Perfect Ruin (Unyielding #2) Read online

  Perfect Ruin

  Published by Nashoda Rose

  Copyright © 2015 by Nashoda Rose

  Toronto, Canada

  Copyright © 2015 Cover design by: Louisa Maggio at LM Creations

  Cover Photo by CJC Photography

  Model: Assad Shalhoub

  Content Edited by Kristin Anders, The Romantic Editor

  Editing by Hot Tree Editing

  Formatted by Champagne Formats

  ISBN: 978-1-987953-02-2

  *Any editing issues are my own. I’m Canadian and on occasion I may use Canadian spelling rather than U.S.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without the permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Except for the original material written by the author, all songs, brands, and artists mentioned in the novel Perfect Ruin are the property of the respective owners and copyright holders. Any brands mentioned do not endorse or sponsor this book in any way.

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Synopsis

  Books by Nashoda Rose

  Author’s Note

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Epilogue

  Note

  Books by Nashoda Rose

  About the Author

  #meetKaiifyoudare

  The New York Times best selling author Nashoda Rose is back with the much anticipated story of Kai and London in the Unyielding series.

  Kai

  There is nothing I care about.

  No attachments.

  No connections.

  Outwardly, I’m a perfect gentleman

  until my target sees my knife.

  I fear nothing, not even death.

  In my world, death is considered a privilege.

  But my life comes with unbreakable cruel strings and

  when I met her, I should’ve walked away.

  I didn’t.

  I was too selfish.

  And that sealed her fate.

  Because one week with me led her into the hands of ruin.

  London

  We all have unique layers that make up who we are.

  What makes us vulnerable or strong.

  What we fear and what excites us.

  But peel back those layers and you’re left naked and exposed.

  They did that to me.

  Each piece was slowly stripped away then burned.

  I merely existed.

  But there was one layer they overlooked.

  The most important of them all—the tie to one man.

  The man responsible for me being this way.

  The man who found me.

  And the killer who would do anything to protect me.

  Perfect Ruin is the story of Kai and London.

  Their beginning.

  And the continuing story of Vault.

  Must be read in order:

  Perfect Chaos (Unyielding, #1) Deck and Georgie

  Perfect Ruin (Unyielding, #2) Kai and London

  Perfect Rage (Unyielding, #3) Connor’s story (early 2016)

  *This book contains offensive language and sexual content. 18+

  Books by Nashoda Rose

  Seven Sixes (2016)

  Tear Asunder Series

  With You (free)

  Torn from You

  Overwhelmed by You

  Shattered by You

  Kept from You (Kite’s Story) 2016

  Unyielding Series

  Perfect Chaos

  Perfect Ruin

  Perfect Rage (Early 2016)

  Scars of the Wraith Series

  Stygian

  Tyrant Book #2(2016)

  Untitled Book #3(2016)

  Take (standalone Scars of the Wraiths)

  http://www.nashodarose.com/

  Author’s Note

  Thank you to the readers, for giving me my dream and for keeping it alive.

  And now #meetKaiifyoudare and his braveheart, London.

  Present Day

  France

  “HELLO, MOTHER.” I strode into the room. The two white candles perched on pedestals at either side of the door flickered as I passed, causing a glimmer of shadows to dance along the stone walls.

  “Darling,” she cooed, as if pleased to see me.

  We both knew different. She hated me, but the feeling was mutual.

  Bitch had kept me waiting three weeks in France before giving me an audience. Finally, I’d been summoned like a fuckin’ pet to its master by one of her minions. The waiting was a ploy to unnerve me. Unfortunately for her, it failed. Patience came easily to me as I’d spent my life having to live up to the word.

  As a child, I’d been kept waiting for food, for sleep, for the pain to end. I’d learned that time was better off being nonexistent, to never wait for something to occur, but instead, to ensure that anything I wanted would happen and that time had no significance.

  There’d been a glitch in that way of thinking—London. Time suddenly mattered and that fucked with me.

  She didn’t bother rising from behind her large mahogany desk that faced the ornate, stained-glass window. She merely tilted her chin at an upward angle to glance over her shoulder at me. Her slender fingers went to the pearl necklace around her throat and she caressed the beads.

  “A shame I missed you on my last visit to Toronto. Brice told me you were in New York checking up on Dr. Westbrook. I hope all went well.”

  This was complete bullshit. “Yes, of course.” It hadn’t. I’d been in New York, but I’d been searching for London, not checking up on her father, Dr. Westbrook. London had been at my house, a house no one knew existed; at least, I’d thought that was the case. Now, I knew different.

  “How have you been? Are you staying in the city?”

