38. Seraphina
38
SERAPHINA
“ I cannot believe you talked me into this,” Henri said through clenched teeth. He had his best fake smile on, nodding cordially at the couple in line in front of us at the grand entrance of Candi Jenkins’s enormous suburban mansion. We’d arrived just in time to hop into the back of the line of finely dressed beta couples attending tonight’s fundraising gala for the Families for All Institute.
I adjusted the skirt of my evening gown and squeezed the crook of his elbow, where my hand currently rested in a way that said we were together at this function. If that didn’t sell it, the matching fake wedding rings we both wore should do the trick.
“Don’t pout, babe,” I told him. “It was time for you to rise above just being my dads’ assistant. This is real field work. Think of the possibilities after this.”
“Indeed,” Cam said from behind us. “It’s good for us betas to show the Alphas that run the world how useful we can be. Isn’t that right, my darling?”
Daisy, who was on his arm, snorted. “I don’t give a shit what Alphas think about anything.”
Cam hummed noncommittally at that statement, and I wouldn’t be touching it with a ten-foot pole either.
I glanced at them over my shoulder. Daisy wore a pale green satin dress that dipped between her perky boobs and showed off a canary diamond pendant worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that I’d borrowed from my mother. She’d curled her shoulder-length straw-blonde hair into pretty waves, and her full face of makeup had aged her enough that she could pass for mid-twenties instead of her actual age of eighteen.
Cam had only needed to dip into his closet and pull out any one of his bespoke suits, and tonight he wore a deep navy with a contrasting pale pink shirt. His long blond hair framed his striking face like a picture, and not a single person inside this gala stood a chance against his charms.
I scratched at the high neck of my own burgundy gown. Cam’s shirt collar and tie easily hid Seth’s bond mark, but I’d had to cover all three of mine, and I didn’t trust the job to makeup alone.
“Scent check,” I said to Henri, thrusting my wrist at him.
He took a delicate sniff. “Cherry-scented soap,” he announced.
“ He’s sure? ” Loki asked in my tiny hidden earpiece. My boys were scattered around outside the gates of this monstrosity of an estate, lying in wait. “ To us you smell like you did the first night we met. Beta but… sweet and enticing .”
“That’s because you’re Alphas,” I told him. “Compatible Alphas. Other betas won’t blink an eye at me, I promise.”
“ They better not, ” Blaze muttered. “ I’d hate to have to strangle someone tonight. We have too much other shit to do. ”
Daisy sighed behind me. “So romantic. I still can’t believe you’re bonded, Sera.”
“I know, right? I’m so unpredictable.”
We finally reached the front doors of the mansion, where two burly men, who were trying very hard to look like posh security guards instead of rented Russian mercenaries, were checking invitations.
Henri craned his neck to stare up at the towering columns that framed the front entrance. He whistled. “You said this place was ten-thousand square feet?”
“ Eleven, ” Hawk said in our ears. “ Remember, Little Flame—Candi’s office is second floor, east wing, end of the hall. ”
“Thank you for the reminder, love of my life,” I replied. “I’ll be ready.”
Henri flashed the guard a smile and held up the image of our invitation on his phone. “Good evening,” he said breezily. “What a fine night for a party.”
The guard grunted and scanned the invitation, which Ivan Dallas had cloned from one of the institute’s donors’ computers he’d hacked. A beep sounded from his scanner, and he jerked his head toward the door.
We shuffled quickly inside, and after another beep, Cam and Daisy slipped in behind us. My heels clicked on the white marble floor, and I took a second to gawk at the imperial staircases that curved from either side of the room and met in a large landing above us. The dark iron of the railings twirled in intricate patterns inlaid with gold. A giant crystal chandelier dangled from the high ceiling, illuminating a painting the size of a Ping-Pong table that was displayed on the wall of the foyer and featured Candi Jenkins in some kind of Andy Warhol fever-dream.
“That is the tackiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Henri murmured. “Is that how this woman makes her millions? Cosplaying as Marilynn Monroe online?”
