Page 190 of Kiss the Villain

Looking hot.

Me

Me?

No, me. You’re not so bad yourself, though. We kind of look good together.

We do.

Wedid.

Now, I keep staring at his face, wishing he’d sent me more pictures of him. Especially since I know he always takes pictures of us when he thinks I’m not paying attention.

I slide the back of my fingers on the screen as if it’s his face.

You better be safe, little monster.

He can hate me all he wants. I know I deserve it and more considering what I planned to do to him and his family.

But hehasto be safe.

The image of his blood and what that degenerate Declan could have been doing to him in the thirty-six hours it took me to find him has been causing pressure on the inside of my skull.

“We’re twenty minutes out from the target,” Simone’s voice echoes in the van as she speaks in the earpiece to my security team in the other vans.

She’s sitting opposite me in full combat gear, holding her rifle down.

Her braided hair is held in a bun, special night vision glasses resting on her head as her dark eyes silently shoot a laser in my direction.

“You’ll kill him with those eyes, Simone,” Jethro says from his position beside me while tapping on his computer. “Not that he doesn’t deserve it.”

Jethro is tall but lean and wears frameless glasses that sit low on his nose. As a typical nerd, he usually dresses in hoodies with anime characters or metal band logos, but Simone forced him into combat gear today. Something he hates more than getting his prim, soft hands dirty.

I met Jethro—then Eduard—in college. Soon after, he got arrested for breaching some Pentagon security. I knew I needed his services, so I arranged his murder during the transfer, made him a ghost, and gave him a new identity. Ever since then, he’s been my right hand.

He's the one who found Simone a year later. She quit the army and was wasting away in a mid-range security firm and he said she’d be perfect for our team.

Cassandra never liked them. Neither of them. I think the feeling was mutual. She didn’t appreciate how they expressed their opinions and didn’t mince their words. And they didn’t like how she treated them like servants—the only thing I clashed with her on.

Jethro and Simone are, in a sense, the siblings I never had—Grant doesn’t count—and I never liked how she disregarded them.

But while I appreciate their input, they really don’t know when to shut up.

Like right now.

“Be quiet, both of you.” I pocket my phone. “Go faster, Sal.”

“Yes, Boss!” the driver says.

“With all due respect,” Simone says, throwing a quick glance at her watch. “We wouldn’t be in this situation if you’d just stayed in the States.”

“And miss fucking around with a college kid?” Jethro whistles. “And being the cause of his death?”

“He’s not dying.” I pull at the collar of my combat gear.

Jethro lifts a shoulder. “He wouldn’t have if you hadn’t gotten into his life.”

“I’ll knock your teeth out,” I snap.

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