Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 102942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
I laugh. “Yeah.”
“Yeah . . . She didn’t drug you,” Kiara tells me, nervousness thick in her tone. “I kinda crawled up into the ceiling, pulled your light fitting out of the hole, and got you with a tranq dart. Knocked your ass out cold, too. It was great, and what’s better, I slept like a baby that night.”
My jaw drops. “You . . . what?”
“It’s fine,” she says, a smile widening across her face, truly proud of herself. “I came and checked on you every now and then. You know, made sure you weren’t choking on your own tongue and all that. I even checked to make sure that old condom wasn’t cutting off the circulation to your dick, and honestly, that’s more than any other neighbor would do for you.”
I’m fucking dumbfounded.
“You . . . Holy fuck. You really are a firecracker.”
She laughs softly, trying to keep as quiet as possible. “I might also have another confession.”
“Oh yeah?” I ask.
“I, umm . . . I think I might have judged you too harshly at the beginning, which is kinda what made this whole thing snowball into this ridiculous need to prove ourselves. But you’re actually really incredible at what you do. I mean, you’re certainly no Iron Viper, but you’re definitely right up there. Right after me, of course.”
I laugh. “Oh, my sweet Firecracker. It kills me that this has been staring you in the face since the moment I moved in next to you.”
She pushes up onto her elbow again, her gaze locking on mine. “What are you talking about?”
“The morning after we first met, when I came and knocked on your door, and you held your laptop up with all the bullshit research you’d done on me. What did you find out?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. Not much, honestly. Just that you were some glorified sales rep,” she says. “And for the record, for anybody who actually knows to look a little deeper, that website is terrible.”
I roll my eyes. “Apart from the shitty website, what’d you learn?”
“That you . . . I don’t know what you’re getting at here. Point me in the right direction.”
“My company.”
Her face scrunches, clearly having no idea where I’m going with this. “IV Global?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“What about it?”
I don’t respond, just hold her stare, giving her a moment to think it over. “IV Global,” she repeats, as though saying it out loud is going to help connect the dots. “IV . . . Global. I . . . V.”
Her eyes widen, and she scrambles away from me, knocking her IV pole again, but she doesn’t even notice as she stares at me from the end of the bed, her body tense and fearful, looking at me as though she doesn’t know how to feel. And honestly, it seems to be the trend of the night.
“You’re . . . no. That’s not possible. You can’t be him. He’s a legend. He’s . . . I don’t . . . no. It can’t be. You can’t be.”
“Why can’t I be?”
“Because there’s no way that I’ve spent the last six weeks telling you how shitty you were at your job while simultaneously bragging about how incredible the Iron Viper is. It makes no sense. He’s practically been my idol for years. Every move I’ve made has been in his footsteps, constantly pushing myself to his level. Plus, I would know if I’d spent the last six weeks fucking my idol. And no,” she says, her voice hitching slightly higher as though having some kind of mental breakthrough. “When I first mentioned him, you said you didn’t even know if he existed. You said he was practically a ghost.”
I just grin as all the pieces fall into place. She’s likely thinking over these past few weeks, replaying the impossible signature Iron Viper shots she’s witnessed firsthand, the control and discipline, and the skills that only assassins of a certain caliber could possibly possess. Hell, there’s only a small handful of us who are capable of reaching these heights, and Kiara is right there with us.
“Holy shit,” she breathes once again, her gaze not moving from mine. “You’re the Iron Viper.”
I nod, and as if just deciding that she’s okay with that, she starts crawling back in beside me in a daze. And honestly, it’s nice not to be the one dumbfounded for a change.
Even after getting the confirmation she needed, she still silently shakes her head, still replaying every moment over and over, trying to figure out how she could have missed it when all of those clues had been staring her in the face the whole damn time.
“Well, fuck,” she finally says, her normal tone beginning to return. She’s quiet again, but only for another moment when she glances up at me. “Do you know who I am?”