A tall, handsome man stepped out of the gleaming glass door of the Hamilton five-star hotel, the doorman tipping his cap in silent respect.
He stood like a statue carved out of myth—tall, commanding and impossible to ignore.
His well-tailored, customised charcoal-grey suit hugged his broad shoulders, tapered neatly at the waist in effortless style.
His expression was cold and devoid of emotion as he spoke over the phone, his chauffeur already positioned at the rear door of his Maybach Exelero.
"Tell Dad I'll be there in ten minutes...." Ken was saying over the phone strolling gracefully towards his car.
Suddenly, a loud explosive thud, cracked through the air like gunshots, causing heads to jerk, people to flinch, and brakes to squeal.
The force of the impact sent Ken falling backwards on the cold concrete pavement, with shards of broken glass flying in every direction, gracing his smooth and radiant skin.
"Oh my god!" A lady screamed at the top of her voice, pointing at the lifeless body on the crushed car roof.
"It's a person."
"It's a woman."
"She's not moving"
"She is dead."
"Someone call the hospital emergency."
Different voices echoed in the background.
"Mr Silva, are you all right?" The chauffeur–who narrowly escaped being crushed by the impact–ignored his bleeding forehead as he ran to the young master's assistant, horrified by the young master's bleeding cheek.
"I'm fine." Ken stood up, frozen and hypnotised by the lifeless body of the pretty young woman sprawled across the crushed roof of his Maybach, twisted and broken.
Her ginger-red hair spilt across the crushed roof, like a fading flame, lifeless and still, catching the light with a ghost of its former fire.
It reminded him of the woman from his dreams–the one he had given his body and soul on the night he was drugged and set up.
'Could it be....'
Ken's lips trembled, the top left side of his cheek bleeding from a broken glass cut. He slowly moved towards his crushed car, the screaming cries of the crowd gathered fading into the background.
Tilting his head sideways, he stared at the bruised and bloodied face of an angel –her stillness more powerful than breath and her beauty, haunting even in death.
His heart was pounding wildly as he reached out for her battered, fragile body, pulling her ever so gently from the roof into his arms
Blood flowed from her broken head like a river of sorrow, warm and fresh.
"Oh god...her scent..." Ken's body trembled. He recognised that unforgettable natural scent of hers, now mingled with the metallic smell of her precious blood.
"No... This can't be... Please don't die." Ken's hands trembled as he quickly took off his jacket and wrapped it around her head to stop the bleeding.
"Mr Silva...." His personal assistant, Lawrence, came behind him. "Are you..."
"Get me a fast car, NOW." Ken boomed, holding the already dead beauty closely to his chest to keep her body warm.
*
*
*
*
LakeWood City in Barnovia, 7:30 PM...
The night was alive with the fury of the storm.
The darkness pressed in, thick and suffocating, broken only by the occasional flash of lightning.
Hiraya sat behind the wheel of her black sleek Lamborghini, tapping furiously on her laptop, her sharp gaze locked on the screen.
Her pretty face was hidden behind a mask, and her captivating emerald green eyes were beneath an icy grey contact lens.
The short fringes of her white wig brushed against her brow like frost, giving her an air of cool defiance.
With the current task completed, she shut down her laptop and put it aside, her frosty gaze now fixed on the image of a brightly illuminated and heavily fortified luxury mansion ahead.
Behind those high fences and guarded walls was a woman who desperately needed help and a package worth trillions.
This was her kind of mission; one where she got to save another innocent woman from an abusive husband while making money at the same time.
Tonight, she wouldn't just be a villain but also a hero and a saviour.
Hiraya's lips curled up slightly at the thought of that word, saviour–a name given to her by the last helpless woman she saved from an abusive relationship.
But her smile faded when images of her mother screaming in pain while shielding her from her ruthless brute of a father. It made her fist clench and her aura darken.
She dialled a number on her phone, activating her Bluetooth earpiece device.
"Get ready and stay on standby. I'm going in." She ended the call and got out of the car, disappearing into the stormy night.
-
-
Inside the massive luxury mansion, hefty security guard prowled around the premises like watchdogs, their gaze murderous and alert.
None of them saw the storm coming in, and neither of them was prepared for its brutality.
Hiraya easily gained access to the mansion premises, moving like a shadow in the cover of darkness, sharpened into a blade.
By the time the first guard sensed her presence, his throat had already been slashed and his blood painted the concrete floor red.
There was no warning. There was no mercy. There was no screaming.
Just sudden death by the cold kiss of her silencer and the sharp edge of her dagger.
Only the mansion servant sleeping peacefully in the servant quarters was spared from a grim fate.
Upstairs, the cry of a woman rang like a siren, screeching, and begging for mercy. This was closely followed by the sick laughter of a predator, taunting and unforgiving.
"You think you can run away from me after everything I've given to you?" The voice growled, and the squeaky voice of the woman shrieked a pleading response, followed by another round of whipping sounds.
Hiraya finished off the last guard, with a single clean shot to the head before barging in on the couple.
"Who the f*ck are you?" Draco Fincher growled, glaring at the slender figure of a woman standing by the door.
"An antidote to your sickness." Hiraya's fury was fuelled by the sight of the woman's bruised face. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
Draco let out a grim throaty laughter, his dark gaze narrowing at the slender masked lady. "Come to me, baby. Show me what you've got."
"With pleasure."
In one swift ghostlike movement, Hiraya easily disarmed Draco, striking three different pressure points that sent him falling down like a log of wood, temporarily immobilised.
"Quickly, get dressed and leave. Someone will be waiting to pick you up outside the gate. He'll help you disappear without a trace." Hiraya said helping the bruised and battered woman to her feet.
"The bodyguards." The woman said, shaking her head.
"No one will try to stop you. Trust me." Hiraya reassured her.
"How can I thank you?" The woman broke down in tears.
"You can thank me by staying alive and staying away from jerks. Now go."
The woman spared her unconscious husband one last disgusting look, spitting on his body before hurrying out of the room.
Hiraya quickly got busy, retrieving the main package from the secret vault inside the bedroom, using the unconscious victim's biometrics.
By the time, she had completed decrypting the ZTX Formula, she shot her victim thrice in the head and left her branded signature on his bare chest as a message to her father.
-
-
After a successful exchange with her unknown buyer, Hiraya, now wearing a different disguise, slowly made her way towards her car, parked by a deserted street.
The night was still and unnaturally peaceful–mimicking a scene from a horror movie.
Something felt unusually odd but Hiraya couldn't place a finger on it at the moment.
It started as a whisper beneath her ribs and then progressed to a slow, sick churn in her gut.
Pushing this nauseating feeling to the pit of her stomach, she got into her car and slammed the door shut. She slid the key into the ignition and was about to start the car when her phone started ringing.
A faint smile curled up the side of her lips as the caller's name, displayed on her phone screen. Pressing the receive button on her Bluetooth ear device she said,
"Damian, what..."
"Raya, it's a trap, get out of your car," Damian screamed at exactly the same time Hiraya turned the car ignition.
A spark followed by a bright light was the last thing Hiraya saw as the explosion ripped the night in half.
Five kilometres away from the explosion, a young masked man, seated behind the wheel of a sleek exotic car smiled grimly as he spoke into his phone.
"It's done. Hiraya Chavez is no more."