"No, you're far too linear for that," I agreed, my gaze skimming over the computer as I switched it on and waited for it to load up. "Though I have to admit that if a few of us experimented with a little interaction between each other it would give poor Tatum a break from having so many of us vying for her attention all at once."
"I think Tatum likes having the four of us vying for her attention just fine," Nash replied. "That girl was practically made for us. All of us. But if you think Blake and Kyan might like to start hooking up with each other, then feel free to encourage them all you like."
I laughed, knowing as well as he did that there wasn't any chance of any of us turning our attention from our girl for that.
"I am not surprised you enjoyed him choking you," I said casually as the monitor lit up, asking me for a password I couldn't guess.
"And why is that?" Monroe asked, not denying it.
"Men like us are obsessed with control - or the lack of it that we have in our lives. You have spent the better part of your life hungering to reclaim the control you lost the night your family was killed by my father. You strive to dominate in a world that has kicked you so many times you've lost count. But that fight is tiring and never ending. You will never be able to reclaim what you lost. And that means you will never be fully satisfied no matter what vengeance we exact upon the man responsible for your losses. So, you will likely continue to strive for control, you will enjoy claiming it, dominating, possessing and proving your worth. But on occasion, when the weight of fighting so much and so often to possess all the things you desire gets too much, you will find yourself aching to break that cycle. There is a very real relief in relinquishing control of yourself to someone else. And using it for sexual gratification seems perfectly acceptable to me. Sometimes my need for control consumes me and Tatum gives in, she offers me her body and allows me to own it, if only for a brief time. But she is also the creature most likely and able to make me lose control too. And when she destroys me like that there is nothing that compares to it. It may be a little terrifying, but isn't that why it's so thrilling?"
Nash turned to look at me in surprise then grinned. "Maybe you should let Kyan choke you then?" he suggested. "Or better yet, let me do it."
"Unlikely," I replied, rolling my eyes and my gaze fell on a little note stuck to the file he'd dropped onto my desk.
It was nothing really. Just four words. File with Farringbridge Group. It didn't even bear any relevance, except that I recognised that handwriting. Perhaps I'd been a fool in underestimating my father. What if he wasn't involved in running this place? What if he was this place?
I turned back to the computer and my fingers flew over the keyboard as I tried one of his favourite and most complicated passwords. They were random assortments of letters and numbers, but I'd long since figured out all of the ones he used.
The first attempt failed so I tried another combination. That failed too and I took in a long breath as I typed out the third.
The monitor flashed as it was accepted and within a moment, I was staring at the home screen.
"I'm in," I breathed.
Nash dropped the file he'd been photographing and hurried over to stand beside me as I looked up at him with a dark smile.
"How?" he demanded and I only hesitated a moment before giving him the answer he craved. I trusted him to know I wasn't my father's son by now. He knew I hungered for that man's demise just as much if not more than he did. This wouldn’t affect his opinion of me.
"I just confirmed our suspicions about the man who gave me life," I said, turning back to the screen as I started typing. "Troy Memphis is the Grand Master of this place. He's the man we have been hunting. And now we have his scent, I'm certain that we'll find him."
"Then he has to be here," Monroe growled excitedly. "The members of this club aren't just helping him hide. He's presiding over it and they're down there right now having that meeting."
I followed his train of thought easily enough but then sighed as I dismissed it. "We can't assassinate him here. There is no way that we could be certain of our escape if we head into that snake pit so outnumbered. I won't risk Tatum like that. I won't risk any of you like that. The fire might kill him of course, but I seriously doubt he will be that easy to dispatch. It would be a rather anticlimactic and simple ending, wouldn’t it?"
“Nothing wrong with simple. Seems like that could be pretty damn satisfying to me. We charge in there, kill him. Then live happily ever after.”
“I don’t foresee this ending that easily at all,” I replied firmly. “It will take blood and guts and tears and even then, who knows if we’ll all make it through in one piece? But if we want to do that, we need to be smart. Brains over brawn.”
Nash looked ready to stride right on out of the room and hunt my father down himself, but I caught his wrist and made him look at me.
"Today is not the day," I insisted. "But it draws near."
He nodded with a grunt of frustration then stayed by my side as I began my work dissecting the files on the computer.
Within minutes, the membership list flashed up on the screen and I sucked in a breath as the names of more wealthy people than I could easily count flashed before my eyes. There were plenty of names I recognised from members of the government to judges, police, lawyers and all kinds of businessmen and women. This was a powerhouse of immeasurable worth. And I had it right here in my hands.
I scanned through the list of names and hurriedly found Kyan's and deleted it, working to remove it entirely from the list so that no matter how hard someone searched, they'd never find any evidence to support him having been a member here. My gaze fell on his uncle's name and I decided to offer him the same gift too, removing Niall from everything as permanently as I could. The rest of the O'Briens could rot for all I cared, but after a few moments of consideration, I decided that it was best to remove them too. I needed them fully beneath my thumb if I wished to cut all of Kyan's ties to them and it was best that they didn't get dragged down with this place.
