Four
Xin
Two days later, we were finally ready to put step one of the plan into action, which was mostly up to me.
Yesterday, Gabriel gave me some documents with Patrick's details, including his signature, Social Security number, insurance details, and everything else I would need to open a shell corporation under his name.
The plan was to create a moderately difficult-to-follow chain of shell corps that would start with Patrick and end in a storage unit full of things stolen from his home, making it clear that he'd 'stolen' from himself in an attempt to defraud the insurance company.
It was a simple plan at its core, and that was exactly why it would work. I'd make sure of it.
Gabriel didn't know it yet, but I planned to use every human and demon skill I possessed to make sure he got his revenge.
I sighed as I finished setting up the last of the shell corporations. That had been much easier than I'd expected.
Gabriel was at work, and I could only imagine how it felt to work for the man who'd ruined his brother's life. The strength it must take for him to do that every day...
Other than our impromptu dinner together, I hadn't spent a lot of time with Gabriel, but I'd started to get a sense of the person he was.
He kept his distance from Renée and me, acted tough and withdrawn, but I could tell that wasn't his natural personality. It was an exterior he'd had to create after he lost his brother, an armor to keep himself safe. I hoped someday he'd trust me enough to let me through, to let me be his armor.
Shaking my head, I focused back on the task, which was to find the right storage unit for our purposes.
It had to be somewhere we could easily move the things we stole.
We'd also need a place that didn't have a lot of cameras, maybe just one at the reception.
It would also be nice if the unit could be reached without passing the reception area so we could sneak in to stash everything.
While we wouldn't be stealing from Patrick for a while, we'd figured it would be best to lay the groundwork as early as possible.
Once I found the perfect place, I texted Gabriel on his secure phone to let him know I was going to go rent the unit now. I'd picked a cash-only place so I could rent in person, and it was all part of my plan. I hadn't told this part to Gabriel yet, but I was sure he'd be impressed.
The typing bubble popped up, then disappeared, then appeared again before Gabriel finally texted back.
Gabriel: Maybe I should do it. You have a very memorable face.
Was that a compliment? I wasn't sure, but it still made me smile.
Me: Don't worry. I've got this.
Gabriel: Just be careful.
I knew he meant 'be careful' as in 'don't fuck up the mission I've spent years working on,' but I still decided to take it as concern for me.
Me: I will. Where's Patrick?
Gabriel: Playing hooky. Most likely, he's in some motel room with a sex worker. That's his usual M.O.
After the first meeting, before I decided to say yes, I'd paid a visit to Patrick Lewis in my invisible form.
I'd wanted to check out the man I'd be fucking over, to make sure he was as bad a guy as Gabriel had said.
I'd wanted to take him at his word, but then I'd worried it was only because he was my mate that I felt that way, so I'd decided to double-check.
As expected, Patrick Lewis was an entitled rich white man who didn't know what the word 'no' meant. A few moments watching him interact with the server at a restaurant was enough to know he deserved everything Gabriel had planned for him.
Before I'd left him, I'd planted a magical tracker on him, something he couldn't even see or touch, much less remove.
Now I used that tracker and teleported to a motel at the edge of town where, as Gabriel had predicted, Patrick Lewis was busy getting his ass spanked by his date of the afternoon. I had a feeling a man like him would not want his kinks known by anyone, especially his wife of twenty years.
Obviously, that meant I took quite a few pictures of the two, making sure to angle it in such a way that it could've been taken from the window behind me.
Maybe we could use the pictures as another nail in his coffin, or I could send them to his wife so she could get her money's worth out of him if she decided to divorce him after his arrest.
We had a lot of work to do before he could be arrested, though, so once I'd made sure there were no cameras around the place and used a minor amount of magical influence to make sure the guy at the counter knew nothing about Patrick—apparently, his companion was the one who'd booked the room, a regular, and Patrick had never shown his face to the guy—I planted a tracker on the lady so I could come back later and make sure she remembered nothing about Patrick either.
