Page 6 of The Torturer's Target

Tesiera couldn’t tear her eyes away from those gray eyes. Those very familiar gray eyes haunted her in her nightmares almost every night. The boy who murdered her father right in front of her, in cold blood, was a fucking doctor? The man who put a bullet through her father’s brain was a freaking brain surgeon?

“So, he’s a doctor and he owns a hotel?” she asked when she could finally get her throat to work.

“Chains of hotels,” the mafia godfather corrected. “He has so many of them, fucking loaded and he’s a public figure too. The image he shows the world says he can do no wrong. The world loves him. According to our intel, he pursued his dream of being a doctor after his father—who had always wanted him to take over the family business—died. Now he has capable hands handling his businesses while he pursues his dreams. But all those hotel managers and executives answer to Maximilian Kingston. He’s the big boss.”

Maximilian Kingston. She rolled the name through her head, hating the motherfucker’s name as much as she hated the man. Her brows arched. “With all that money, he’s a doctor? He made himself an easy target to his enemies; it’s a surprise he’s still alive.”

“There’s a reason for that. Although Max Kingston doesn’t move around with paparazzi and entourage, he has two shadows that are always looking out for him, protecting him. According to reports, those two men are highly skilled in all kinds of combat. Dangerous men that are very good with knives, guns, and hands. They have killed every threat against Max Kingston’s life. We couldn’t get much information about them apart from their names: Bose and Clinton. Apart from that, they are almost ghosts.”

Interesting. Tesiera’s eyes went back to the video on the screen, which had looped to the beginning. She noted the way her target smiled and the way he received the award like a man of dignity and integrity. Like he couldn’t hurt a fly and would rather go to the ends of the world to save it. A cold-blooded murderer who killed a man over a locket and then pointed a gun at his eight-year-old.

“Is that everything we’ve got?” she asked.

“I’m afraid so. The Kingstons might be public figures, but they managed to keep their lives away from the media. That’s all we could get for now.”

“It’ll do,” Tesiera simply said. For the first time in a long time, an unfamiliar feeling surfaced in her. Impatience.

She was well-known in the underworld for her patience. She could torture her victims for days to get what she needed from them. And she could tail her targets for weeks. But now that she knew the face of the fucker who killed her father, all she wanted was to plunge a knife deep into his chest. And to do it now.

Her hands itched for blood—his blood. Her fingers itched to pull the trigger and blow his brains out. Her ears ached to hear his dying screams.

Taking a deep, unsatisfying breath, she asked, “Where does he live?”

Big Cat studied her face carefully, then he turned around and picked up a folder from the table and held it out for her. “All the information we have is in this here.”

Tesiera rose from her chair and collected the file. “Thank you so much for this.”

“You’ve had a long day. Go home and rest. I know you’ve waited a long time for this, but I don’t want you to make any rash moves. Think about your next step before you take it, Tesiera. If those two guards he has shadowing him protected the man enough to keep him alive for this long, they must be damn good at it. Be careful. If you need anything, let me know.”

“Thank you,” she said.

He smiled at her again, then she left the conference room and took the elevator to the bottom floor, leaving the mansion.

She held the folder in her hand tightly. For the first time in a very long time, Tesiera could feel happiness. A hint of a smile played on the sides of her lips.

With this, she would carefully draft out a plan to make this bastard pay for what he did. He was her new prey.

I’m coming for you, Maximilian Kingston.

CHAPTER 3. MAXIMILIAN KINGSTON

Two weeks later

“Congratulations, Dr. Kingston, on another successful surgery,” Nurse Pattie said, beaming with pride as they left the operating room after a six-hour-long surgery. “Mrs. Jones will hear again, thanks to your handiwork.”

“Thank you, Pattie,” Max replied, stopping in front of the sink to remove his gloves. He disposed of them in the bin before turning to face her.

Pattie couldn’t help but admire the man before her. She had only worked with Max for two months, but in that short time, she had realized that he was exceptional in every way. He was a genius physician and a generous philanthropist, known for his exceptional skills in the operating room and his charitable donations.

Just the previous week, Max had channeled significant amount of funds to help children diagnosed with cancer, covering their treatments and medication. He was a role model—a man to admire and look up to, and even more so, a man to swoon over.

As if his intelligence and kindness weren’t enough, Max also had impeccable good looks. His fair skin, sharp jawline, piercing eyes, and masculine aura set him apart from the crowd. His impeccably groomed black hair was styled in such a way that a lock would fall over his forehead, which Pattie found incredibly attractive.

Despite his prestige, pride, and authority, Pattie would sometimes catch a hint of pain in his eyes, which would vanish as quickly as it appeared. Max was an enigmatic man, shrouded in rumors and secrecy. Rumor had it that he still owned the Kingston Hotels Group, but it was mostly unfounded. The company had belonged to his family for generations, but after the death of his father, former CEO Hales Kingston, Max sold his shares to Alexo Graham who became the new CEO.

For Pattie, it was an honor to work with a man like Max, even if it meant he had to give up his hotels. She couldn’t imagine choosing to be a doctor over the wealth of owning and managing chains of hotels, but Max had, and that made him even more impressive in her eyes.

Just then, the door opened, and Nurse Olivia, stepped in. “Dr. Kingston, your friends are downstairs in the waiting room. They said to let you know that they’re here,” she announced.

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