Chapter 11 - TEETH AND BLADES
Caroline paced around my chair like a predatory cat.
Her heels clicked sharply on the rusted steel floor of the shipping container.
"You really thought you could win," Caroline said.
Her voice was sweet, poisoned, dripping with hatred.
"A girl who scrubs toilets."
She stopped directly in front of me.
She reached out with the tip of the razor and lifted my chin.
The cold steel bit into the soft skin beneath my jaw.
A single drop of blood welled up.
"Look at you," she hissed, her eyes wild.
"You have nothing. No name. No money. Yet Adrian looked at you like you were his entire world."
I met her gaze without blinking.
"He looked at me because I’m not a coward who buys loyalty," I said.
Caroline's face twisted with rage.
She drew her hand back and slashed across my forearm.
Pain flared like fire across my skin.
I bit my tongue until it bled, refusing to give her the satisfaction of a scream.
"Where is the master deed?" Caroline demanded.
"Vincent searched your pockets. You hid the digital encryption key. Where is it?"
"Go to hell, Caroline."
Caroline raised the razor, pointing the blade directly toward my left eye.
"I will carve your face into ribbons, Nora."
She leaned in, her perfume sickeningly sweet.
"Let's see if Adrian still loves his little maid when you look like a monster."
My heart hammered against my ribs, but my voice remained steady as stone.
"Do it," I whispered.
Caroline paused, caught off guard.
"What?" she muttered.
"Do it," I repeated, staring dead into her eyes.
"Because the moment you touch my face, Adrian will hunt you to the ends of the earth."
I smiled through my bloody teeth.
"And there isn't a vault in this world deep enough to hide you from him."
Doubt flickered in Caroline’s eyes.
Her hand trembled slightly.
Before she could speak, the ground beneath our feet shuddered.
A deafening metallic crash tore through the rain outside.
The sound of an engine revving violently shook the shipping container.
A pair of headlights cut through the container's rear rusted wall like twin searchlights.
The steel wall buckled.
BOOM.
A heavy armored truck smashed clean through the rear panels of the container.
Twisted corrugated metal groaned and tore apart.
Caroline was thrown across the floor, screaming as she hit a stack of rusted oil drums.
Through the rain and smoke pouring from the shattered container, a figure emerged.
He walked through the twisted metal.
Adrian Vale.
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He held a submachine gun in his hands, his shirt soaked with rain and blood.
He looked like the god of vengeance come to collect his debt.
