Though Kendrick knew Ryan was only saying this to provoke him, he could not help taking the bait.
He tightened his long fair fingers one by one, and the blue veins on the back of his hand bulged. His thin peach blossom lips were pursed into a cold hard arc, and his eyes glistened coldly.
As he walked toward Ryan, Ryan continued provoking him.
“I locked her in the room every day. I forced her to take injections and eat. I also forced her to obey me and be mine. However, she was so stubborn that she wouldn’t listen to me. Therefore, I could only take a more extreme approach to sand her edges. In the end, I succeeded.
“Kendrick, the woman you love the most is no different than an idiot now. She’ll spend her days in dread because I’m not going to let you capture me so easily!”
With that, Ryan stopped his arrogant chuckle as his expression changed immediately. He pulled out a gun he had prepared and quickly fired a bullet at Kendrick before turning around.
However, Kendrick would not allow himself to be Ryan’s target and let him slip away again.
He lifted his long legs and dodged the bullet with the help of a crate stacked nearby. At the same time, he leaped to his feet. His cold body came to Ryan’s side in a single leap.
Ryan jerked back, shock flickering across his face.
He grabbed his gun, trying to shoot Kendrick again.
However, Kendrick was quick to react. He suddenly reached out and grabbed the gun from Ryan’s hand. He countered Ryan and pointed the gun at him.
Facing the black muzzle in front of him, Ryan lapsed into a trance. He was not expecting such a twist.
Kendrick looked at Ryan with an indifferent expression while Ryan’s face changed slightly. There was a chill in Kendrick’s eyes.
“Ryan, I’m not arresting you as an IBCI agent but as Eveline’s husband. I’m here to inflict double the amount of injuries and blood that my wife has suffered and shed because of you.”
His words were like ice, and his eyes were like sharp swords that stabbed Ryan, whose expression changed immediately.
“Is this the same gun you used to shoot my wife the other day?”
Kendrick would never forget the day Niamh jumped out of the car to run to him. On that day, Ryan had brutally shot her with a gun and interrupted their reunion.
Ryan also felt Kendrick’s rage and hatred.
Just before he was about to react, Kendrick pulled the trigger.
There was a bang as the bullet went through Ryan’s shoulder, causing blood to flow.
Ryan frowned and tried to suppress the pain. He did not say anything and only smiled.
“Hmph. Kendrick, do you think that’s all Eveline suffered? You can kill me today if you dare, but let me remind you, you’re an IBCI agent. You know what will happen if you dare execute a high commander like me.”
Ryan was goading him by threatening and warning him.
He thought Kendrick would be distracted or stunned, but to his surprise, Kendrick’s eyes only darkened. He pulled the trigger again. With such precision, he let the lethal bullet scorchingly grazed Ryan’s palm.
The scorching sting felt like a sharp knife cutting through Ryan’s skin.
“Hiss!” Ryan hissed in pain, and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
“Do you know what it feels like to be punctured by glass?” Kendrick’s phoenix eyes narrowed slightly. “So what if I kill you today? Do you think I’m going to let you get arrested comfortably? Ryan, you can go after me. You can go after any of us for whatever vengeance you think you have, but not Nia.”
He paused before uttering three words through his thin lips, “She’s my everything.”
Ryan saw something murderous in Kendrick’s eyes when he said this.
“Ryan, in case you don’t know, the IBCI superiors have given instructions to shoot you if you’re violent during the arrest for the crime you’ve committed.
“In other words, I wouldn’t be responsible for anything if I shoot you right now. Instead, I would be praised for the good work.
“Why should I give you a pleasant death when I can shoot you on the spot?”
Ryan was rendered speechless. A hint of panic appeared on Ryan’s cold, sweaty face.
He knew that Kendrick dared to do it.
As Kendrick’s finger landed on the trigger again, Ryan broke into a strange smile. He gasped heavily. The blood loss was making it difficult for him to speak. “Kendrick, you seem to have forgotten something important.”
Ryan raised the corners of his lips, and his eyes, with vision blurry due to his injury, looked particularly bleak.
“Is it alright for you to come after me and leave Eveline alone in the car?” Ryan’s smile got a little sinister.
Once he finished speaking, Ryan noticed that Kendrick’s finger on the trigger had loosened.
Kendrick felt butterflies in his stomach when he thought of Niamh who was left alone in the car before he came to catch Ryan.
He looked at Ryan who was smiling insidiously and immediately turned around to sprint back to the spot before.
‘Nia!’ Kendrick shouted Niamh’s name in his head.
He was afraid.
He was afraid that Niamh was in danger again.
He realized that he had been careless. He should not have left Niamh alone in the car.
‘She’s not in a good state of mind. How could I just leave her and go after Ryan?
‘Nia!’
Kendrick felt tormented. He quickly sprinted in the direction of the car.
It was a short distance away, but Kendrick felt that the road had somehow lengthened.
With the car just around the corner, Kendrick strode over to the passenger door.
“Nia!” he shouted nervously, peering through the car window, but there was nothing as far as his eyes could see.
‘My Nia’s gone!’
Kendrick almost instantly felt cold, and even his breath froze for a second.
“Ryan!”
He turned quickly and sped to where Ryan was.
Kendrick did not expect Ryan to have help!
‘No.
‘I have no one to blame. It’s my fault.
‘I was negligent.
‘I said I’d never lose her again, but now…’
Kendrick blamed himself and returned to the spot where he and Ryan confronted each other earlier, only to find a pool of blood with Ryan nowhere in sight.
Kendrick’s hands were cold, and he looked out at the empty entrance of the alley. Everything before his eyes went black.
“Nia…”
“I’m here.”
“…”
A soft response rang behind his ears.
Everything that had been gloomy and grey before Kendrick seemed to restore its color in an instant. He instantly turned around to look behind him, and he caught sight of Niamh’s soft, beautiful face.
She was wearing a plain white dress, and her long bob waved slightly in the wind. She appeared before him, as clean and dreamy as a painting.
Kendrick could not stop his eyes from warming up. He ran up to Niamh and wrapped his arms around her.
“Nia.” Embracing her warm body, Kendrick felt truly at ease.
“I thought I had lost you again, Nia.”
He held her tightly, his trembling palms pressed against the back of her head. He feared that she would disappear again.
Niamh opened her beautiful eyes as if she did not understand why Kendrick was reacting so strongly.
However, no matter what, it was reassuring to have Kendrick hold her like this.
Kendrick kissed the top of Niamh’s head over and over again, still reeling from shock.
He figured it out now. Ryan lied to him to escape. He used Niamh’s safety to trick him.
‘Thank God, it was all just a lie from Ryan.’
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.