I took an external hard drive from my pocket and quickly began downloading everything that I could from the computer as I hunted down the information about Serenity Pharmaceuticals. There were details on all of the dodgy shareholders as well as information on the Hades Virus, hopefully with evidence of how they'd unleashed it into the world in hopes of making a profit off of their vaccination. But I’d need a lot longer to look through it if I wanted to be certain of that. Time I didn’t have.
There were a lot of files which were encrypted, hiding fuck knew what and were impossible for me to break into right now, but I downloaded them all so that I could do it later. I just needed to get everything away from here and take my time dissecting it. I had no doubt that I’d be able to figure out exactly where my father was hiding plus uncover any more secrets he might have been concealing from me if I just had more time.
My heart was racing as I downloaded everything I could get my hands on. File after file, details of so many crimes and so much corruption that I couldn't even take it all in at once. But there was enough here to destroy each and every member of this fucking place and see them rot in jail for the rest of their miserable lives too. I was going to crack the computer open and take the hard drive with me when we left as well. I didn’t want any of this information falling into the wrong hands. I’d take it, analyse it, use it then make sure it ended up in the hands of the right authorities – agents I’d hand select to handle the case once I was certain I’d done all I could with it.
"We've done it," I breathed as my fingers flew over the keyboard and Nash gripped my shoulder as he watched me work with a savage smile on his face. "We've destroyed this place already and they have no idea."
W e ran through the halls, pouring gasoline everywhere, splashing it up curtains, over expensive carpets and wallpaper. My heart pounded with exhilaration as we moved from room to room, priming this entire place to go up in flames.
We had to be wary of gua
rds as we worked, moving methodically through the quieter wings first in the direction of where the annual banquet was being held. The closer we got to it, the more guards we found. And the more guards who fell at our hands.
Saint had messaged to say they had what they needed, so all we had to do now was wait for them to get to us then light a few matches and get the hell out of here.
When we reached the entrance hall, we slipped into a servant’s staircase and waited, stashing the gasoline cans out of sight in the shadows. Kyan had given Saint directions to where we waited and I had complete faith that he and Nash were gonna make it.
I just didn’t know how much longer we had before we were found out. It was almost inevitable someone was going to realise guards were missing, or a body would be discovered, or the gasoline noticed. We were down to our final minutes and every second that passed felt like an hour.
“Where are they?” Blake growled impatiently.
“They’ll be here,” I insisted, though anxiety was starting to grip me as I feared something had happened to hold them up.
I shot another message to the group chat, but no reply came.
Something was wrong. I suddenly knew it in my gut. Saint wouldn’t be late. Not even under these circumstances.
“We have to look for them,” I said decisively.
“If we move and they show up then we’ll only end up running around this house in circles,” Kyan said in a growl.
“Then someone has to stay here,” I said. “I can go alone.”
“Like hell you will,” Blake hissed, his hand curling around my arm.
“I am the dark in the dead of night!” Saint’s voice suddenly boomed from the next level up and my heart lurched into my throat.
“Hear me fucking roar,” Kyan snarled, lurching toward the stairs and we ran after him, tearing along as fear crashed through my limbs.
Saint was in trouble. He wouldn’t have risked shouting unless he was desperate. He needed us. And we wouldn’t let him down.
Kyan burst through the door at the top of the stairs and I saw the gun wheeling toward him a heartbeat before I acted. I shoved him aside and a hole was blown in the door frame an inch to my left as Blake returned fire, making my head echo with the noise.
Saint and Monroe had four guards holding them, their arms secured behind their backs, their expressions fierce. I refused to let panic claim me. I had to focus to get them out of this alive.
I whipped my own gun from my hip as bullets whistled past me, too fucking close for comfort. Blake charged toward us and the weight of him flattened me as he threw us behind the cover of a wall into an adjacent corridor. Bullets ripped chunks out of the corner of the wall and my heart crushed in my chest. Saint, Nash, I have to save them.
Blake rolled off of me and Kyan pushed to his feet, reloading his gun as he pressed his back to the wall and edged up to the corner. He threw a look around it and lurched back as a spray of gunfire blasted at him. Holy fuck.
It fell deathly quiet once more and I moved to crouch by Kyan’s legs as I gripped my gun. We couldn’t let this go on much longer. The men in that meeting might have heard this and if we didn’t get away from here before they came looking for us then we were fucked.
“Hold your fire,” a booming voice said. “Or your friends are dead.”
“Fuck you,” Monroe spat then let out a curse as a blow was struck, making me clench my teeth in fury.
“Let them go and we’ll think about sparing your lives,” I called, and the four pieces of shit laughed darkly.
“Toss your weapons or this cunt gets it,” the deep voice said and ice froze my veins solid. Dead, he was dead. They were all fucking dead.
“Watch your mouth you uncouth fucking hillbilly,” Saint snarled then cursed as someone hit him too.
My heart hit a wild beat and I looked up at Kyan, my jaw set. He took another gun from his hip and tossed it out into the hallway, nodding to me. I threw my knife and gun away while looking around for Blake. But he wasn’t there. What the fuck?
“Right, now I’m gonna count to three and you’re gonna come out here or we’re all gonna find out what the inside of this one’s head looks like,” the man growled.