“Pretty much,” I replied. “It’s part of her aesthetic of domesticity.”
We merged into the current of guests, making our way through the foyer and into a spacious room that had vaulted ceilings, golden crown molding, and heavy velvet curtains lining the windows. Any furniture usually occupying the room had been cleared out and replaced with round tables covered with off-white tablecloths.
Each table contained an elaborate floral arrangement and a pile of brochures with brightly colored photos depicting attractive couples beaming at the camera, a baby cradled in the arms of the women.
“The vibe here is… off,” Cam observed, sweeping his sharp blue gaze around the room.
It sure was. Out of the hundred or so people in attendance, many of them appeared guarded or nervous. I suspected some of them were just couples struggling with their own fertility and desperate for a baby who had arrived here unaware that they were supporting an organization that was engaged in kidnapping and reproductive abuse. Maybe they’d thrown a piece of their wealth at the Families for All Institute out of desperation.
But there were definitely people lurking in the crowd who’d placed bids in that dark web chatroom. They knew they were here to try to buy a baby, and they didn’t care what kind of terrible, shady shit went on behind the scenes for them to do it.
A few guests dared approach others to engage in small talk. Several of the catering staff floated around with trays of drinks. Most guests were keeping to themselves, and that suited us just fine.
“I count six guards in the room,” Daisy murmured. “That’s nine in total that we’ve had eyes on, including the ones at the door.”
I nodded. “There may be a few more hiding around the house, but they shouldn’t have significant numbers on us.”
“You boys get that?” Cam asked on comms.
“ Yes, ” Loki replied. “ As we expected—they don’t want to scare away their donors by bringing too much firepower into the room .”
“We can only hope,” I murmured.
After a few minutes, Candi Jenkins herself finally swanned into the room.
Her highlights were fresh, her teeth professionally whitened, and her evening gown a hot pink explosion of chiffon and ruffles. She clutched the arm of a distinguished man in a standard-issue dark suit, and the two of them began to enthusiastically greet their guests.
Cam surreptitiously scanned the couple with the camera of his phone. “Incoming,” he said. “Is that your Russian?”
“ No, ” Hawk replied. “ Don’t recognize him. I’m sending this to Dad. ”
I plucked two pink drinks from a passing waiter’s tray and handed one to Henri.
“Punch?” he whined after taking a sip. “Get the good stuff next time, Seraphina.”
“We’re on the clock, babe,” I replied. “Look, Candi’s about to start her performance.”
Candi had left her date and stepped onto a small platform at the front of the room. A lone microphone stand awaited her there, and behind her was an enormous screen that currently showed the institute’s logo and the words “Beta families deserve more.”
“ The man escorting Candi Jenkins is Aleks Glebov, ” Hawk told us. “ Dmitri Glebov’s cousin who immigrated to the US ten years ago. But he’s only lived in Texas for about six months. ”
Aleks, who appeared to be in his fifties, gazed adoringly up at Candi as she positioned the microphone.
“Ah,” I said. “He’s definitely banging Candi, and it looks like she’s got her hooks in him deep. That must be how she and Hart linked up with their big oligarch donor.”
Candi tapped the mic, then she let out a girlish giggle. “Oh, it’s on! I can hear that, yes. Wonderful. Look at you all! So many good-looking folks here tonight.”
“ Okay, Princesa, ” Blaze purred in my ear. “ Once she gets going, it would be a great time for you to sneak off to her office. ”
“Yes, thank you, other love of my life,” I said, and I just bet Blaze could hear me rolling my eyes. “It’s not my first rodeo.”
“ Lamb, let us hover, ” Loki replied. “ We can’t help it. ”
“They really can’t,” Cam said. “Seth has sent me way too many check-in texts for a night that’s barely even begun.”
“That’s what you guys get for tying yourselves to some overbearing Alphas,” Daisy said flippantly, sipping her pink punch. “That shit’s for the birds.”
Cam and I knew better than to comment on Daisy’s delusions, so we tuned back in to Candi.
