Page 20 of Broken Discipline
But he was protective too, wasn’t he? He had protected me from Upchurch.
But what if Finn was the truly dangerous one?
“Can you help me?” I stammered. “I don’t know what to do. But I—”
“I can’t help you,” she said, cutting me off. “Technically, I’m not a member yet, but as the heiress, I have to follow the rules too.”
I had figured as much. There was no way any of this would be easy for me.
“Thank you anyway,” I said quietly.
“But I can give you a hint.”
A smirk curled across Zira’s lips. She reminded me of the devil, and my stomach twisted, knowing that I was making a deal with her.
“Look up Carter Care,” she said.
I quickly searched for it on my phone, but none of the results made sense.
“An in-home pet euthanasia service?” I asked.
She shook her head. “It’s not that. Look into it. You’ll find an answer there.”
I opened my mouth to thank her, but she tossed a hand to the side, already disappearing down the marble corridor. Her hips swayed like she knew she was being watched, a siren ready to tempt a ship full of sailors to their death.
Tank’s engine sputtered, coughing to life. Sometimes, Tank’s engine gave out, and the mechanic always found a new problem. Another black SUV was parked off to the side with a bald man from last night in the driver’s seat. I knew, even if he wasn’t Finn, that Finn had sent the man to watch me.
I opened up the search results for Carter Care again.We help you grieve while they leave!the banner at the top of their website said. It seemed like a strangely weird and cheery motto for a company like that, but if pet euthanasiawasn’tall that they did, then maybe the motto was hinting at something else. It was another secret I’d have to unravel.
If I couldn’t have privacy, then neither could Finn.
CHAPTER 5
Finn
The next day, Ramona hovered behind me, pretending like shehappenedto be there, but I knew better. Zira had told me that she had given her a clue about Carter Care, and knowing Ramona, once the kids were in school, she’d do whatever it took to get answers from me. Even if it meant following me to work.
But first, I had other business to take care of. I closed the office door behind me, shutting Ramona out. Chip acknowledged me.
“Kien?” Chip asked. I nodded. Chip had onlyrecentlyhacked the surveillance footage at the Bloom Estate, but since then, I had watched the footage from every Masquerade that Ramona had attended in its entirety. It was enough to drive a man into madness. It killed me to know that I had watched the twins from afar for years, because that’s what I thought she wanted.
But after watching those videos, I couldn’t hold back anymore. Now, those men were going to pay.
Ben Kien had put Ramona in a straight jacket, binding her arms across her chest, straps pulling her down onto the sharp point of a pyramid-shaped stone, the tip ripping her cunt apart. Kien even had the nerve to single tail her legs while she endured this. That image of Ramona replayed in my mind: her mouth twisting in agony as the pyramid sliced her apart, blood trickling down the top of the pyramid. Medical records showed she needed stitches on her perineum after that.
“Watch Ramona,” I said. Chip nodded. I had already informed him of Zira’s tip earlier, so he knew what to look out for. I slipped out of the side door, an exit Ramona didn’t know about, then took one of the SUVs to the center of Fairview.
Though Kien was a member of the Marked Blooms Syndicate, he chose not to live in Opulent Gates. Instead, he lived in the center of Fairview. He went to his favorite coffee shop every morning before walking in late to his company’s headquarters, like he didn’t have a damn care in the world. I stood behind him, rubbing my nose. The bastard was glued to his phone, scrolling through his news feed. The scent of patchouli and body odor hung in the air, the coffee too weak to cover up his stench. Once the customer in front of him stepped to the side, the cashier smiled.
“Hi, and welcome to—”
“A cappuccino with oat milk and a blueberry muffin,” he said, cutting her off.
The cashier didn’t blink. “And the name?” she asked.
“Ben Kien,” he said. He paid with his smart watch, then stepped out of the line. Next, I ordered the same exact thing. The cashier furrowed her brow.
“And the name?”
