Page 36 of Reign of a Billionaire
“I need his tooth.”
Her brows pinched in confusion.
“Why?” My molars clenched. It was a damn habit that I couldn’t shake. It kept me sane. I needed to know how manylives I’d taken by the time this all was done. I’d known Liana since before her school years; she’d seen me collect teeth while I was Sofia’s prisoner. “Do you need dental work?”
My frustration bubbled, reaching a new high and preparing to explode. She said she did her homework and knew who I was, but she clearly didn’t remember me.
“No, I don’t need dental work,” I gritted, pondering why she didn’t remember me. If she did, there wouldn’t have been a need to do homework. Nico Morrelli gave me a heads-up—someone was poking and prodding around my identity. It had to be Liana.
I had so many questions of my own, but it was best I said nothing. For now.
Her lips parted, and that was when I cut her off, my anger reaching fever pitch. “Shouldn’t you be running before I blow your fucking brains out?” I snapped.
Truthfully, I was surprised she didn’t point her own gun at me. Instead, her arm remained hanging down her body, almost as if she were resolving herself to that fate and prepared to die. Her golden-hazel eyes searched mine, and I could see her mind working hard, leaving me to wonder who, in fact, this woman was.
She wasn’t the Liana Volkov I remembered.
This one stirred strange feelings in my chest that I hadn’t felt in years. The emotion spread to the rest of my body, and I hated her for it. I needed it gone. She was my enemy.
…Wasn’t she?
She scoffed, smirking. “You can try to kill me, but you’ll fail. Fair warning to your fragile male ego.”
I’d spent over a decade being her and Lou’s bodyguard. How could she not remember?
Unless shit happened to her after her twin died. I knew firsthand how vicious Sofia and Ivan could be when double-crossed. It could be that Liana was put through something sotraumatic that her memory suffered. Or she felt Lou’s agony. It would make sense. When one twin hurt, so did the other. When one was sad, so was the other. The twins shared a connection despite being very different personality-wise. Liana was ice and fire where Lou was ocean and sunshine.
“So bloodthirsty,” I remarked warily, recognizing that the once-harmless woman had been turned into a very capable killer.
She shot me a heated look from under her lashes, then murmured in a low, bedroom voice, “And I haven’t had my fill, so you might want to be careful, Mr. Ashford.”
“Ghost.” She blinked, confused.
“Excuse me?”
Jesus, did she remember fucking anything?
Ivan Petrov and Sofia Volkov had trained me into a lethal killer. And so much more. Those first two years in captivity were excruciating. Until I’d seen her—them. Life under Sofia and Ivan’s roof was fucking hell until Sofia made me her daughters’ bodyguard. The twins had been a beacon of hope for me at my most desperate hour. I strived to become the best killer, the best hitman, the best bodyguard.
Pushing it all out of my mind, I focused on the petite woman with an angelic face. Her eyes shone deceptively, full of innocence and lies that had cost her twin her life.
“I go by Ghost, not Mr. Ashford. Not Kingston.”
Something flickered in her eyes. “I’ve been searching up the mysterious ghost,” she said, her brows knitted. “So Ghost and Kingston Ashford are one and the same.”
“Yes.”
An eye roll followed. “I’ll call you whatever I like,” she shot back. “And it won’t be Ghost. Now stop annoying me, or I’ll kill you.”
“Go ahead,” I retorted.
Her lips thinned in displeasure, and our eyes locked, speaking in a language neither one of us could understand. Until she broke the silence.
“You know, I almost wish you’d try to kill me so I could slice your throat and end this annoying conversation.”
My muscles tensed at her words, suddenly recognizing her thirst for self-destruction.
“Trust me, ice princess, when I try to kill you, I’ll succeed.” Her gaze flashed with open defiance, noting my choice of words.When, notif. But for some reason, she chose not to focus on that.
