Page 37 of His Master

Artemis either didn’t notice or was purposefully not acknowledging any of that. “Vincent has called the board away from whatever they’re doing and demanded that they come into the office for an emergency meeting,” he said as he pushed the button on an elevator that stood separate from the larger bank ofelevators at the opposite end of the foyer. “He’s sent everyone a ton of false information, detailing your misdeeds.”

“I saw it,” Victor said, ushering me into the elevator when the doors opened, then hitting one of the top buttons.

The elevator did nothing at his touch. Artemis had to hit the button before it moved, which made me wonder if the elevator buttons were programmed to recognize fingerprints.

“How did you see all that?” Artemis asked. “I thought you’d been shut out of the system overnight.”

Victor sent him a sideways smirk, but didn’t say a word.

“I assumed everything those reports detailed is actually stuff Vincent himself has gotten up to,” Artemis went on.

“You assume correctly,” Victor said. “I still can’t figure out what my uncle’s ultimate aim is, but he’s been lining these ducks up in a row for a long time now.”

“Power,” Artemis said with a shrug as the whooshing feeling of the elevator started to slow down. “Vincent is after power. It’s what he’s always been after. Just because that’s not the shiny prize you crave doesn’t mean it’s not what motivates him.”

Artemis peeked at me for a moment as he spoke. I couldn’t decide if I liked the idea that I was the prize Victor wanted, or at least someone like me.

Then again, it did make sense in a warped way. Having a slave was a form of power. It was power over one person, and sexually objectifying them was control on an intimate and emotional level. Power over entire industries, maybe even governments, was a much colder, crueler form of enslaving everyone.

I could totally understand the appeal of wielding that much power over the lives of everyone in Barrington, the East Coast, and the entire country. It would give an evil person a sense of immense satisfaction, but it was one of the hollowest feelings I could think of.

Trouble hit us again as soon as the elevator doors opened, letting us out into what looked more like the lobby of a luxury spa than a business office. Everything was decorated in soothing tones of blue, white, and grey. Fresh flowers stood in massive urns in the corners of the lobby, and a beautiful beta woman who looked to be in her thirties sat behind a desk that was all curves and grace.

She wasn’t smiling, however. As soon as she saw Victor stepping out of the elevator with Artemis, a look of alarm pinched her face.

“Mr. Woodbury,” she said, standing, but staying behind the desk, like she was using it as a shield. “You’re not allowed in here.”

“Thank you, Brenda, I know,” Victor said, sounding far more gracious than just about anyone else I could imagine in that situation. “I’m here to see my uncle.”

“He isn’t…you’re not allowed to be here,” Brenda replied, her cheeks pinking.

“I think we both know the truth,” Victor said, stepping toward a small side corridor.

He might have meant that they both knew the truth about him not being allowed in the office, or about whether Vincent Woodbury was in his office, but he probably also meant the bigger picture about what was going on.

Around the corner, the corridor stretched along what I guessed was the entire length of the building. To the right were several doors, some open and some closed, that led to offices with views of the city from on high. Through one of those doors I caught a glimpse of a large, beautifully appointed office with amazing, floor-to-ceiling windows. To our left was a board room with all glass walls. A long, oval table filled up the center of the room, which had a serious fishbowl feel to it.

The boardroom wasn’t empty. Five men in suits, at least four of them alphas, and probably the fifth one as well, though he was smaller, sat around one end of the table, having some sort of debate.

One of them glanced in our direction. When he spotted Victor, his expression widened into a smile…that had my skin crawling.

Victor frowned and tried to pick up our pace as we headed to what I assumed was his uncle’s office at the end of the corridor, but the alpha who had smiled at him got up from the boardroom table and headed for the door. Unfortunately for us, the door was farther ahead of us along the hall, and as soon as the alpha, and the others, stepped out into the hall, they blocked our way.

“Hey, Victor,” the alpha said, grinning at Victor like they were friends playing some sort of prank on each other. “Nice day we’re having, isn’t it?”

“Are you part of this, Eddie?” Victor demanded without greeting.

The alpha, Eddie, laughed and crossed his arms. “Part of everything catching up with you at last? No,” he said.

His laughter was an attempt to sound relaxed, I was certain, but the way he crossed his arms told me he was anything but relaxed.

“I don’t know how you got in here, but you have some nerve returning to the scene of the crime,” one of the other alphas said.

“Camron,” Victor turned to him. “You know I don’t have a damn thing to do with whatever my uncle is up to.”

“So you’re not the one who orchestrated the takeover of Lupia Industries?” Camron asked. “Or who spent those profits on a week-long yacht party and seedy spectacle involving a dozen omega prostitutes?”

Victor went hot and tense beside me. I could feel his shame the same way I could smell the increase in his rugged, alpha scent as he started to sweat.

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