Relentless (Option Zero #2) - Christy Reece Page 0,102

mom’s salon after school until I joined the Navy. Shampooing and floor sweeping were my specialties.”

“I would imagine you were very popular with her clientele.”

“Let’s just say I probably made more money there in tips than I did my first couple years in the Navy.”

He turned the water off and opened the shower door. Stepping out, he snagged a towel from the warming bar and held it out for her. Yeah, he knew she was hesitant. Not only was this new to her, the uncertainty in her expression was easy to read. She thought the scars would bother him. They did, but not in the way she feared. He wished once again that he’d been the one to find the man who’d done this to her and do the very same thing to him. But in no way did her scars do anything but make him love her all the more.

Enveloping her within the warmth of the towel, he thoroughly dried her, and then brought her close, murmuring against her ear, “I love you, Katarina Aubrey Starr.”

With that, he picked her up, towel and all, and carried her to the bedroom. Laying her on the bed, he took a few seconds to drink her in. She was lovely, curvy, and luscious.

She held out her arms to him, and he joined her on the bed. Kissing and caressing up and down her body, he paid particular attention to her scars. He refused to pretend they didn’t exist. There were eight of them—one on each extremity, two on her abdomen, one on her shoulder, and the last one, possibly the deepest one, was on her left breast.

After he’d kissed each one, he returned to her breast and paid special attention to the scar.

“I know the scars are ugly. I thought about getting plastic surgery, but going back under the knife wasn’t something I wanted.”

“You see scars, I see badges of courage. What you endured, what you survived….you’re one of the strongest, most courageous people I’ve ever known. Do not, for one moment, think otherwise.”

Tears glistened in her eyes. “I love you, Liam. With everything that I am, everything that we are together, I love you.”

Lowering his mouth to hers again, he delighted in every sigh, every gasp. He wanted to take away her nightmares, erase all memories of every horror she had endured. When they were both at the shattering peak, Liam rose above her and held still for a moment. He watched her face, looking for any signs of fear or hesitancy. What he saw made his heart turn over. Love, like he’d never known, shone in her eyes.

“You’re my everything,” he whispered, and with that, Liam slid inside her, making her his own in the most elemental way possible.

She had been his from the beginning. She would be his until his last breath. Together, they were one.

Chapter Forty-Three

New Port Beach, California

Rudolph Ulrich’s Estate

Bringing a killer inside one of his homes wasn’t something Rudolph took lightly. However, things were getting dire and he needed the privacy. No one here would talk, as his servants were eternally loyal. Tying him to any murder would never happen. Conducting the meeting here would ensure complete privacy and anonymity. That didn’t negate the fact that the man before him had killed dozens of people. He had to tread carefully, but he also wanted to get his point across.

Rudolph put as much anger as he dared into his accusation. “I don’t have to tell you how disappointing the outcome of your last job was.”

“Disappointing?” The killer raised an arrogant brow. “I made the kill. That’s what you hired me to do.”

“You were hired to take both of them out. You failed.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault Starr survived the wreck. The other one died. It was a good, clean kill.”

“How is it a good kill if your target is still alive?”

A dangerous light entered the man’s eyes, and Rudolph swallowed hard. Perhaps he was being a little unfair. The other man was right. One of them had been killed.

“I still don’t understand why you couldn’t take out Syd Green. My solution worked perfectly.”

“You know that’s not my type of kill. It had no creativity, no panache.” He shrugged and added, “Poison is so blasé.”

Hard to believe this man could say those words with a straight face, but he knew the guy actually believed them. He had known from the beginning that retaining the acclaimed killer Promethean might cause problems. He was proficient in his kills, and that