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    While arguing with Norma, Qeturah kept a close eye on Briar. When he noticed a subtle change in her expression, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of joy inside.

    Qeturah thought, ‘Damn, that worked. She’s still just an 18–year–old kid, no matter how clever she thinks she is, and she’s easy to fool. That’s always been my dad’s problem, though, caring more about his pride than what matters.”

    To Qeturah, pride meant nothing when his own life was on the line. Nothing else mattered.

    He thought, ‘They’re literally at our doorstep trying to kill us, and you’re still worried about your damn pride? Right now, survival is all that matters! Stay alive, and there’s still hope. Die, and you lose everything.”

    “Miss Jennings, you have to believe me. I got dragged into that whole live human experimentation mess without even realizing what was going on. And if I’d known from the start that the test subject was your mother, I would’ve been the first to object. This whole thing is just wrong.” Qeturah said.

    Norma quickly chimed in, “Yeah, exactly! If I’d known about these shady, harmful things, I definitely would’ve stepped in to stop them. After all, women understand each other best.”

    Honestly, these two would do anything to survive under Ashton’s hand. They were shameless, bending the truth at will with every word out of their mouths.

    Geoff and Manny were utterly speechless.

    Norma and Qeturah’s behaviors were so humiliating that Ben and Manny couldn’t even bear to watch.

    At that moment, Manny wished she could pretend these two weren’t even her parents.

    Briar’s eyes grew even colder and more impatient. “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got?” she asked.

    Qeturah tried to say something else, but before he could, Geoff, furious, swung his cane and knocked him to the ground. “I’ll beat you to death, you ungrateful brat!”

    Qeturah let out a scream. “Ouch!”

    Norma didn’t dare utter another word either.

    Watching their pathetic infighting, Briar’sst shred of patience vanished. “Enough! None of you will get away today. You’re all going to die!”

    From the moment they entered, Ashton had been closely watching Briar’s reactions. Seeing her expression turn icy, he stepped forward before she could move, blocking her path. His voice dropped to a warning murmur. “Briar, remember our agreement on the way here. You can end them however you want, but not with your own hands.”

    Briar shot Ashton a re as he stood in her way and said nothing.

    After a long moment, she let out a rather impatient “Ugh,” but still nodded. “I know. I haven’t forgotten.”

    The sinister chill and the stormy bloodlust that had been swirling in her eyes vanished the moment she finished speaking, carefully

    concealed once more.

    Ashton had guessed right. If he hadn’t reminded her just now, she might have “forgotten.” Her fist was already clenched, ready to

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    strike. Someone as pathetic as Qeturah wouldn’tst a second against her. She could have sent him to his grave with a single punch.

    “That’s my girl,” Ashton said with a relieved smile, finally stepping back and letting Briar do her thing.

    Briar thought, ‘What else can I even do at this point? I can’t kill them with my own hands!‘

    Just then, there was a screech of brakes outside, and an excited, cheerful ivoice /irang out, “Briar! Briar, I’m here!”

    Immediately after that,n came rushing in, face all red, maybe from excitement, maybe from running. “Briar, I didn’t miss anything, did I?”

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    The fury that Briar had just concealed red back to life. She turned ton and smiled, looking all calm and unbothered. “Nope, you got here just in time.”

    Geoff and the other three.

    It wasn’t long before blood–curdling screams echoed through the living room, each one louder and more desperate than thest, with both men and women screaming together.

    To mercenaries like them, targets had no gender, no chivalrous “don’t hit women” nonsense. Man or woman, all they saw was walking bounty money. Whether the bounty lived or died? That was strictly the employer’s call.

    If the employer wanted them alive, the mercenaries would capture them alive.

    If the employer wanted them dead, the mercenaries would kill them and deliver the corpses.

    Geoff never thought that after living so many years, he’d end up getting beaten like a ughtered pig in his old age. No matter how much he begged, those big, bun–sized fists just kept pounding him without mercy.

    Qeturah and Norma had it even worse. As the key masterminds behind those live human experiments, they took about sixty percent ofn’s punches and kicks. iWorse /istill,n was a total pro at dishing out pain. He knew exactly how to make every hit count, keeping them teetering on the edge of consciousness despite bone–deep agony.

    They had to stay painfully awake through every second of this endless beating.

    “Miss Jennings, we were wrong! We messed up! Please, have mercy on us. Please, just let us go!” Qeturah begged desperately.

    i“/iiOh/i, stop! Please, don’t hit us anymore. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” Norma wailed, sobbing.

    As ione /iof the inotorious /iGarzas, Manny couldn’t escape a beating either. Butn mostly took out his rage on Geoff, Qeturah, and Norma. As for her, he just threw in a few half–hearted punches for good measure, so out of the four, Manny got off the lightest.

    “Miss Jennings, I’m sorry, I am! Please, I’m begging you, let me go! I swear I had nothing to do with those human experiments. I didn’t! I never meant you any harm…” Manny scrambled over to Briar’s feet, clutching at her leg in desperation.

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    But before Manny could even touch Briar’s leg, Ashton kicked her aside. “Get her away from Briar.”

    Brandon immediately stepped up and dragged Manny right back inton’s beating zone.

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    They watched in cold amusement asn pummeled the Garzas into submission. No one felt an ounce of pity for those vile creatures. They deserved every bit of this beating. The only reason the Garzas didn’t die then and there was that this was Dasmieca’s territory, and their status as Dasmiecian granted them temporary protection.

    Otherwise, with all the monstrous things they’d done, they’d deserve to die at least a thousand times over.

    In the end,n and Brandon dragged off the barely–alive Garzas like dead dogs.

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    Briar nced at the wrecked room and the dragged–off Garzas, the corner of her mouth twitching. “Ashton, you andn were in on this together, weren’t you?”

    Ashton pulled the resisting Briar to his side. “Killing them would be too merciful. Don’t you think? Isn’t it better to take them back and make them suffer, nice and slow?”

    Briar snorted. “You’d better mean that.”

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