He stumbled back and blinked, clearly not used to a woman with combat training. His surprise didn’t last. In the next breath, he lunged at me. I attempted to kick him in the balls. He grabbed me by my hair, then slapped me across my face. Hard.
My cheek exploded. I let out a gasp, but before I could take my next breath, another slap followed. My lip swelled. Fury bubbled inside me as I stomped on his foot, then kicked him in his balls.
He bent over, letting out a whimper. Taking advantage of his temporary immobility, I flattened my hand on the nape of his neck and slammed my knee into his face. His nose broke on impact, the crack of his bones like music to my ears.
Pressing the barrel of my gun against his temple, I leaned closer, my face just inches from his ear. “Blowing your brains out will make my day,” I purred in a cold voice.
“And here I thought there might be a damsel in distress in here.” A deep, taunting voice startled me, and I whipped around, the man I was pummeling forgotten. Swallowing, I looked into the dark eyes of none other than Kingston Ashford. The image of the boy from the photo in Ivan’s file flashed in front of my eyes, and I couldn’t help but wonder what hell he’d gone through.
His hard, unrelenting gaze was in stark contrast to his casual pose. He was leaning against the wall, his arms folded and his eyes ice cold. My heart thundered in my chest but I ignored it, refusing to show fear.
“Clearly, I’m not a damsel. Now get lost, or I’ll be cutting off two sets of balls today.” I narrowed my eyes on him.
“Nice to see you again,” he said, ignoring my dismissal. God, there was something about his guttural tone that was almost… seductive.
A whimper of my victim pulled my attention and I struck him in the temple, knocking him out, then turned back to the unexpected visitor.
“Are you stalking me?”
One meeting was a coincidence. Two, no fucking way.
“Now why would I stalk you?” Emotion played across his face and his eyes—blazing, almost like he’d seen a ghost. Just as quickly as it appeared, his expression shuttered into one of polite interest.
“You tell me.” I licked my lips nervously. There was something about this man that was unsettling. I didn’t like it. “What do you want with me, Kingston Ashford?”
Surprise flared in his eyes, his scruffy jaw hiding some of his hard face. “So you know who I am.”
“I did my homework,” I breathed.
“So you did.”
A beat of silence followed, something about the tone of his voice not sitting well with me. His eyes lingered on my injured cheek, darkening. His jaw tightened, and he looked away. A shadow of something dangerous passed his expression, making my heart shudder and then speed up. For him.
“Why are you here?” I rasped. The darkness in his eyes unleashed something within me, chasing my rapid heartbeats and frying my nerves. I raised my eyebrows, tilting my head to the side and hiding this unusual reaction behind my stony facade.
“Morbid curiosity.”
“That can get you killed.”
Something flared sharply in his eyes before it was completely gone.
“Go for the jugular next time,” he drawled, giving me pause, but then I remembered the grotesque scene I’d created around me. Clearly, he wasn’t disturbed by it. “Slice him right here.” He demonstrated on himself, a spot right under his jaw. “He’ll bleed out like a pig. Then take his tooth. Didn’t your mama teach you that?”
I blinked at him. Kingston Ashford was a nut job—there was no other explanation. But then his words sunk in and realization dawned.
“You know her?” Mother partook in Ivan’s torture. Of course he would know her.
My breath caught in my throat as he pulled out a pistol and attached a silencer to its barrel. Before I could even blink, he pointed the gun at me and pulled the trigger.
My eyes closed, my mind silent for the first time in years.
Chapter 18Kingston
The body slumped to the floor with a satisfying thud.
Blood roared between my ears, muffling the noise of everything else.
The silencer still on, I shoved the pistol back in my holster and closed the distance to the dead body. I stared down at the unmoving corpse and blinked away the red fog that’d descended when I fired the bullet, then leaned over and pulled out a tooth with my pliers.
“What’re you doing?” Liana’s voice was distant, and I found her watching me with a blank mask.
The party was held for distinguished politicians, with its annual tradition of serving trafficked minors and women on a silver platter—one that went blissfully ignored. It was their way of gathering the evidence to hold against the honorable governors, senators, and others when they needed a favor.
The corruption was a wheel that never stopped turning.
“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 many lives 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 so traumatic 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.