Chapter 16
It didn’t.
Everything went to shit and all over the place. Emotions and desires were so skewed and fucked that I couldn’t keep up with it all. It was… Fucked wasn’t strong enough.
Fucking fucked with all the fucks fucked.
If that even made sense.
We returned some stolen art that should have been a win and handed over the baddies to ISLE, and the leader was pissed he couldn’t eat them.
Over theft? And he wanted the money we’d recovered for the buy.
I got pissed and tossed it at him, calling him a petty asshole, and that was like dropping a damn nuke on it all.
Yeah, well, they were already going off.
Others died and others were saved, but it was such a mess of swirling desires that honestly I couldn’t tell where we landed.
I handed over recovered land and property that humans had swindled from them without even a thank-you. Having gone to great lengths to secure them through card games or other means but yeah, they basically sniffed at it like it wasn’t enough of a miracle like a long-lost daughter.
One was so rude about fucking chests of gems that had been raided from them that I ended up leaving it in front of Phil.
“I change my mind. Fund ISLE with what me and mine recovered,” I told him firmly.
“Don’t,” that female leader warned the Alpha.
“You are—you’d be dead if you treated me this way.
She owes us nothing. You are upset she is airing your dirty laundry and mistakes.
She is showing we all have them after having shown us theirs and how they corrected them. You are not learning the lesson.”
I glanced at her and then the guy. “It’s not even a mistake. You got screwed. They cheated. They committed crimes against you. You and yours were the victims of—”
“We are no one’s victims,” he snapped.
I shook my head. There wasn’t a point in discussing things with someone who felt that way.
“I’ve been the victim of many crimes. The shame isn’t ever mine.
It’s theirs. My pride is how I’ve recovered.
What I’ve done after I was hurt.” I nodded to Phil.
“Fund ISLE. I believe in you as the boss and you’ll do what ISLE was meant to. ”
He studied the chests and took in a slow breath before meeting my gaze. “How fast did you seriously pull this off again?”
I met his gaze and ran my tongue over my teeth. “I’ve pissed off enough people tonight. Let’s not add to it, yeah? We know what we’re doing, and we’re really fucking good at our jobs. I didn’t come to make people feel small.”
“No, you never do,” he chuckled darkly. “That’s just an unfortunate outcome of you being so exceptional. You just wanted to make it clear that you can easily make friends and the demons aren’t in a weak position with you on their team.”
Yes. Well… Yes, but not only that, there were several purposes in what I was doing.
There always was.
But we still had a huge fucking mess. I went through the rest of it and managed to mumble a thank-you to Dylan for getting one of mine out of the way. I barely managed an apology to Elijah and David before I fled.
Just maybe not for the reasons they all assumed.
Or maybe Elijah did because I felt his worry pulsing after me and desires to warn Mason to watch me… Before I might change forms.
Yeah, it got so bad that my other side had wanted to come out. In response to how dark I got on all of this, my other side wanted to emerge.
I hid at my stupid fucking hotel for my undercover and silently cried, trying to think of what Elijah and Mason said over and over again. My other side wasn’t bad. I wasn’t evil.
It was a response to darkness. Things had gotten so dark that my pure white and good energy had wanted to come out.
But did that really matter when I’d messed up so badly?
I wasn’t really sure, but one of the only ways things could have gotten worse was for another murder to happen.
So what news did I wake up to?
Yeah, there was a second victim.
I almost blew my temper, but that could have leveled the hotel, not just the room or part of a safe house like one of Kyle’s teams could do.
I let Mason know I was fine and I was sorry for the mess I left. That I had my other side under control and would stay out of trouble. That I would make amends somehow for the cleanup and even for not catching a murderer before someone died again.
The second victim, Chad Mopps, was a lot like the first on paper.
Mostly a selfish douche on the surface. Did the bare minimum and expected a lot for it.
He wasn’t well-liked by his coworkers, several saying he took credit for their work or wanted praise like he solved world hunger by finishing what he should.
