Page 32 of Queen of Madness

Instead of asking a single question or the scolding I’d partially prepared for, he nods once, turning back around. The door stays slightly ajar, allowing me to take in the private balcony restaurant. Like you’d expect, it’s full of glass tables, fresh flowers, and hanging lights from the side canopies. It’s empty besides the one table occupied by the Embros women and the two guests.

I watch as he nears Onyx, whose back is to me, and bends to whisper in her ear.

She nods and says something that makes the man sitting across from her blanch. He shakes his head profusely, but Onyx merely rises and exits through the restaurant entrance.

Shi, however, stands slowly, holding her hand out to the woman, who does in fact look as if she’s in need of desperate help. She’s nothing more than bones, bleach, and injections. The woman nearly scurries to her feet, leaving the man alone at the same moment he realizes Trick is standing behind him.

The second he does is a second too late and a sharp needle protruding out of his neck does its work quickly.

“I need two ground guards to the roof. To the other one, Onyx is coming down. If she doesn’t make it to the limo, I’m skinning your dick and putting it in her rose bed.” Trick’s voice comes through double as he speaks into the heart cuff link on his sleeve.

He hauls the now unconscious man over his shoulder and meets me at the door. “They’ll be up in a minute. Head back to the limo.”

I almost open my mouth to say I can handle carrying one of them down, but my ligaments snap my mouth back shut and force me to nod.

“Oh. And Onyx wants you in her office as soon as we get back.”

As much as I find myself stuck in this office, I’m beginning to think there’s nothing in here worth searching for. At least, I don’t think someone as keen as Onyx would leave anything of real importance sitting in a place where she makes people wait alone for extended periods of time.

Unless she figures no one would be bold enough to look around, knowing someone could walk in at any given moment. Either way, besides the large desk with basic office supplies, the seemingly untouched liquor cabinet, and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, there isn’t too much I can search.

Come to think of it, there’s only one room in the house I’ve seen thus far that has extra security—her room.

Ideas swirl in my mind on how the hell I’ll be able to get in there—alone,no less, with enough time to look for something. Hell, that’s another problem. I have no idea what I’m even searching for and staying inside longer than handing her breakfast seems far-fetched at this point.

I may have only been here a couple of days, but it’s easy to see how guarded the woman is, and not just physically. There’s a thick shield hiding everything about her, and I imagine scratching the surface would be equivalent to cutting down a giant oak with a butter knife.

You could always fuck her and wait till she’s asleep.

My dick twitches at the thought, but thankfully, I’m not given any time to dwell on it. As if my formulation of a plan beckons her, the door behind me opens, Onyx’s heels clicking against the hard floor, announcing her entrance. I don’t turn to face her, but stand, waiting for her to round the desk and take a seat behind it before sitting.

My pulse hums with her close proximity, the sudden anticipation of what she may have to say playing with the edges of my sanity. I wonder if she’ll thank me—though unlikely—or if we’ll have some type of standoff like we did when I delivered her food. Not knowing or even being able to guess what she’s thinking irks me.

After another beat of her merely staring, she leans forward slightly, resting her chin on a closed fist. “You were told to report anything you might have seen or heard to Trick. Yet, you went against his orders. Ordersgivento protect me, the woman you are being paid to guard, and took matters into your own hands.”

Her tone is even and calm, almost as if she’s listing off the events that took place rather than reprimanding me for not doing as told. Still, I can’t help but reply, since I wish she’d be a tad grateful. “That is accurate.”

“At the expense of potentially putting me in harm’s way.”

“If I would have opened the door, the guy would have heard and ran back downstairs. You wouldn’t have him or the snake you let infest your payroll.” I don’t know why I feel the need to explain to her I was thinking of her well-being, but I want to.

My entire life has been devoted to protecting women, and her comment feels like a punch in my gut, or perhaps a blow to my ego.

“Yes. Him.” The knuckles under her chin bloom white as she clenches her fist. On the other hand, she twirls a playing card I hadn’t realized she was holding between her long fingers. “The entire army is going to have to go through regular checks now. We’ll begin combing through bank accounts for any sizable deposits or odd spending. He worked for me well over two years. I didn’t expect—”

“No one is exempt from betrayal.”

“My right hands are,” she quickly counters, and for a moment I think I hear annoyance lacing her tone. The small show of emotion has me placing a note on a potential weak spot. I shouldn’t try to explore it, but really, I don’t have much of a choice.

“How can you be so sure? What do they owe you that would keep them loyal to the end and not to a fault?”

“Their lives.”

“Because you saved them?”

She doesn’t answer for a moment, taking a long pause as she regains the fraction of her composure she let slip. “Do you know what we do here at Embros? WhatIdo?”

I scoff, leaning back into the leather chair. “I know enough.”

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