Perfect Ruin (Unyielding #2) Read online

  Fuck. They were going to kill her. I kept my face impassive, the way I’d practiced in the mirror a million times before when I was a kid.

  A branch scratched against the stained-glass window to the right, and then I felt the slight breeze as the air leaked through the seams of the window. Still leaning against the desk, I crossed my ankles and lowered my head, appearing not to care about what she just revealed, but inside I was a crackling fire. The building rage played with my control, but if I reacted I would destroy my chances of getting what I needed from her.

  “She must have been good in bed for you to come here and beg for her life.”

  I scoffed, shaking my head with a half-smile. “I don’t beg.”

  I knew her all too well. The way her spine stiffened, indiscernible to most, but it was there all the same. Fuck, I’d been studying her gestures at every opportunity since the day she brutally killed my father in front of the Vault board members, my sister and me. It was that day I realized the core of her was far worse than an unloving mother. She was pure evil.

  She’d shoved her knife up between his ribs and watched him die. And the entire time, her face remained the same—expressionless. But there was one thing that gave her away… the twitch of her right leg. She did it when she was upset. Not sad. My mother was incapable of sorrow; no, it had been disappointment in my father.

  “Are you sure about that? Seems to me like you may… care about her.”

  She was suspicious, but I expected that. “She was an exceptional fuck.”

  That splintered her stone expression and she smiled. “I’d prefer if my son didn’t end up like his father over a woman.”

  And there it was, why she hated me. I had parts of me that reminded her of him. My father fell in love with another woman, but that wasn’t the only reason Mother killed him. It was just her excuse to kill him. She thrived on power and control and when she killed him, she took his place on Vault’s board. Then everything changed.

  No longer nine board members, but five. Two of whom she brought into the organization, Peter Dorsey and the man whose identity I had yet to figure out.

  “Tell me, Kai, what makes a killer like you fuck a weak woman like her.”

  London was anything but weak; at least she wasn’t until the violent and cruel men, Jacob and Alfonzo, broke her. It was time to end this bullshit. I had one chance at this and if I failed I was sealing London’s fate. “Your cruelty knows no bounds, Mother. And it was stupid of you to ruin a potential asset. I told you she was valuable and to leave her alone, but you couldn’t trust me.”

  She leapt to her feet, her composure breaking. “How dare you!” Her face contorted into the bitch sneer that always lay just beneath the surface.

  I met her eyes, steady and calm. “I dare because you’re getting old. And you made decisions based on assumptions.” Her cheeks were red and her face a mask of fury, but this was exactly what I wanted, to turn the tables. “She is young and intelligent. A scientist whose father developed a drug you want more of. Sorry, you need more of. We agreed on this after she was brought back from that shit you put her through. We were going to have her take over for her father.” It had been my only way to make certain London stayed safe. Make her valuable to Vault.

  “She was useless after her… experience.” I wanted to rip her cold heart out from her chest with my hand. London had been broken, destroyed, ruined after two years lost in that cruel world. “And I recall telling you to bring her in, but instead, you hid her away in a house we didn’t know about.”

  I smiled because if I didn’t, I was going to kill her before I had what I came here for. It was time for my ace. “Dr. Westbrook is dying of cancer.” That got her attention. “Doctors give him six months. From my last visit, I’d say closer to three.” The ruptured steadiness began to crumble as her eyes wavered from mine.

  “Another scientist can easily take over his work.”

  “We could have used her,” I said. “Why do you think I fucked her for a week instead of torturing her like you suggested? Why do you think I came to you and suggested we use her? You agreed. It was so simple and you fucked it up both times.” I slammed my fist into her desk. “I needed her to finish school. I needed her sane. We needed her.” I lowered my voice, pushed off the desk and stepped close to her chair. “But you always need to destroy and break when there are times we need to fuckin’ cultivate.”