And most times, it was mediocre at best. But his uncle was someone, so it wasn’t like he was going anywhere anytime soon. When I went to talk to his coworkers, none were going to miss him. A few were full of desires hoping for his job or for their lives to be better now that he was gone.
Several were annoyed they’d never get the few hundred bucks he owed them. One he was sexually harassing and pressuring for dates, so she was thrilled he was dead.
Lovely. Seriously, it was crazy how people truly felt about each other and what was under the surface once you scratched back a few layers.
He was in a lot of debt and had an issue betting on sports. All legal, but he was making minimum payments on everything and the interest on his credit cards was killing him. I didn’t feel bad for that because of bad financial decisions unlike when people were struggling and doing their best.
But—and this was the big one—he didn’t go to the strip club where I was undercover.
He went to a different one. Four to five times a month.
So… Awesome. Just fucking awesome.
That was why it was so hard to ever get a lock on our killer. She didn’t just hit one club or work there. She was smart.
The smart ones sometimes pissed me off even as I appreciated that they were a worthy adversary. Maybe if this was chess, but there were people dying, so it wasn’t a fucking game and I was seriously down on myself.
I sent Kyle everything and immediately changed the order from dancer to guys to visit all the clubs in the area and find out everything we could on any new dancers. He was already on the same page as me and told me that there had been some updates on everything else that had happened.
And they weren’t good. Expected but not good.
Yeah, I figured they wouldn’t be.
At least I was able to free Maya and get her the five grand that Austin and Nicole Brann were holding for her.
I walked in with Mindy as my attorney and made it clear that I knew the scam they were running.
I made it clear that I walked out of there with cash and they forgot about Maya or Mindy would eat them.
Gladly.
“I knew you were going to be a bitch in the end,” Nicole seethed.
“You’re pulling illegal shit and beyond disgusting to treat other women this way,” I snapped.
“You treat everyone here like dirt because your husband is trash. Leave him. Don’t push everyone else.
And this place is unsafe and beyond gross.
” I snorted when they both seemed offended.
“If I called the health inspector you’d never reopen. ”
Yeah, I called that one. They bribed someone. Their desires freaked out that I knew too much and they wanted me gone. Five grand was worth it now.
Right, so… Like why bother having a damn kitchen then?
Gross.
“You want to talk about whatever happened that has all the VPs upset?” Mindy asked me when it was over and we were in the parking lot.
“I fucked up and I don’t know how to fix it,” I answered. “I didn’t use my head and—”
“They’re worried, not mad,” she said quietly.
“They think whatever happened broke your fight.” She nodded when I snorted.
She awkwardly cleared her throat and gave me a half hug.
“Well, just check in. Elijah is being a demon and snapping at all of us to get everything done yesterday. He’s—only you can make him like that. ”
“It’s my best quality,” I chuckled, patting her back. She wasn’t an affectionate one, so I appreciated the attempt. “Thanks for the backup. It was nice we got to help someone at least.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Even I know whatever you guys did helped a lot of people. It might not have gone the way you wanted, but you helped people. How they respond is on them. You cannot control the stupid of others.”
“I know.”
“And even if it didn’t go the way you hoped that night, that doesn’t mean it can’t work out in the end.
Have patience.” She chuckled at whatever was on my face.
“I know, your worst attribute, but you know how to play the long game too or we wouldn’t have everything we do.
Change your mindset from a today win to something for the long game and… ”
“Thanks for the pep talk,” I accepted, understanding she was at the end of her own abilities. “It helped.” And it really did. She was right and I was grateful.
Truly.
Kyria checked on me, but when I told her that I was fine, she promised that she had everything under control and was already starting the auditing process of all of the dancers.
They were starting in Germany with the two new managers and the ancient who was shielding them before she made the rounds as the director under me.
And when was I going to listen to the list of songs they wanted me to choreograph dances to?
Yeah, hint taken.
Still, it gave me something to focus on while working the murder investigation and putting the final touches together for the trap I’d had set for months now… Well, traps actually.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I had thought there wouldn’t be another large meeting with us involved after how you left the last one,” Phil said as he walked in with about a dozen of the ISLE leadership.