  Her slow interrogation was meant to sound like casual conversation, but there was always a purpose to every word out of her mouth. To an outsider, it would sound like a loving mother. To any who knew her, it was a manipulative way to try to obtain information without appearing like she was doing anything but chatting.

  I reached the desk and bent to kiss the cheek she offered. My lips barely touched her cool skin before I straightened. I nonchalantly leaned against the desk beside her and crossed my arms. “I’ve been well, Mother.” I had no intenti
on of offering anything else.

  I’d been staying at a quiet inn just outside of Paris where the goats bleated all day and the linen sheets smelled like they’d been doused in lavender. Actually, the entire house did, but it was the last place Mother would expect me to stay and the bonus was the owner cooked brilliant meals.

  I’d paid for a room in a five-star hotel in the city and had all my messages sent there. I did wonder how long it took them to discover I wasn’t staying there.

  “Your flight was good?” She raised her brows that were beginning to thin out as she aged. The creases around her mouth and the corners of her eyes were more pronounced than the last time I’d seen her. But instead of making her look frail, as it did most people, the wrinkles hardened her appearance.

  I chuckled. “Yes, three weeks ago, when I arrived.”

  She smiled, unaffected by my slight. “I apologize. I had a few delicate and time sensitive issues to deal with.”

  “Anything I can do to help?” I glanced at her computer screen and the security camera of the entrance to the front door was up. She’d been watching my arrival.

  “No. No. A mere nuisance that I’ve dealt with.” She clicked the ESC button at the top left of the keyboard and the screen went black. “How is Georgie? What’s she go by? —Chaos? A shame about the Tanner situation. He was a great asset.”

  Her comment was like a burr against my skin. That tiny prickle of warning to be careful as to what I said. But then, I was always careful around the bitch. It was best to follow what was expected of you when you were planning the unexpected. “Tanner was too attached to her and required elimination.”

  The kid, Tanner, had been assigned to befriend Georgie and her brother, Connor, over a decade ago. It was before Connor was taken by Vault; he was now one of us—with a little coercion, of course. Never thought I’d give a fuck who Vault tortured, manipulated, or conditioned because I’d been one of them. But London changed that. She changed everything.

  Mother nodded and a strand of blonde hair, streaked with grey, slipped out of her tightly woven bun and she pushed it back behind her ear. “Yes. You did warn us he could become a problem. But, he had his usefulness.” She paused, her eyes drilling into me. “And Deck?”

  There it was. What she really wanted to know. I kept my eyes on her, unflinching under the cold severe stare. “Placated and more focused on Georgie than on finding Connor. The note was a nice touch.” A note written in blood from Connor warning Deck to stop searching for him or he’d go after Georgie.

  She looked away as she shuffled the stark white papers in front of her—long, red fingernails like daggers. Daggers that would pierce your heart if she was in the mood to inflict pain. “Good. It was the right time. With Connor’s threat and Deck close to her, his meddling into Connor’s whereabouts may be discouraged now.” Her movements were precise and delicate, as if she were handling valuable documents. But from my quick glance when I’d kissed her cheek, the papers were nothing more than expense reports. “Unless you think he is a risk?”

  She was talking about killing Deck. I took my time answering; a hasty reply would be ruled as suspicious. “No. I think that would be foolish when we may be able to use him yet.”

  She pursed her red, drawn-on lips together. “Yes. True. I hate to eliminate potential operatives. Once the drug is stable, then we can reconsider our options. Connor has become very… reliable and we need more like him.”

  I laughed to myself. Operatives? It was a kind way of saying killers.

  “What about the farm?” The compound where I’d grown up. Where kids were conditioned to be like me—cold killers. We needed the fuckin’ location. We didn’t even know what country it was in.

  I waited while she toyed with me by remaining quiet. The bitch liked to constantly test me, but the handlers at the farm had trained me to be patient, emotionless, a machine that had no attachments and no feelings.

  The pits were the worst. Thrown in a deep hole in the ground for days with no food, or water, freezing at night, sweltering during the day, never knowing how long you’d be there. I’d learned to escape into my mind and not return until the ladder lowered and I was taken out. The ‘pit’ was worse than any physical torture, and the faster you conquered the test, the less time you spent there.

  “The farm is none of your concern.”

  But it was. She just didn’t know it.

  Only three board members knew its location: Mother, a Las Vegas hotel mogul, Peter Dorsey, and one other I didn’t know. He’d remained anonymous, and I was betting he was responsible for overseeing the farm.

  The man had been at my sister’s public torture a few years earlier when she tried to disappear after an assignment. He’d kept in the shadows with a hat low over his face, but I recognized the two gold necklaces he wore. One had a cross on it and the other a large emerald. I’d seen a man wearing the exact same necklaces when I was eight or nine years old while living at the farm.