  “We will—”

  I raised my voice. “I had her, Mother!” I took a deep breath and turned to look at the fireplace, feeling as if the flames were slowly eating away at my skin. “She trusted me. She would’ve done anything I asked of her and you completely destroyed that. And for what? Because you were afraid I was getting too close to her?”

  “You were. And you did,” she replied, her voice quiet.

  “I was fucking her. She was an acquisition. Torture isn’t the only way to make people do what you want.”

  She was silent as she considered everything I told her. Whether to believe me or call me out. Perhaps even have me beaten until I broke, but there was nothing to break of me anymore and she damn well knew it. They’d already done their damage to me.

  It took everything I had to remain standing where I was when all I wanted was to take the wire out of my pocket and wrap it around her throat; to watch her eyes bulge out of her head while she thrashed around struggling for air. I couldn’t decide if it would give me more satisfaction though to plunge my knife up under her rib cage like she’d done to my father.

  The farm made me numb to everything, including my sister, and the hate I had for my mother had lain dormant for years until I began to feel again. Until death suddenly mattered. Until a girl weaved her way into my heart and made it beat again.

  I walked over to the fireplace where shimmering specks of light shone onto the white shag carpet laying before it. When I was a kid, before I was sent to the farm, before my father was killed, before Vault was on this path, I used to sleep beside the fire and listen to it crackle, and my father would read to me.

  Now, I hated fire. I hated what it had almost killed.

  I casually sat in the antique purple velvet chair, crossing my bent leg over the other and leaning back. I rested my hands on the padded armrests that had carved lions’ heads at the base. My father used to relax in a chair like this in the evenings, although it was in England where we grew up before my mother sat on Vault’s board.

  His glasses would perch on the bridge of his nose, and he’d have to keep pushing them back while he read. He could be deadly, but he also had a lightness to him that made my childhood a little easier. He’d often sit me on his lap and talk to me about Vault and how it all started. A secret government that didn’t follow the laws, but had laws of its own. Its purpose had been to take out individuals that governments couldn’t due to laws, politics or resources.

  But that had changed when Mother took over.

  She would never admit to missing him, but I knew parts of her did. She had to because she made one fatal mistake the day she killed him—she killed him.

  Instead of years of torture, she gave him mercy. He knew it, too. They were the last words whispered from his lips. I couldn’t hear him, but I knew what he said, ‘Thank you.’

  But none of it mattered anymore. All of this was ending. I was taking out Vault’s foundation and that included Mother.

  “I don’t like her.”

  I sighed. “You don’t like anyone. And you’re making this personal.”

  She turned and her heels clicked evenly on the stone as she walked over to the window. “It’s too late. I told Brice to get rid of her.”

  Bile rose in my throat and my heart thudded against my rib cage. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Brice looked after Vault’s Toronto house and was a cold son of a bitch. “A shame.” I’m going to gut you. I stood and headed for the door like I didn’t give a shit. Like I wasn’t being torn apart inside by a dull, rusted blade.

  “You really don’t care about her? You
were using her for Vault?”

  I closed my eyes briefly before I turned and faced her. “No, I don’t care. You taught me better than that. But like I’ve told you before, I would’ve utilized her brilliance.”

  It was like something flashed in her eyes, a greedy bead of hope for using another person for her own benefit. “And you believe she can take over her father’s work? The girl was rather pitiful and didn’t finish her schooling.”

  And whose fault was that? I had no idea if London could, but it didn’t matter, none of this did. I was here to get my sister, Chess, out of prison, convince my mother London was valuable again so she’d drop any security on London’s cell in Toronto, and to find out what I could on the farm as well as details about the anonymous board member. It didn’t look like I’d get much out of her on the farm, or the board member, but there were other ways.

  “Yes, I do. She’s been working beside her father since she was able to hold a test tube. I wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble for pussy, no matter how good it was. That was a mere bonus.” It was my best lie yet and there wasn’t even a flicker of suspicion in my mother’s expression. “But you’ve had her imprisoned, and torture has a way of destroying the mind.”

