Page 15 of Emperor of Corruption
Considering what I learned about Killian yesterday, namely that there are no boundaries he won’t cross… “I’m functioning under the assumption that he’ll have his IT guy break into every piece of my tech to see what I’m doing and ensure I’m not working on anything that’ll harm his boss.”
Tommy’s eyes narrow. “Areyou planning to work on something that’ll harm his boss?”
Answering this honestly is risky. Saying yes might put Tommy in danger, but it’ll also tell him exactly what I need from him. I don’t know what to do because I’m not a tech person, but he is. Telling him the truth might also put him in the line of fire, though, so…
“I’ll be digging where I shouldn’t be.” That should be enough to make Tommy take me seriously, not enough to get him in trouble.
“Alright. First, I’m going to warn you: don’t fuck around with a man like Killian King.”
“Noted.”
He watches me for a few seconds. “Since you won’t listen to my advice, we’ll move on to the second thing.IfKillian is indeed planning on monitoring you, you need to let him think he’s succeeding. From this moment onward, I’d consider all your personal tech compromised—and I’d leave it that way. Your phone and laptop will be the decoys.” He pauses to think for a moment. “Have you done anything incriminating on there?”
My mind flickers back to the research I’ve done to find any links between Killian and Silas. The one reddit article I clicked on. I was using a secure server, but I don’t know how good Killian’s tech guy is. My initial instinct is to ask Tommy to scrub it off, but I force myself to reconsider. If I don’t haveanythingon my personal tech suggesting I’m digging into Killian, Killian might assume that I’ve got secondary tech I’m using to get the job done. No, it’s better to let him see some smaller attempts at me poking around, but keep the real research locked up.
In truth, Killian might not even worry enough to have me monitored, but that’s not a risk I’ll take.
“Nothing catastrophic.”
“Good. Keep it that way. I’ll get you set up with a burner phone and laptop—drop by my office at the end of the day. You’ll need to make new emails, socials,everything. Don’t log into any account you have on your personal devices on the burners—don’t link anything. The phone and laptop will have the best possible encryption. Nothing you do on there will be trackable.” Tommy pauses, sucking his bottom lip into his mouth.
“What is it?” I ask patiently.
“The tech I’m about to outfit you with doesn’t technically exist. You did me a huge favor by getting me hired here, so I’m glad to return it, but if these things fall into the wrong hands…” he shakes his head. “It’ll be a problem for me. So, I’m going to add a kill switch to everything I give you. I need your word that, if you think somebody aside from you could access them, you’ll hit the kill switch.”
I swallow, suddenly unnerved. I know Tommy is much smarter and darker than his appearance might suggest—I know damn well that him workinghereafter graduating MIT at the top of his class is most likely a decoy to get people to ignore him while he works on more serious shit.
“You got it,” I say, nodding.
Tommy exhales. “I’ll get to work. Come back around here at about 8—I should have everything ready for you by then.”
“Thanks, Tommy.”
“No problem, beautiful. And, Lyra?”
I pause at the door, turning to look over my shoulder. “Be careful,please. I’ll make sure your digital footprint doesn’t exist, but I can’t do anything more for you. If you’re worried, if your gut’s telling you to be careful,listen.”
“I’m always careful,” I lie with a casual smile, and stroll out.
Chapter Seven
Istay late in the office, though no later than usual. I’m typically one of the first people in and last people out. Usually, Sarah comes to have a cup of tea with me and chat before leaving for the day, but she doesn’t today, probably because she’s still upset about me pushing back on the profile.
If she knew why I’m so reluctant to work with Killian, shemightfeel differently… but telling her would put her in a terrible position. If she took my side, she’d feel ethically required to take me off the piece and report this to management, but she knows better than I do that any report filed against Killian would affect us far more negatively than it would him.
My jaw tightens. While Sarah’s busy being bitchy, I’m looking out for her best interests. I try not to be too pissed about it. I try to tell myself that this is a golden opportunity I’ve been presented with—having access to Killian and all of his associates.
But I just can’t fucking stomach the thought of having to see him again. It’s beyond wrong; it’s horrifyingly immoral and wicked. The fact that he feels comfortable pulling a stunt like this after what he did to me the other night tells me all of my worries are entirely valid.
I know what I’m up against. I know that, odds are, I’m going to get retraumatized more times than I can count in the next eight weeks. Killian was insane enough to ask me todinnerafter he forced meto suck his cock and spanked me—the regular rules of society and propriety don’t apply to him.
I’m not even sure if he sees what he did aswrong. Frankly, I don’t care. But not knowingexactly what I’m in for is what fuckingkillsme. He might never touch me again. This could just be a power play for him—a way to prove to me that he controls everything around him.
But there are plenty of ways he could prove that which don’t necessitate me spending time with him.
My skin itches, both at the prospect of exposing him for who he really isandat the knowledge that he’s probably going to assault me again, more than once. The only thing I’ll be left with is a drive for vengeance and justice. If he tries to break me, I’ll need to take all of my negative emotions, all my fear, anger, and anguish, and channel them into a furious desire to ruin him.
I know that isfareasier said than done. I don’t know what state I’ll be in, mentally or physically, come December. I don’t even know if I’llsurvivethese eight weeks. He might have me killed.