  He’d stood looking into the pit, hat low to shield his identity. I remember his hand at his side, index finger and thumb rubbing together the entire time he watched me. I also remember the necklaces swaying side to side as he leaned over the pit. I’d been pretty delusional after three days in the pit, hot as hell, barely able to stand. But when I saw the same necklaces years later, I knew it was him.

  “We won’t need the farm if we have the drug,” I said.

  “We will utilize both.” Fuck. “Children are easy for him to acquire and he uses them for another purpose. The arrangement works nicely. The farm will remain.”

  “And who is him, Mother? Don’t you think it’s time I know who all the board members are?”

  She licked her lower lip, eyes narrowed as she contemplated. “That’s not my decision. It’s his.”

  “So, he calls the shots. Not you.” Her back straightened. I knew she wouldn’t like that. Mother always wanted to be the most powerful.

  “Of course not. But he runs the farm and other rather delicate activities. It is better he remains anonymous for everyone. We’d rather not have to relocate the farm again after the last breach.”

  Tristan had been the breach. The fifteen-year-old kid who escaped the farm was now the multi-billionaire owner of Mason Developments, who had worked his entire life to get to this point and take Vault down. It was his jet that waited at the airport in France, pilots on standby to get us back to Toronto as soon as I was done here.

  I couldn’t press the issue. I needed something more important from her.

  She pushed back her wooden chair with the plush, blue velvet backing, and, in a slow, elegant glide, she crossed her legs. I learned her movements and I was a lot like her, playing the cool unaffected person with genuine charm. Except, I did have charm. She was just a bitch playing the part.

  Finally, she said, “You’re here because of the girl.”

  It was a statement and the correct one. I was here because of London. I’d never willingly see Mother unless I had to and she knew it.

  I’d still be the numb, unemotional killer the farm made me if I hadn’t met London. Mother thought we were more dangerous if we had no attachments, no feelings toward anything or anyone.

  She was wrong. I was a lot more dangerous now because I had something to lose.

  “Yes. It’s time we get this out in the open, Mother.” Because it may be our last opportunity. “I clearly remember telling you a few years ago that I’d look after the situation and I did. She wasn’t going to the police. But you had to go behind my back and make it your situation. I gave her father two months.”

  “He knew the deadline and he was delaying. And Kai, that was years ago. It no longer matters.”

  Oh, it fuckin’ mattered. “We needed the drug. He needed two more months. You agreed to give him that.” She didn’t say anything. “Then after a week, you took his daughter and shipped her off to Raul. In fuckin’ Mexico. Dr. Westbrook was under control.”

  The corners of her lips curved upward and d
espite the urge to smack her across the face, I met her with a smile of my own.

  “I didn’t realize you knew where we sent her. Interesting.” She full-out smiled, flashing her pearl-white teeth that matched her choker necklace. “Did you go see her, Kai? Fuck her as a slave?”

  I did go to Mexico and try to get her out, but shit went wrong and I lost her then spent the next two fuckin’ years searching for her again. Of course, Vault didn’t know that. “We don’t deal with men like Raul. And you don’t interfere with my work.”

  “You fucked her, Kai.”

  “I fuck lots of women. I’m a man,” I said.

  “For a week.”

  I shrugged. “She was good.” I suspected it had been my frequent flights from Toronto to New York that had tipped her off. Even though I’d been assigned to watch London’s father, Dr. Westbrook, I’d gone more often than necessary.

  “And better now, I imagine. Or at least obedient.”

  Fuckin’ bitch. I resisted taking my knife and gutting her. Instead, I chuckled, but it was harsher than I wanted and I suspected she knew she’d gotten to me. “Why did you do it?”

  But I guessed the answer. Because I’d been with London. I hadn’t just fucked her. I’d been with her for a week and Mother had found out and didn’t like it. So, she wanted to destroy London, and she had succeeded. She’d stripped her dignity and left her broken, a shell of a girl with nothing remaining of the woman I’d been with.

  Mother would’ve thought that was the end of it. Another girl lost in the sickening world of sex trafficking. Vault was rarely involved in that type of criminal activity, except to take out the individuals who became problematic. I volunteered for those jobs.

  I’d never fuck a girl who was trained to please me and I certainly didn’t get off on forcing one to suck my cock. I got off on a girl begging for it with desire smoldering in her eyes.

  Mother tapped her finger on the top of the pile of papers. “You’re a lot like your father. Intelligent and arrogant. Women are drawn to you… like this girl.”

  “London.” She really had an issue with London.

  She shrugged her slender shoulders draped in a black suit jacket. “Her name is no longer significant.”