Page 107 of Imperial: The Corvidae Family
I locked onto one of the figures. He didn’t move like a man hiding. He moved like a man setting some shit up.
“But look at this,” Yair said, rewinding. “He never actually goes in.”
The footage continued, showing the two men breaking in Baylyn’s place while Trent stayed outside.
“If this came back on him,” Yair said, “there’s no direct proof he had anything to do with it. I had to do a lot of digging to find this shit. Took me hours of searching every fucking camera anywhere near her place.”
The pieces started falling together. No proof. No evidence. Just enough to make me come after him, but not enough to justify killing him.
Yair looked up at me. “If you pull the trigger without things tracing back to him, it looks like a personal hit. Not justice. Y’all have history, Mir.”
Yair pulled up another folder on his screen. “This is where it gets twisted.”
He clicked a file, opening a collection of screenshots, videos, and documents.
They were all of me.
Old footage of me fighting. Shit, I hadn’t done that in years. Photos from places Trent should’ve never been anywhere near. Clips of me at meetings, me in the street, with women from my past. His ass was really fucking obsessed.
But the last file pushed anger through my veins.
“What the fuck is this?” I asked.
“A journal,” Yair said dryly. “His blueprint for how to manipulate you to make you act out of character.”
Kades cursed under his breath, stepping closer. It was hundreds of photos of Baylyn. Most of her alone, some with him…
“Do they have a history?” I growled, glaring at my brother.
“Calm the fuck down. No, they don’t. This is all new. They’re time stamped but no one would know that without really looking into that shit. The ones of them together were doctored but they’re good. He spent money getting them done. He really wanted people to believe he was fucking your girl or maybe you were fucking his. Ain’t shit worse than a woman coming between two rivals. With the history the two of you had, nobody would have even thought twice about it.”
Yair continued. “If this shit got back to Shadow Court, and I believe that was the plan, it would have looked bad for you, Mir.”
I stared at the screen, trying to control myself from sending my fist through it. There were intimate pictures of Trent and another woman but Baylyn’s face on them. I knew every inch ofher body, which was the only thing that kept me from breaking Yair’s shit, but it still didn’t sit well with me.
“Ay, get that shit off your screen before his fucking head explodes.” I cut my eyes at Kades who was smiling too damn big.
Yair chuckled and clicked out of it. “There’s one last thing.”
Yair pulled out his phone, pressing play on a recording.
Trent’s voice filled the room.
"I fucked your girl. Emir. You took everything else from me but I’m still fucking winning. I had the one thing that meant the most to you. Now come and get me.”
Silence filled the room. When it ended, nobody spoke for a minute.
“I’m about to head out.”
“Mir, you know that shit is not real, right. It’s just out there so all this shit aligns for him.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Do you?” He angled his head and I nodded. I knew, but it was still too fucking close to home because it put the thought of Baylyn with another man, hell with him, in my head.
“Don’t take that shit home with you, Mir. It’s not fucking real.”
Yair’s words hit me and I pushed the thought of Baylyn and Trent out of my head. That motherfucker really wanted me to lose my shit. I ran a hand over my beard before looking at Kades. He hadn’t said much, just stood there, watching me.
