Victor - Her Ruthless Husband (Ruthless Triad 3)

“What is going on there? Make it bigger!” he orders the guard.

The guard double clicks on the feed in question.

And Kuang stills at the sight now blown up large on the monitor.

It’s Victor Zhang. But he’s not alone.

He has Kuang’s only daughter held in front of him like a body shield. With a knife to her throat.

36

VICTOR

It is the first time Victor has entered Kuang’s home without either Phantom or Han by his side. Or an invitation.

However, a knife to Nora’s neck works just as well as a personal invite. He only has to stand in front of the camera at the front gate for a minute or two before it rattles open with an electronic squawk.

Phantom very much dislikes this part of the plan. He’d argued with Victor about not bringing him or any of the other Silent Triad along. But Victor is glad he won that dispute in the end. It is just as he predicted. Kuang lets him in easily when he sees it is only Victor by himself. And that he has his daughter.

Funny, Victor had never made it into the Ferraro mansion. But he’s come to Kuang’s compound enough times over the years to do unwitting reconnaissance.

He walks in a fast and random zigzag with Nora. Keeping his head pinned closely to hers and his elbow at an angle so that it’s difficult to see his face clearly. That way, if Kuang has a sharpshooter on the roof or in any of the windows, they’ll have a hard time lining him up to take a shot.

He’s holding Nora’s throat so tight under the knife that he can feel her pulse pounding against his arm.

Her fear sends a wave of guilt through him. Contrary to how he behaved during those turbulent years with Dawn, threatening women is not his way.

He hates that he’s scaring her. Hates her father even more for making him escalate their war to this place.

But the threat to Nora’s life does the trick. Guards fall away without pulling guns as he walks their Dragon’s daughter into the main house and up the stairs, to that living room Kuang calls an office.

Victor doesn’t bother with counting all the men he sees along the way as he would have if he’d been allowed onto the Ferraro estate back in August.

Kuang has so many, Victor would too easily lose track of the tally. Also, the probability of this plan actually working is already rock-bottom enough without him adding in an enemy soldier’s headcount.

Eventually, they make it up the stairs to Kuang’s office.

The guards outside his door don’t fall away as easily as the ones that came before them.

They both pull out guns and point them at Victor, yelling in Cantonese for him to let the daughter of their leader go.

Victor needs them to take this more seriously.

He doesn’t want to, but he presses the knife into Nora’s neck, just enough to produce blood and make her cry out, “Please, please don’t shoot! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!”

She sounds like she’s on the verge of hysteria. And her desperate pleas make him feel like the monster Dawn accused him of being so many times during their ten-year marriage.

But just like all the other monstrous things he’s done to get to this point, it works.

The guards back away, and one even opens the door for them.

Victor enters Kuang’s office prepared for the next part of the plan: an incredibly tense hostage negotiation.

So he’s surprised when he finds Kuang on his usual couch, drinking tea.

“Hello, Young Zhang!” Nora’s father greets him heartily. “Would you like some tea? It is freshly brewed.”

Victor’s stomach clenches. This is not the reaction he was expecting.

DAWN

It doesn’t take long after putting the sheets up over the camera for Yaron’s brother to re-appear.

The room is much dimmer now, but I can still see that he looks all sorts of pissed off. And his angry scowl only sets in deeper when he sees the sheets draped over the cameras.

He looks at them, then looks at me. “What the hell are you doing, you crazy bitch?”

I just hold my breath, praying to God for this to work.

He goes to the camera nearest the door and yanks the sheet down.

Only then does he realize out loud, “Wait, where’s the other bitch?”

“I told you not to call women that word,” I remind him.

Then Lucy gives him an answer to his question by popping out from behind the third blanket and hitting him across the back of the head with the base of the lamp.

The plan goes off perfectly, and it probably would’ve worked if Yaron’s brother wasn’t a lot stronger than I gave him credit for when I was coming up with this scheme.

He shakes off Lucy’s hit like a villain in a Marvel movie, then raises his fist with murder in his eyes.