Acid burned the inside of my veins as I marked this scum, branded his death on my soul and swore to fulfil it.
“One,” he said calmly.
“Don’t come out here,” Saint demanded.
“Stay where you are, princess,” Nash begged.
“Two.”
“Kyan, you will look after her above all else, you fucking swore it,” Saint growled.
Kyan looked at me and I glared at him, daring him to try a single thing. I told him with my eyes I was going out there and I would never forgive him if he stopped me. And he inclined his head in agreement as he pushed his gun into the back of his pants.
“Three.”
We stepped out as one and I didn’t have time to think what would happen without Blake appearing too.
“Where’s the other-” the leader started then a bullet ripped through the centre of his eyes. He fell down in a heap, knocking Saint over who was on his knees. Blake stood in the asshole’s place, twisting around fast and firing off three shots. The noise was muffled by the silencer but the shots still made a pap. I stared at my golden boy surrounded by four guards’ bodies, his chest heaving, his teeth bared. He looked like a beast sent from the depths of hell to reap souls, our dark saviour.
I snatched my knife from the floor and ran forward to cut the tie on Saint’s hands while Kyan freed Monroe. I turned to the piece of shit who’d threatened to kill Saint and spat on his corpse. Saint caught my cheek, pulling me around to face him as my heart beat like crazy.
“Spitting is so very animal of you,” he remarked, his eyes drinking me in as if he liked that.
He drew me to my feet and I turned to hug Nash, pulling all of them close for a moment as I savoured the knowledge that we were all still okay. Still walking, still breathing, still primed to ruin this entire empire.
“That was badass, brother,” Kyan said to Blake as he moved to pick up his weapons. He tossed me mine and we moved swiftly into the stairwell.
“I knew I could do it, I can’t be beat,” Blake said with a smirk and I dropped back to squeeze his fingers in gratitude.
He was never going to let us forget this victory and I didn’t give one shit about that. He’d just saved all of our asses. And I’d be repaying him for it in any way I could the second we got out of here.
We ran downstairs and crept back into the main hall, passing the gasoline cans we’d hidden in the stairwell. The laughter of a crowd came from somewhere close by and we stilled. I couldn’t quite believe that they hadn’t overheard our fight upstairs, but I guessed they were making more than enough of their own noise to cover the sounds.
“I say we check it out,” Kyan growled. “See if we can’t ensure those hall doors are locked when we set the fire.”
“Agreed,” Saint said coldly, surprising me. “I don’t truly believe my father will be so easily defeated, but I’m happy to take a chance on it. We will assess the situation.”
We clustered close together as we closed in on the hall where the banquet was taking place and as we made it to a corner, I glanced out to see two guards manning the doors.
“We can manage this,” Saint whispered.
“We need a distraction to get close,” Kyan breathed and we fell into thoughtful silence for a moment.
We couldn’t tip off these guards or every asshole in that hall would know we were here. No, we needed to barricade them in there and make sure as many of them died as fucking possible when we set the place on fire.
Saint leaned close to my ear, whispering softly. “I don’t like it and neither will the others, but perhaps you can pretend to be a girl sent for entertainment.”
I nodded to him quickly, jumping on the plan. “Escort me,” I insisted, pulling my mask off and stripping out of my clothes.
“
What the fuck?” Nash mouthed as Kyan barred my way forward.
Saint gave them all a stare that told them to back down then straightened his spine, swapping out his mask for a black one. I guessed he’d stolen it off of one of the guys Blake had just killed. He really did plan for every occasion. I stepped forward in nothing but my underwear and he dragged me firmly down the hall. He held me close, slightly in front of him with a knife grazing my back as he prepared to kill these motherfuckers.
I struggled against his hold, releasing a whimper of fear and the guards looked around in surprise.
“What are you doing down here?” one of them asked.
“I got a message to bring up a pretty one. I guess the celebrations are starting early,” Saint said smoothly, his acting skills fucking top notch. But of course they were.
The guards’ gazes moved down my body and they sniggered, turning towards the door to open it. Saint pressed the hilt of a knife into my hand, releasing me as we came up behind them.
I stabbed hard and true before they could open the door as I slapped my hand across his mask to stifle his cry.
Saint struck at the same time, slashing the other man’s throat with a vicious swipe of his blade. The two of them fell at our feet and my breaths came unevenly as I gazed at Saint with no regret in my heart. Kyan, Blake and Nash ran toward us, picking up a huge dresser between them while Saint and I dragged the bodies away. They placed it in front of the doors to bar the exit and my heart pounded with exhilaration.
We shared a satisfied look then turned and started running. Blake held my clothes in his grip and tossed them to me as we went. As we reached the main hall, I pulled them on and Saint took out five zippo lighters from his pocket, handing them out to us.
“Together,” he announced like there was no other way to do this. And he was right. We were a team, an unstoppable force.
The pond scum in this place were about to find out what happened when they came up against us. We moved to the end of the hall then lowered down, each of us sparking our lighters and holding them to the huge rug. It went up in a whoosh and we turned tail and ran, holding up our flames to curtains and drapes and gasoline-soaked wallpaper as we ran from the fire tearing out behind us, the heat flaring ferociously against my back already.
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