Victor - Her Ruthless Husband (Ruthless Triad 3)

Kuang hoots as if he’s the recipient of a surprise stage show. “That’s right, xiao Nora. Explain to this fool why he should never cross any member of my family!”

But then, Nora turns to Kuang and says, “I wasn’t talking to him. I was talking to you, old fool. You would have gotten to live if you had chosen me.”

That’s all the warning Kuang gets before she raises the knife and slashes it across his throat. At the same time, Victor pulls the two guns hidden underneath his jacket and shoots both men standing at the door before they can take out Nora.

The two guards posted outside the door immediately try to run in when they hear the gunfire. They receive point-blank shots through their heads for their efforts.

Phantom was right. Double fisting does look badass, especially when paired with Victor’s shove kick into the first one’s chest, which sends both guards tumbling backward so that they drop dead in the hallway and not inside the door.

That move allows Victor to slam the door against the onslaught of guards responding to the shots.

Fortunately, they’re too scared of hitting Kuang to shoot through the door. Victor drags the couch their leader isn’t currently dying on to prop in front of the entrance.

And he’s relieved when he turns back around the find Nora typing on the computer before the last gurgle of an attempted breath through his slashed windpipe is out of her father’s body.

He was afraid Nora might break down after her step of the plan was done. Kuang was her father, after all. But his last speech must’ve canceled all remaining reservations about their plot.

She was already at the computer, executing the part of the mission where she overrides the security system and lets Phantom and the rest of his men into storm the compound.

However, Victor can’t relax yet. The 24K is still on the computer monitor, awaiting instructions to carry out his boss’s orders.

“What’s the code to the panic room?” he asks Nora.

“I don’t know. My father never shared that with me,” Nora responds, her tone tight and bitter.

It was wise to cut off the head of the 24K snake as soon as possible. And in many ways, dying wholly ignored on his couch just a few feet away from his panic room was the worst death imaginable for the vain Dragon.

But now Victor wishes Kuang had played ball as Nora had hoped he would. If he was still alive, they could have wrested the information out of him.

“Tell the guard in the panic room to stand down,” he signs to Nora.

Nora taps on a few buttons and yells into the computer’s microphone. “We’ve killed Kuang. Don’t hurt her. The only reward you’ll get if you do is an even worse death.”

The man on the computer monitor looks up into the camera, and apparently, the talk function goes both ways. They can clearly hear him yell back, “I don’t believe you!”

“It’s true!” Nora insists. “Would I be talking to you if Kuang were still alive? The Silent Triad are storming the grounds as we speak, and whoever is left alive will need to accept me as their new leader. So I’m your Dragon now, and I’m telling you to stand down!”

Yaron’s brother cuts his eyes to the side, considering her words. Then he appears to realize out loud, “If that’s true, there’s no way they’re going to let me live anyway. I’ve heard about the sick shit they do to their enemies. I might as well kill myself. But first her.”

With that deadly statement, he raises the knife. And to Victor’s horror, he walks out of the frame.

The next thing they hear is the sound of Lucy screaming, “No! No! Leave her alone!”

Victor can hear the scream, both on the monitor and behind one of the walls.

Completely crazed, he goes over to the only panel of wall without a piece of artwork hanging on it and starts kicking at it. The lack of give tells him immediately that it must be made of some heavy metal like iron or steel. Something impossible to put his foot through.

But Victor tries anyway. Pain shoots through his leg, and the wall doesn’t budge, but he keeps on kicking at it. He has to get to her!

But then, a gunshot rings out.

Again, it comes from both on-screen and behind the wall.

No! No! Noooooo!!!!

Victor falls to his knees, unable to fathom what just happened.

Then there’s another shot.

And he can hear Lucy weeping, saying over and over again, “Oh my God… Oh my God…”

Somewhere behind him, Nora says, “That was probably him killing himself. Let’s just get all the Triad in here. We’ll figure it out from there.”

If Victor could speak…

If Victor could speak, he would shout at her that there is no figuring it out from here. Dawn is dead. And he isn’t his father. He doesn’t know how he will go on, knowing he didn’t protect her. Knowing that he failed to save her.