Page 704 of One More Kiss

And while taking his life would have been justifiable, this had so much more potential for lifelong satisfaction.

He didn’t deserve something as easy as death. Not with the suffering he’d fueled by feeding girls and women to monsters.

Every day, every time that rancid fucker took a piss, he’d remember what I’d done to him. Every time he fucked—if he still could—he’d remember me.

And if he couldn’t fuck…even better. His days of trying out the goods before putting them on the market would be over.

He was lucky that he and his associates were low-level thugs and hard to trace; it was the only thing saving them from my finding them and stripping them of every bit of peace they enjoyed.

There wasn’t a system I couldn’t hack. I could climb into every single computer system running our country. Warrants appeared, people disappeared, criminal records changed, bank accounts ran dry, and dirty kinks were exposed like laundry billowing on a clothesline. And if pushed hard enough, I could target their families to force compliance—the possibilities were endless…if only I had a single name. Just one.

Links in a chain, one led to another, and to another, and to another. Just like that, with a few clicks of the keys, I could make them fall like dominoes.

The seed of resentment throbbed in my heart, wanting retribution.

One day.

One fucking day they’d fumble. They’d expose themselves.

And I’d be scouring every bit of information feeding through the police system, gossip circulating at clubs, and whispers of degenerates in back alleys until one of them slipped up.

People always revealed themselves in time. They couldn’t wait to brag about conquests.

Especially when they thought it made them powerful.

They had no clue about real power. They had no clue how to attain or wield it.

Bringing a woman to her knees and making her want to stay there…that was power.

The kind of man who made you feel his ragged breath under your skin as he panted with animalistic desire and sparked every single cell to life.

My skin flushed and my throat ran dry.

Twisted fairy tales.

That’s the only place a man like that existed.

My parents’ muted voices rumbled from behind the door to their office and I froze. Closing my eyes, my ears pricked, their voices grew clearer.

“They’ll be here first thing in the morning and they’re going to want an explanation, Glen.”

“We have to come up with one then, Val. You and I know there’s only one way Marissa’s ankle bracelet made it off without us knowing. The code. And no one has it. There’s only one person I know smart enough to decipher it. I’ll die before I tell them who that is.”

I couldn’t help the twitch of my lips.

“Mia had nothing to do with this. She wouldn’t. Not after what happened to her. She wouldn’t put another girl at risk,” my mom said, her voice hard and sure.

My eyes snapped open and my grin slipped. Another girl at risk?

“What if it was her test? She wants to be in The Scorpio Society. She’s always wanted in. And they’ve had their eye on her.”

“We would have known—”

“Would we?” my father said, cutting off my mother’s words. “What if secrecy, even against her own parents was part of the test? She wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize her induction into the society.”

“They wouldn’t do that,” my mother said, but her voice wavered.

“Oh, but they would. They test us every day, Val. Every damn day. We guard their secrets. Don’t for a second think they wouldn’t manipulate our only child and use her against us. We’re expendable. She’s expendable. Three lives are a pittance to pay to protect The Scorpio Society’s power. Their survival…that’s all that matters.”

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