“—and I’m so happy to welcome you all into my home. It is such a big night for us here at the institute, as we are ready to reveal to you, our most important supporters, some of the exciting work we’ve been doing.” She paused and pursed her lips, her smile dropping away like she was suddenly disappointed. “Of course, in a perfect world, none of this would’ve been necessary. The decades-long decline in fertility for beta women has been so painful for the world to endure, and it is so unfortunate that it was our own missteps as a society that brought us here.”
“Ugh, here we go,” Daisy muttered. “I can’t believe you made me watch her entire ClockTok feed for research, and now I have to suffer through her bullshit again, Seraphina.”
“Yes, I am a ruthless taskmaster.”
“It is no coincidence that the time when we as beta women began prioritizing endeavors outside the home,” Candi went on, “marks the same moment our fertility crisis truly began. We’ve lost our purpose, and it is my deepest desire that with the help of projects like ours here at the institute, we may find it again.”
She paused, beaming as the audience broke into a smattering of polite applause.
“Of course, I have sacrificed much to be here in front of you today to bring you both our message and the fruits of our labor. Someday I hope to achieve my own dream of traditional womanhood, but for now, we must work together as betas to model our vision of the future for everyone.”
The image on the screen behind her morphed into one of the smiling families from the brochures on the table.
“And I believe we’re about to take one giant step toward achieving that goal. Tonight, it is my pleasure to officially announce the success of our pilot surrogacy program!”
More applause, this time much more enthusiastic.
The taste of punch soured in my mouth. We’d suspected this, but I hated the confirmation anyway.
Candi clapped her hands together like an excited child. “It is through the combination of both the institute’s tireless work on the research and development of a groundbreaking fertility treatment and the selfless contributions of our surrogate carriers that we will be able to assist you all in finally completing your families.”
I set my glass down on the table a little harder than necessary. Those carriers were not selflessly doing anything. They were omega girls and women coerced or forced into this situation.
“But of course,” Candi went on with a coy smile, “we continue to need your generous donations to fund our program. Together, we can make our dreams a reality!”
Henri fidgeted next to me. “I hate this. Some of these people may suspect exactly what’s really going on here, but a lot of them are just regular people desperate for a baby.”
Cam’s lip curled in disgust. “Maybe, but they’re still here to buy a child. None of them are so naive to think that’s not what the solicitation of donations to the institute is really about.”
Candi basked in the applause, and when they finally died down, she began to speak again on the importance of raising more funds for the institute’s charitable work.
“I need to move,” I told my group. “See you guys on the other side.”
With one last glance over my shoulder at Candi like I gave a fuck about what she was saying, I strode quickly to the door leading back into the mansion’s entryway. “Um, excuse me!” I said in an urgent whisper to the lone security guard standing there. “Could you tell me where the bathroom is?”
He grunted and waved a hand at the hallway. “Down there on the left.”
“Thank you!” I said brightly, and then I slipped quickly past him.
I scurried down the hallway like a lady with a bladder that was about to burst. After a quick check that the guard had turned his attention back to the room full of guests, I veered around the corner and ducked behind the couch in a spacious family room. Just up ahead was the busy kitchen, the noises of pots and pans clanging and the cooks and catering staff barking at each other loud enough to obscure the sound of my heels on the marble floors.
No guards in the vicinity.
I took off, sprinting for the back staircase that led to the second floor’s east wing. I crested the stairs in seconds and zipped down the long, dim hallway until I reached the locked French doors at the end.
“I’m at the office,” I said onto comms. “Picking the lock now.”
“ Candi is flitting around the room to schmooze ,” Cam said in a low whisper. “ So she’s occupied .”
“ Any movement from the guards? ” Loki asked.
“ None so far ,” Daisy replied.
“ Good ,” Loki said. “ Quickly, Lamb. ”
I popped the lock on the door without much fanfare and shoved my tools back into my bra. “I’m in.”
And I had one objective—find the location of the institute’s lab and pass it as quickly as possible to the Sentinel team, who were locked, loaded, and ready to descend as soon as they had the go ahead.
