Villain’s Favorite 225

Chapter 225 Cold 

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At 17, lost and starved for connection, he’d treated that thin thread of goodness like an anchor. And he’d stubbornly refused to let go. 

George had always been slow to learn. Smart, perceptive kids, when their parents told them the stove was hot, stayed away. 

George was different. Even when Wendy told him the water would burn him, he’d reach out and touch it anyway. He had to feel the pain before the lesson landed. 

It was the same with people. He didn’t know how to be good to someone. He could take any amount of abuse without getting angry, his emotions an empty room. 

Only after he’d been truly hurt would the realization crawl in, slow and late. Oh. So that’s what pain feels like. 

George walked outside. 

Cold. 

The street was impossibly quiet, as if it had been cleared in advance. Rehearsed. No one else in sight. 

He heard it. A faint sound, something slicing through the air. 

He didn’t have time to turn. A burst of heat along the side of his neck, and then the ground rushed up. He fell, turned his head, and saw a blinding spread of red. He understood that he was dying. 

I left Maya behind. 

The thought surfaced through the murk as his mind dimmed, already losing clarity. The base wasn’t safe. His teammates weren’t good people. 

Maya was so small. Leaving her there, she could so easily die. 

His vision darkened. A roaring filled his ears, and his consciousness was dragged down, inch by inch, until there was nothing left to hear. 

Maybe, in some corner he could no longer reach, something tugged at him. Something that felt like refusal. Like not wanting to let go. 

He thought, Maya. What’s going to happen to Maya? 

She’s still so little. 

Liam stumbled out on unsteady legs. 

He stood in the doorway and looked down at the blood on the ground. George lay curled there, motionless. Blood had spread beneath him in a dark, widening stain. 

He suddenly remembered the first time they’d met. A convenience store on a street corner. A boy leaning against the wall, eating ice cream, eyes bright and bent into easy crescents. “Wanna be friends? I’d be a really 

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10:15 Tue, May 12 

Chapter 225 Cold 

“He had a sister?” A flicker of surprise in the man’s voice. 

The hired sniper had already packed up and left after the shot landed. 

Liam had vanished long before that. These two had stayed behind to see if any associates would show up. 

Instead of a colleague, they’d found a little girl. Brown fleece coat, wide eyes, maybe seven or eight years old. Her face was white as paper, completely expressionless, sitting crumpled on the ground. 

Against the backdrop of all that blood, the sight was unsettling. 

The first man had expected hysterics. Screaming, sobbing, the full breakdown. Instead, nothing. He lost interest quickly. 

“Kid like this is gonna grow up to be trouble anyway. Might as well take care of it now.” 

Maya heard him. She didn’t move, didn’t look up, didn’t run. She just stayed there on her knees, hands hanging at her sides, the tips of her fingers brushing George’s sleeve. 

His cuff was stained with blood too, already dried. It rubbed rough against her fingertips. She curled her hand around the fabric and held on. 

The other man hesitated. “She’s still just a kid.” 

“A kid from the Clarks isn’t just a kid. She’s a monster in training.” 

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