Kenneth’s smile widened slowly, the same way a wolf might grin before snapping a deer’s spine. He stood too close, the air between them thick with arrogance and just. Raven didn’t move. Not yet. She let him linger in his illusion of control a moment longer.
“You know,” he said, tilting his head like a man admiring a trapped prize, “you’ve got the look of rare animal. Like a bird that doesn’t belong in a cage, but somehow still ends up in one. And me? I collect rare animals.”
His hand lifted.
Fingers outstretched.
Reaching for her face.
Raven’s arm snapped up. Her wrist met his in a sharp smack. The sound echoed off the walls. Kenneth’s hand recoiled as if scorched. Her gaze was flat and cool, untouched by fear. The skin beneath her eyes tightened—one of the only signs of rage she ever allowed to surface.
Kenneth laughed softly, but there was a twitch in the corner of his mouth. A tell. “Feisty. That’s good. Me and my brothers—we’ve been following the clever little toys you’ve built for your father. We whisper rumors to each other like bedtime stories of your inventions. Ballistics wipers. Omni silencers. That cute grenade line of yours.”
He leaned slightly, his voice thickening. “You’re wasted on William. But not on us. I’m sure we could work out a much more… personal arrangement.”
His eyes looked over her body if it was a fine wine. “I mean, besides the obvious benefits. We can offer protection, Raven. From your old man. From his enemies. My boss doesn’t like dealing with William anyway. Why buy from him when we can take the products inventor."
His hand gestured loosely toward her, like she was already his.
“You stay with us, you get to live longer. Hell, if you’re a good girl, maybe we can even help you kill off your family. One by one. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
The way he said it was worse than the words themselves. Like her pain was something to be unwrapped and enjoyed slowly.
Raven let the silence hang.
Then she smiled coldly saying.
“You caught me.”
Kenneth’s expression twitched in triumph.
“I did steal from him. Every gun. Every round. Every vehicle. Food. Seeds. Surveillance tech. You name it.”
She took a step forward. Her boots scraping softly against the floor tile.
“By now, my father is bankrupt. Humiliated. And soon? Completely irrelevant.”
Kenneth’s grin widened again, chest swelling with imagined victory.
“But my revenge?” she continued, her voice darkening. “It’s not yours to hijack. It’ll be drawn out. Surgical. Every scar he gave me will be returned with interest. But that has nothing to do with you.”
He opened his mouth again, but she cut him off.
“I came here,” Raven said, eyes now cold enough to freeze blood, “to kill you.”
Her words dropped like an executioner’s hammer.
“And when your coward boss finally stops hiding behind his shell companies and safe houses I’ll kill him too.”
Kenneth froze.
“Then,” Raven added, “I’m going to find every last one of your degenerate little brotherhood members. The Red Blood Raiders. And I’m going to bury them in the ground with you on top."
The effect was immediate.
Kenneth’s confident posture broke.
His eyes narrowed, scanning her face for some sign—anything—that she was bluffing. But there was nothing but calm in her eyes. No trembling. No bravado. Just certainty that he was about to die.
“How the hell do you know that name Raven?” Kenneth asked, voice suddenly low and sharp. His bravado was gone. Not even William Salvatore knew about that. That name was erased, buried. Forgotten by everyone who is still breathing except its members.
Raven tilted her head. “You said it yourself. I’m rare.”
Kenneth took a step back, jaw tight. “Who told you that name?"
“I didn’t come here to answer your questions,” she said. “I came here to erase something ugly from my past."
She walked slowly past him now, eyes drifting over the racks of equipment, sealed crates, data terminals. "And while I’m here, I might as well rob you blind."
Kenneth’s face was a mix of disbelief and simmering fear. But even now, he clung to the idea that he could turn the tables. That she could still be broken or sold.
“You’re bluffing,” he said, voice cracking around the edges. “You wouldn’t risk your life over pride. You don’t even have backup.”
Raven didn’t stop walking. “You think I need backup for someone like you?”
Kenneth’s hand twitched, as if hovering near a concealed panic button. Or maybe a weapon. She didn’t care.
Behind her, the tension stretched like wire. Thin. Barely holding. One false move from him, and she’d cut it.
“You could’ve had everything,” Kenneth called out. His voice was louder now, unsteady. “Safety. Power. Even revenge. We could’ve worked something out.”
Raven finally turned back to him, her gaze distant, like she was staring through him instead of at him.
“Your version of ‘everything’ sounds like a cage. I’ve already lived in enough of those.”
And with that, the silence fell again. The kind that came right before a storm.
The kind you don’t walk away from.
Kenneth smiled as he said.
"Ha ha, you want to kill me with what you have no weapons on you. If you did, my meatal detector would have gone off. You think you can scare me with vague threats. Well, I've got news for you. Ha ha-
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