Page 23 of The Torturer's Target

So, yes, she had no one to blame but herself.

The door opened and Tesiera lifted her head. Max entered wearing a crisp pinstriped suit and flanked by his two bodyguards. It didn’t escape her notice that the man was power personified. She’d never seen any man carry himself with such grace and poise as this doctor.

“Enjoy your nap?” Max asked as he walked towards her. The only sound was the rhythmic taps of his designer shoes in an otherwise empty room.

Max arched a brow at her injured face. “I thought I said not to touch her.” He turned to face Bose.

“I’m sorry boss. I… I just lost it.”

Max took a deep breath and returned to face Tesiera. His keen gaze missed nothing. His mind raced as he tried to figure out why this woman was trying to kill him.

In that moment, Max was glad he listened to his chief of security and had installed the trap in his bathroom. He’d be a dead man otherwise.

His attention narrowed onto her expressionless face. Her fiery brown eyes were filled with the promise of death as they met his gaze.

“Who sent you?”

Tesiera took a moment to respond. “If you let me go then maybe I’ll think about telling you.”

Max wasn’t falling for the bait. She was beginning to piss him off. His eyes darkened. “You are going to answer me, Tesiera Anderson. Who sent you to kill me?”

She was taken aback by Max's tone. She didn’t know he had it in him.

Maybe he’s finally showing his true self, she thought. It was about time; she was exhausted by the façade he put on for the world.

She gave him a wolfish smile through the drying blood. “Come closer and I will tell you.”

Bose snorted. “Boss, just let me kill her. We can make this whole thing go away and no one would ever know.”

Max directed an unspoken command at his bodyguard and Bose let out a breath. “I’m sorry, boss.”

He turned his attention back to this woman with the unrelenting resolve to withhold the information he wanted.

“Bose, Clinton. Leave,” Max instructed. The two shared a look before protesting. But then they saw the look on their boss’s face—an unfamiliar one. It was anger, a measure of anger they had never seen from him before.

“Alright, boss,” they said as they exited the room.

Max heard the click of the door shut and then he asked, “Did Walker send you?”

“No one sent me to kill you.”

“Then why are you here?” Max retorted.

Tesiera raised her gaze to his. “I want you dead.”

“Why?” Max circled her chair, waiting for her answer. “You know, a lot of people have wanted me dead. Ever since I was young. Some have even gone to the extreme to get the job done. I’ve gone through hell; The worst moment of my life is because of people like you.” Max went around her twice before pausing right in front her. He crouched before, his gray–orbs locking her gaze with his. “Be assured, you won’t get out of here unless you tell me who sent you. And if you don’t comply, I will unleash Bose on you.”

Tesiera said nothing, her expression unreadable.

Max straightened. “My private investigator got some interesting information about you. The Torturer—” He paused a bit. “That’s what they call you, right? You torture people for days using different incredibly successful and incredibly painful methods—a lot of things I can’t even bring myself to say, let alone think about. You do not care about human life. You’re a monster, Tesiera the Torturer.”

He looked at her with disgust.

“Your eyes are so cold, an embodiment of so much…evil. You’re the only cold-blooded killer in this room.” He paused. “So why would you want me dead? I get why the others do. But you? I can’t figure it out.”

“I am a killer, and I don’t pretend to be anything else. Unlike you, Maximilian Kingston. You pretend to be righteous. But behind that façade, you’re just like me. A murderer. A killer. Evil,” she threw his words back at him. “You robbed children of their childhood. Robbed people of their entire lives. A murderer that stared into the eyes of an old man, pleading for his life and yet still fired the round that killed him.”

“I know people like you because I am you. And I hate it when people pretend to be who they’re not,” she emphasized.

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