Page 77 of King of Cruelty

I leaned in, sneer on my lips. “If you really thought that— If you really believe you’re the angel and they’re the sinners, whyare you hiding like a maggot in shit? Why have youbeenhiding for over twenty years? Why have you been selling this lie to your investors and followers about dismantling the Merchant empire, when all you really want to do is steal it?

“Face it, Deb-Deb, you’re nothing but a spineless, cowardly embarrassment.” I spit on her shoes. “At least your fathers faced Adeline and Saint like men and died on their feet. While your big plan is to scuttle around tunnels like a roach in between hunting down a first grader.

“You’re pathetic. Your little grudge is pathetic. Your half-baked revenge plot is pathetic. And you can trust me on this, hellwhore, the Merchants will stop you.”

Debra weathered my speech in stony silence. “Hmm. Well, as valid and important as the opinion of a trashy, homeless slut is, if you don’t mind, I’m going to toss it on the pile with the other worthless shit that’s dropped out of your mouth.”

I smiled mirthlessly at her. “If that’s true, why did you tell me all of this?”

She hummed, leaning in. “Honestly, I just wanted to tell someone. I’m about to pull the biggest heist and coup in history, and no one is going to know or see it coming.”

“The Merchants will see it coming.”

“How’s that?” She picked her knife off the counter. “It’s not like you’re going to tell them.”

I shot up, backing away from this crazy fucking woman. “What are you doing? You said I was going upstairs with the others.”

“I only said that for the benefit of your boyfriends.” She stepped into my path, blocking my escape. “By the time they realize you’re not joining them, they’ll already be gagged and bound to the coffee table. A lot less shouting and fighting back that way.”

“You don’t have to—”

“Argh!” She lunged, the blade slicing through the air—falling in a graceful arc for my neck.

Chapter Eight

Sienna

I sat near the entrance to the park, claiming a shady spot on the bench.

Laurel snoozed next to me. A mix of a bottle full of breastmilk, a leisurely stroll, and a warm, muggy day sent her drifting off into her nap.

I smiled at her little cherub face as the call rang out and then ended in Kenzie’s voicemail.

My sense that something was wrong heightened with every missed call.

First, a cacophony of sirens and flashing lights blew past the park—making that jogger on my left trip and nearly end up in the bushes.

I hopped on my phone along with everyone else in the park, and found the news alert about explosions outside the Fairfield. That they saidoutsidethe building and specified that all structures on the avenue were still standing undamaged, was the only reason Laurel and I didn’t go flying through Leighbridge.

Still, if everyone inside the Fairfield is fine, why isn’t Kenzie picking up the phone?

My eyes flicked up, peering through my lashes at the well-dressed brunette woman who showed up at the park halfway through our visit, parking herself on a bench not far from the playground.

To the normies, there was nothing strange about the young, attractive woman taking selfies of herself in the park.

But to me, my senses alerted me to the danger from the second I laid eyes on her. And they only got louder when she followed me and Laurel out, then stood on the sidewalk—seemingly waiting for a cab, but letting no less than three drive past her without flagging them down.

Releasing a long slow breath, I closed my eyes—letting knowledge and truth come to me.

A fuzzy, shifting vision unfolded in my mind.

I was sitting on the same bench with Laurel sleeping next to me. Suddenly a car pulls up, driven by the same jogger. They say something to me—I couldn’t tell what. But the focus on their moving lips makes me miss it when the selfie woman sneaks up behind me, jams something in my back, and forces me and Laurel into the car.

The car takes off and drives us to—

I frowned, face crumpling.The Fairfield?

Cloudy and fuzzy though the vision was, I saw them driving us straight into the Fairfield’s parking garage, which opened for them despite the state-of-the-art security system.

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