Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 102942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Milan stares at me as though I haven’t been paying attention. “Hacker. Duh,” she says with a grunt, rolling her eyes. “I tapped your phone and found his texts, and he was all too willing to play his part. Apparently you owe him big time.”
I scoff in disgust, and deciding I’ve finally had enough, I spring to my feet, my body still shaking, but I won’t need much to take out these two morons.
Milan’s eyes widen, scrambling to activate the taser again, but I reach around to my back and yank the prongs that are embedded in my skin free, carelessly dropping them to the floor as I slam my foot down against the blade of my kitchen knife, sending it whipping up into the air.
I catch it with ease, and before it even has a chance to settle in my palm, it’s already flying across my apartment, plunging deep into the front of Louis’ throat. Hell, I don’t even look toward him. My peripheral vision aim is just that good.
Instead, I keep my stare trained on Milan, slowly inching toward her, the rage I feel like nothing else. Because all of this is on her. She orchestrated every inch of it, and if Raiden is dying just feet away from me right now, and I’m missing my one shot to save him, then I will never forgive myself.
Louis goes down with a heavy thud, but all I’m focused on is her.
Milan’s mouth opens slightly, disbelief flashing across her face, but it quickly morphs into fear as she takes a step back, crushing Spikezilla’s roots beneath her feet.
“You . . .” she breathes. “No, it’s not possible. You shouldn’t have been able to—”
I grin. “You should know better, Milan. I tell you all the time, there’s nothing I love better than when somebody underestimates me. Makes my job a fucking treat.”
She doesn’t respond, just attempts to back up further, only her hip catches the edge of my entryway table, leaving her nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
“Loyalty means everything to me, Milan,” I say quietly. “You know that best, yet here you are. You knew better. Betrayal doesn’t suit you. It’s ugly, and honestly, you can’t pull it off.”
Her throat bobs as she swallows.
For a second, something like regret flickers in her eyes, but it’s too late for that, and I move forward, my steps steady despite the lingering tremor in my aching muscles.
Pausing by a body, I pluck a blade from his vest, quickly scanning over it. It’s nice. The guy clearly had good taste, though it doesn’t compare to any of my favorites.
I test the weight of the blade in my hand as I continue toward Milan, the steel cool as it settles naturally against my palm.
“I’m going to frame this blade once I’m through with you,” I tell her, my voice low and steady despite the storm raging through my chest. “It’ll sit up on a mantle somewhere. I won’t even wipe your blood off it. I’ll let it stay there exactly the way it is, rust creeping along the edge like a slow infection.”
Milan watches me approach, her confidence fractured. I can see it in the way her shoulders stiffen, the way her fingers twitch around the weapon in her hand as if she’s only just remembering that the woman standing in front of her isn’t the same one she’s spent countless nights talking with into the early hours of the morning.
“You’re not getting out of this,” she says, but the words sound thinner now, stripped of the smug certainty she wore only moments ago. “They’ll never stop hunting you.”
The betrayal sits in my chest like broken glass. Every memory of her twists against the present, warping into something unrecognizable. All of it feels rotten now, hollowed out by the truth standing in front of me.
“As far as they know, I’m already dead,” I say softly.
Milan swallows, and I keep walking, watching as something calculating flickers behind her eyes. “You’re angry,” she says carefully, as though testing the words. “I get that. But this was bigger than you. Bigger than both of us.”
The knife rolls easily in my grip. “You sold me out.”
“I did what had to be done.”
“You hunted me.”
She takes a shaky breath as I inch closer, so close I smell her perfume. “You became a liability.”
The calmness in her voice scrapes against my nerves like sandpaper, and I clench my jaw, trying to regain composure, despite the fury and terror pulsing through my veins at the thought of Raiden alone next door. “You were my best friend.”
For the first time since she stepped into the room, something like guilt flashes across her face. It’s brief, gone almost as quickly as it appeared, but it’s there. “It was the way it had to go,” she says quietly.