  “Kai, you know the protocol. It’s not torture. Merely methods to persuade that have been used for centuries.” Torture. I knew them because I experienced them.

  “And what do you need to persuade her for if your plan was to kill her?”

  She laughed, a mild, frilly sound that didn’t match her cunt attitude. “I’m certain you’re aware, your loyalty was unclear. We required a test.”

  I fuckin’ knew it. “And did I pass?”

  “Not with flying colors, son.” I couldn’t stop the twitch in my jaw when she called me that. I wasn’t her son; I was a product of Vault. “Regardless, the girl hasn’t been touched in weeks. She was rather feisty until you saw her. What did you say to her?”

  And of course Mother had looked at the security feed that day I went to the Toronto house to erase the email Tanner sent. I’d been walking down the dark, cold basement corridor when I heard her—London. I’d kept walking, even made it to the door, before I turned back. I had to see her even though I knew I couldn’t get her out. That day destroyed me. What I had to say to her was worse.

  Luckily, I’d been at an angle where the security camera feed wouldn’t catch my expression. Because if she had seen the look in my eyes, London would be dead by now. “Exactly what she needed to hear.” What I’d said to London had its purpose because I had no idea when I’d be able to get her out, and London… she had hope. Hope that had to be crushed.

  “You better be right about her, Kai. The other board members might not be as forgiving as I am.” I chuckled because she didn’t even know what the word forgiving meant. “She trusts you. We can use that.”

  “Trusted. Past tense. She hates me now. But I can be very… persuasive.” Love and hate were complete opposites; and yet they intersected so frequently, changing paths often until they collided and made one big mess as they became parallel and found peace within. With London, my path had never strayed, but hers had been tested again and again.

  She walked over to her desk and sat. “I’ll inform Brice of the change in plan. I want you both in France. I have the copies of her father’s formula and she can start to work on the drug here once I have a laboratory set up. When I know she can do what we need, then I’ll decide whether she is valuable enough to keep.”

  I listened, but remained impassive.

  She typed on her keyboard, and with each tap of her long, slender fingers, she sealed her fate. “I’ll lift the security on her cell.”

  Bitch. But exactly what I needed to know and one purpose for my visit. If I had attempted to use my fingerprint on London’s cell weeks ago, the place would’ve gone into lockdown and an alert would’ve been sent out. A test and one of the reasons I’d had to come to France first. But each piece was falling into place. “So mistrusting. I’ve been loyal my entire life.”

  She failed to look up as she continued to type. “Yes. But women are a man’s weakness.”

  Like my father. “And would you have sent someone to try to kill me if I failed your little test?”

  “No, Kai. I’d have tortured the girl and made you watch. Then I’d have killed her. And you’d live the rest of your days with that image in your head.”

  Evil was too tame of a word to call her. “I don’t have a weakness. You made certain of that.” I kept my voice even and neutral as I set in motion the final plan. “I’ll fly back this afternoon.”

  “Are you going to visit with your sister before you leave? I’m sure she’d be pleased to see you.” I was doing a lot more than visiting. “I’ve allowed her some freedom and I think in a few years, perhaps she can be utilized again. Of course, the farmhands would have to make the final decision.”

  I hid the swirling anger with a soft chuckle as I walked back toward her then kissed her cheek, my eyes briefly going to the screen of her computer. Almost there.

  “Mother, you know I don’t give a shit about that traitorous bitch.” The words were laced with a sneer, but it was a lie. If she knew I cared even the slightest for my sister, it would be used against me. I made a point to never ask about my sister and never attempted to see her.

  She tsked, but by the way her blue eyes sparkled, she was proud of my words. She hit Send on her email and closed the lid on her laptop. “I’ve removed the security on her cell and Brice is expecting you.”

  That was all I needed.

  It was done.

