

I deflected another hit and blocked an attempted kick with my shin, then I managed to get in a swipe with the knife to his cheek.

He hissed, but still kept coming, and we met blow for blow.

His hits were like cement-block forces, but fortunately I was trained well on how to absorb something that fucking intense and brutal.

Not that it wasn’t going to leave a hell of a lot of bruises in its wake.

But then I hesitated as he went for my stomach and instead of taking the blow and absorbing it so I could land another strategic shot that would actually break the standoff and knock him back, I twisted out of the way, my need to protect my baby taking me over.

He slammed his hand into my chest and I blew back against the wall with jarring force.

He was there in the next second, ripping me around and grinding my face into the rough concrete, scraping my skin like a fucking bitch of a thing.

His other hand grabbed my wrist so I couldn’t wield the knife.

And then he released my head, only to wrap his arm around my throat in a clear attempt to choke me out, just like what had happened before.

No fucking way.

I slammed my head back as a fake out and it worked, making him jerk back just enough that his superior weight shifted and I was able to use the opportunity to wrench at his ankle and yank it out from under him.

He was good, I’d give him that, because he didn’t actually go down, but it did destabilize himandweaken his grip around my throat.

It was all enough for me to twist sharply to the side and rip myself out of his hold.

I smashed my fist into the underside of his jaw, then his throat, following it up with a brutal knee to his gut. The rapid-fire combo had him stumbling back.

It gave me enough room to leap up into a flying kick and gain a lot of power to drive into his gut.

As he doubled over, I was there, yanking on his hair and forcing him down, then bringing my knife-wielding hand up and plunging the blade deep into his throat.

A push kick sent him crashing into a heap beside his screaming accomplice, while allhecould do was gurgle and splutter as blood poured from the fatal wound I’d inflicted.

“Just like I promised,” I spat, before wiping the blood on my pants, then striding from the room and out into the basement of the Leone Estate.

As I bolted up the steps, I heard the rumble of footsteps nearing the door at the top.

Adrenaline was thrumming through me like live wires.

And not just that.

I tasted my own blood on my lips, but I could smell my enemies’ all over the place too, their screams infusing me, calling to my monstrous side and fueling it like nothing else.

It was most definitely taking the lead now.

Hell, it was salivating at the prospect of dealing out more brutality.

Blood wouldn’t just spill, it would flow.

That was the dangerous thing about it. It wasn’t always rational.

My ideal focus should be on escaping.

But it wouldn’t let me accept that.

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