Page 30 of To Curse A Knight

While many employees would be more concerned about their job security, Gabby had a good heart and cared more for the man for his existence, not his signature on her checks. She would quietly get a sizable raise this year for her loyalty. At Lane Enterprises, loyalty mattered.

The board could fight me on that one, but I’d win.

I was doing my best to balance the line of heartbroken business partner and fierce boss-babe, but I struggled with the job. Thankfully, my reputation proceeded me; after years of honing a ruthless but fair persona, the business world wouldn’t expect Hillary Lane to crumble when her business partner died.

The piles of paper in front of me slowly grew smaller. When my eyeballs became sandpaper, it was time to pack in for the day. I looked down at my messages I’d ignored for a good hour.

Kellan ViKing:I’m not playing babysitter tomorrow.

A girlish snort escaped me as I imagined all sorts of hell Lucky would put Kellan through. Watching the big man squirm under Lucky’s pestering was a primary source of amusement these days. Especially knowing Lucky was a particular weakness for the man who had none. I was still figuring Lucky out and how best to use him, so it was convenient to have someone else on the receiving end of Lucky being, well… Lucky.

I was my own brand of con man if I said picturing Kellan and Lucky fucking didn’t set my insides on fire and disintegrate my panties. To have been a fly on that wall…

I flicked through my other messages to save my current pair of panties until I got home.

Sammy:Packaged secured.

A violent smile filled my features at the message. The incessant need to dig my nails into something and bring it pain had hounded me for days while I waited for my team to find the right moment to capture Sandra.

She was a trickier person to get my hands on than I’d anticipated. Her husband was a military officer home on leave, and Sammy had struggled to get her alone over the course of the last two weeks.

We didn’t torture innocents; I’d found no evidence of her husband’s involvement in any of the obtained footage or documentation, so he wasn’t a part of the equation. I wouldn’t risk him in the process of nabbing her.

Sandra, however, was unequivocally guilty.

As a precaution, all employees of the foundation were closely monitored via not-so-legal exterior cameras and discreet trackers hidden within their security badge—I was the only one who received the information. Blackbird glanced through the data every so often throughout the month and updated me if she found anything out of the ordinary.

Naturally, something had come up. I’d rewatched the video Blackbird had sent me. The damning evidence of Sandra’s duplicity was all over the screen.

The new families she’d brought in weren’t there to give a new life to a suffering child—they were a new wave of demons with direct access now to their prey; Sandra pocketed a hefty sum in an offshore account for her delivery service.

She’d sold four children back to Alvarez this way. Today, she would pay the price for her greed.

I messaged Joey to meet me at the front doors of the office in five, quickly assembled my things, and sent off a text to Marty to close off the rest of my afternoon.

I was tired of the restless desperation, and my body ached for the sweet release that only came from delivering justice. Everything else on my agenda could wait.

Anita and Sammy were instructed to secure Sandra within a cell at the Palace—Sammy was the only other person on earth with his own access code. Other than sedation, they weren’t to touch her.

I asked Gabby to lock up before racing down the hallway to the elevators, eager to get to my prey before the day was done.

I’d wanted to drive myself today, but Kellan insisted I go nowhere alone, like a big grumbly, overprotective bear. I’d been in no mood to fight him, so I relented. Joey silently drove us to the Palace in record time, understanding my sense of urgency with no need to be told.

Sandra would get her comeuppance from two well-trained pissed off women with a thirst for vicious vengeance.

She didn’t know what she was in for. But today was introductory. A simple lesson. We’d work up to the torture part.

When we arrived, I changed the settings on her cell glass, turning the entire transparent wall into a frosted translucent screen, shielding our identities until I revealed them. I could watch her on the monitor outside her cell, which could see her from all angles, except for one corner underneath the panoramic viewer.

“Hello, Sandra,” I intoned. My voice stayed calm and level with only a slight edge of threat to it. “Welcome to your new home.”

The woman cowered in the far corner of her cell, her round form still in the rumpled clothes she’d been wearing when Sammy pulled her out of her car at the gas station. Mauvepants and teal blue shirt shone brilliantly in the bright light, but her skin was tight and pale—and a real flicker of fear shined through her dull complexion.

“Where am I?” Her hesitant voice trembled, and her hands clenched into fists by her side as her gaze flitted around the room, looking for the source of the sound.

“I call it… The Palace.” I cocked my head as she shook in her cage like a snared mouse. “It’s quite luxurious, isn’t it? Three square meals a day, water, and indoor plumbing. Quite an offering, considering what you’re in here for.”

Her wide eyes frantically scanned the room before she crumpled into a ball against the wall and slid down it into a heap on the tiled floor.

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