  She reached over and put her slender hand on my arm. It was as if a shark latched onto me. My stomach curdled in disgust. In a slow, gentle caress, she ran her hand up to my shoulder and back down again. “And you’re right. I grow weary. I’m hard on you because I have to be. I want you to be prepared for anything.”

  I was.

  Emotionless.

  Detached.

  I’d slit the throats of men who had families. I’d destroyed lives. I’d been groomed to ruin and not care how I did it as long as the job was done.

  But what Mother didn’t know or understand was you never stole or harmed the girl belonging to a cold ruthless killer.

  Flecks of who they made me into had begun to chip away the day I’d met London, and what leached inside me was a slow acting poison. One that ate the numbness, brought in the light when all I’d seen was dark.

  I leaned closer to her, my hand on the back of her neck as I whispered in her ear, “Maybe I am like my father. Because I’m a man who will do anything for the woman I want.” She tensed and the creases around her mouth accentuated as she frowned. “I wish I had more time to do this justice.”

  I had my hand out of my pocket and the piano wire around her throat before she had the chance to take a final breath.

  She looked like a fish out of water, flailing against me as she struggled to breathe. I held the wire tight, no mercy, no feeling toward what I was doing. Her fingernails ripped her own fragile skin as she tried to loosen the wire.

  Her legs gave out.

  Her wild, horrified eyes went dead.

  Her body fell limp.

  I dropped her to the floor and put the wire back in my pocket. Then I crouched down beside her lifeless body. “London is mine and you fucked with that. Vault is going to pay for what it’s done.”

  Four Years, Seven Months Ago

  THE BROOM HANDLE dug into my back and the scent of bleach burned my nostrils. I’d knocked over the disinfectant spray bottle when I’d heard the voices and the pungent liquid leaked from the nozzle onto the tiled floor.

  The storage closet door in my father’s laboratory was ajar. I hadn’t turned on the light when I’d come to grab a roll of paper towels, so I was partially concealed in darkness. That was if I stayed out of the stranger’s direct line of sight. I prayed my drumming heartbeat or my ragged breathing suffocating behind my hands wouldn’t give me away as I watched him
glide his finger over the shiny surface of his knife. And it was not a butter knife. It was a six-inch blade with a serrated edge and it completely contradicted his look of a businessman as he held it in his hand in front of him.

  The stranger casually strode closer to the closet then stopped a foot away. As I inhaled, the scent of his expensive cologne filled my lungs and I gasped. Holy shit. The familiarity of it sent a wave of comforting heat through me. I knew that scent. I’d never forget it, but it was obvious this man was anything but comforting or safe.

  He wore an immaculate black suit with a light blue, pin-striped dress shirt that had the top two buttons undone. No tie, and for some reason that seemed appropriate, as if a tie would be too constricting.

  He looked in his early thirties and probably over six foot two. From the way he carried himself, there wasn’t an inch of him that wasn’t muscled, although it was more toned than bulky. Regardless of the threat he conveyed, he appeared completely relaxed, as if he were caressing a kitten and not a deadly weapon.

  I waited for him to see me. Hear me. To turn and throw the knife and pierce my chest to silence my racing heart. But what I was more concerned about was my father who was in the room with this guy.

  God, Dad, what’s happening? Who is he?

  Ever since I could walk, I used to help my dad in the laboratory. Although, at that age, I wasn’t much help, but my dad never seemed to mind. I knew the periodic table before I knew my times tables and was conducting experiments all through high school instead of joining any team activities. Science was my passion and there was nothing that drove me more than to experiment with different compounds and research the effects.

  When I hit college, my workload became too heavy and I spent less time at my dad’s laboratory and more time in the school’s lab with my head in my books.

  But lately, I noticed my dad appeared off—agitated and tired. I decided to drop in at the lab after seeing him at dinner on Sunday. He’d been pale with dark circles under his eyes and he’d lost a lot of weight. When I’d asked if he was feeling okay, he said ‘of course,’ then got up from the table having barely touched anything on his plate.