Plus Sized Assassin

BINDING HER TO HIM FOR GOOD

Barbara didn’t know what she expected.

But it certainly wasn’t the mind-shifting confession.

Want to know the part she found even more heartbreaking?

Seeing that proud grin on the face of the man she had prior to this revelation, regarded as her saving grace.

“How could you, Uncle Kenneth? You knew he and I had something, and you want me to kill him? To what end will you stop at nothing to own me?”

“You don’t have to kill him, dear niece,” Kenneth pointed out. “That is the point of all of this, love. Not for you to kill him, but to bind you to me for good,” he corrected, his grin widening into something truly demonic. “If I gave you a stranger, you’d kill him in the blink of an eye and walk away. But by giving him to you? If you kill him, you’ll never be able to look at a ‘normal’ life again, anyway. You won’t be able to live with losing a man you love at your own hand.”

A man she loved.

Barbie would have laughed at that had this not been a pretty serious situation.

She didn’t ‘love’ Knight?

All she felt for him was attraction.

Sure, she valued the fact that with him, it felt like she could be herself, baggage and all, but she was wise enough to know that she could never love him, and so for Kenneth to think that he had her backed to a corner just because of a man she had a one-night stand with like that, your girl did find it pretty offensive.

“Now, since you clearly can’t kill him, our agreement will be nullified, meaning you’ll be bound to me forever. My very own little killing machine to use as I please. You’ll keep working for me, Barbara.”

Barbara scoffed. “You’re forgetting a third option, Uncle Kenneth. I could refuse to kill him,” she shrugged. “Go into hiding, somewhere you can never find me.”

If she expected the words to rattle him, then she was in for a surprise, because it did none of that.

“You can do that,” Uncle Ken admitted easily, “But I’ll find someone to fill your shoes, you know, finish what you could not. He dies anyway, and his blood will be on your hands regardless. See? I win either way, child.”

Barbara’s vision swam with a violent, crushing red.

At that moment, Kenneth did not feel like the uncle who had given her life… given her a purpose.

At that moment, he was her jailer, and he had built the bars so well that they did more than imprison her physically. They threatened to capture her own heart as well.

With a snarl of pure loathing, she withdrew the knife she had on her person.

But she couldn't kill him—not yet.

That was exactly the “manic” reaction he wanted.

There wasn’t any telling that he hadn’t already instructed his men to take Knight down if she so much as harmed a hair on his head.

Surely, he’d have anticipated that kind of reaction and prepared for it too, not so?

She couldn’t give him that satisfaction.

Not even if he’d look incredibly glorious lying on the ground, lifeless, that beautiful white suit he had on coated a beautiful, bright red as his blood pooled about him from the stab wound her beautiful knife could create.

And so she pulled away, but not before baring her teeth at him, her eyes shining with promise. “I’m going to show you how much you don't know me, Kenneth,” she hissed, backing into the dark.

Barbara shed the catering jacket in the shadows of the stairwell, leaving just the dress shirt and the blonde wig. Her eyes were incredibly dilated, like they did whenever she relinquished control to the Black Widow, you know, gave her the freedom and the space to enjoy her hunt.

This hunt felt bittersweet for the plus-sized assassin, though if you asked her about it, she’d vehemently deny it.

Every part of her body was protesting this hunt, in fact, but Barbie had made up her mind.

This was a kill-or-be-killed situation that Kenneth had presented her with.

It was either her freedom or a man she had had a one-night stand with a year ago, a man she was clearly still attracted to.

It seemed like a hard decision to make, but when she placed the two situations side by side like that... you know, put them in a compare and contrast situation, suddenly, the decision did not seem like such a hassle.

Because think about it. What were the odds that the stranger she was willing to put her freedom on the line for liked her in that light?

What were the odds that even if he did, there was ever going to be a future for them?

There were so many uncertainties about choosing that path. So many uncertainties she could not risk her freedom for, if she was being honest.

And so right there and then, Barbara Neil Aryan decided.

She had played enough. Toyed with the idea of a future that seemed pretty inevitable.

She was going to have to kill Knight.

For real this time.

And this time, nothing was going to stop her.