Operatives from Sentinel’s main HQ had surveilled Candi all week long, hoping she may lead us where we needed to go, but she hadn’t left her estate the entire week, save one trip to meet her sister and her niece for lunch at a nearby luxury hotel’s restaurant.
A successful attempt at hacking into her laptop had produced only the usual email activity, like household bills and occasional communications regarding her cosmetics business. She’d been careful not to do anything incriminating with her phone, either, which she used primarily to film and post to her wildly popular social media accounts.
This meant her illicit activities were likely in a paper file, just as Hart’s were.
I slipped inside and locked the door behind me. To the right, large windows took up the entire wall, and they let in enough light from the nearly full moon and the streetlamps outside that I could just make out the details of the room.
The space was feminine, a stark contrast to the last office I’d burgled, with soft gray walls, a plush pink rug, and a chandelier that hung over a sleek desk that was positioned in the center of the carpet. The white bookshelves lining the walls held few books and were instead decorated with strategically placed vases and other antiques.
I hustled to the desk. A thin rose-gold laptop lay closed on its surface. There were only two small drawers to contend with.
And only one of them had the ability to lock.
“Breaking into the desk drawer now,” I reported.
“ We have confirmation of the secondary location ,” Cam replied. “ Daisy and I just cozied up to the smuggest couple in the room, and they bragged that they’d been invited on the first site visit. ”
I popped the lock on the drawer. A thick stack of pale-pink file folders lay inside.
“Damn it,” I said. I pulled my penlight from my bra and held it between my teeth as I began to rifle through the files. “Couldn’t just put a map on top for me, could you, Candi?” I muttered through my teeth.
“ Speaking of Candi ,” Henri said. “ She just gave her boyfriend an inappropriate kiss and then disappeared into the hallway. ”
I let the penlight drop. “Shit. Just keep an eye out and let me know if she comes this way.”
“ On it ,” Cam said.
I opened the app Hawk had put on my phone earlier this week and held it aloft over the files as I rifled through them at a mad pace, the app scanning as I went. “You guys getting these uploads?”
“ Yes, receiving now, ” Hawk replied. “ Hurry, Little Flame. I want you out of that house as soon as possible. ”
“But I’m having so much fun.”
“ Lamb, ” Loki growled.
“Kidding.” I kept flipping. Schedules, blood tests, other medical records, bank statements, receipts for medical equipment, a list of donations received by the institute so far. A goldmine, really, except not the thing we needed the most?—
“Look at this,” I said, slowing. I scanned the page with a trembling hand. “Utility bills for an address I don’t recognize.” I flipped and scanned more. “Electric, gas, water, cable, even janitorial services. Where is this address?”
“ Running it ,” Hawk replied. “ Hang on. ”
“ Hey, Sere-bear ,” Cam said, his tone deceptively calm. “ No need to panic, but Candi has not returned. Daisy and I have done a promenade around the first floor and failed to locate her. We still have eyes on the guards, but one of them has moved to the bottom of the stairs. Like he’s waiting for someone to return .”
Shit.
“ Sera ,” Blaze said urgently. “ Get out of there, baby. ”
“I’ll handle it, Blaze,” I said softly. “Wherever she is, she doesn’t have her scary Russian muscle with her.”
“ Yet ,” Loki added in a tight voice.
I gathered the documents in front of me into their pink folders and shoved them back into the drawer.
Gripping my flashlight between my teeth again, I used my kit to pop the drawer’s lock back into place.
The telltale click of the drawer’s lock was immediately followed by a much more concerning click from the office door.
It may as well have been a gunshot echoing through the silent, dim office.
The door creaked open, and a manicured hand flipped the chandelier lights on before all of Candi Jenkins sauntered through the door.
The adrenaline that had flooded my veins ebbed. At least she was alone.
I sat down in her ridiculously comfortable chair, sagging into the buttery leather with a tired sigh.
She froze with her hand on the doorknob, her blonde brows jumping to her hairline as she noticed me lounging in her chair.
“Hello,” I said brightly. “Did you forget something?”