I didn't think Patrick would ever use her as his alibi for anything, but I didn't want to take the unnecessary risk.
Once that was done, I teleported to an alley a block away from the storage center.
With a bit of my demon magic, I changed my appearance.
Even though my human form wasn't my true form either, wearing Patrick's appearance felt off in a way my usual human appearance didn't, and not just because he was a piece of shit.
While demons could look however they wanted as humans, we all had one look we preferred, one body that felt most like ours.
Some of the others had theorized it was because our favored form was what we'd looked like in our original life—before we died and became souls and then agreed to become demons instead of soul collectors.
I didn't know if that was true, but it was as good a theory as any.
It took me a minute to get the hang of moving around as Patrick Lewis. Copying his mannerism was harder than copying his body, but once I got the hang of it, I made my way to the storage center.
Gabriel was going to be so damned impressed.
Gabriel
"Is my three o'clock here?" Patrick asked as he strolled in, his cheeks still a little flushed from his afternoon escapades.
I imagined what it would feel like to slide my fingers into his hair and slam his head onto my desk. Hearing the crunch of his nose, watching the blood drip from his face...
"López!" Patrick said, his hand smacking my desk instead of his face. "I pay you to work, not daydream."
You're paying me to ruin your life.
Clearing my throat, I met his gray gaze. "Your three o'clock's moved to three-thirty, but Mr. Jefferson wants a word with you."
Mr. Jefferson was the CEO of AmazeAI and, from everything I'd researched and observed in my time here, not a bad man, even though he'd gotten the CEO position from his father.
I'd heard that his father had made him work his way up like any employee, but by the time I joined the company, he was already CEO.
His father had been CEO when my brother was arrested, and he'd been good friends with Patrick, which made me wonder if he'd been involved. He was dead now, though, so I hadn't seen a point in looking into it.
Patrick made a face because he didn't like the current CEO, maybe because he was an honest man. But he was still the boss, so Patrick stalked back to the elevator to head to the floor above, which belonged solely to Mr. Jefferson.
My phone buzzed a minute later, the secure one, and I pulled it out, hurrying to unlock when I saw Xin's name on the screen.
Xin: We now have a storage unit.
Me: Good work.
I locked the phone and placed it in my pocket, then took a deep breath. I was finally doing this. I was finally going to make the bastard pay for what he did to Kevin.
I knew Kev hadn't wanted this for me. He'd always told me to follow my dreams. If I had, I would be teaching music in some school right now.
My dream hadn't been big. I'd never wanted to be a performer or create my own music. Ever since sixth grade, all I'd wanted was to be a music teacher, like Miss Lily, who'd taught me a lot more than how to play the violin and guitar. I'd wanted to be what she was to me for kids like me.
Instead, here I was, working for the man I hated more than anyone in the world.
Maybe once Patrick was in jail, I could go back to school and study to be a music teacher.
Kevin had wanted me to do that, but after he was gone, I couldn't bring myself to put my wants first, and I ended up putting all my energy into planning Patrick's downfall.
But now that the plan was in motion, now that I was so close to finally getting it, I couldn't help thinking about the after.
I was getting ahead of myself. There was a lot that could go wrong. There was no guarantee Patrick would go to jail. No guarantee our plan would succeed without a hitch.
The doorbell rang just as I was settling in front of the TV. I'd just changed into some comfortable clothes, and I'd been trying to muster up the energy to cook myself some dinner.
I scowled as I got to my feet and made my way to the door, though my scowl dropped the moment I saw who was at the door, which was unnerving in its own way. Why did they affect me so much?
"Xin," I said, my voice coming out all weird and breathy.
Their hair was all messed up, like they'd run their fingers through it repeatedly. They were dressed in a dark brown cardigan that made their eyes look even lighter, and off-white jeans that molded to their legs quite beautifully.
"Hey," they said with a small smile, then held up two pizza boxes. "I brought dinner."
I blinked, staring mutely at them. We didn't have a meeting planned tonight, did we? No, I was sure we didn't.
I wanted to invite them in so badly, but I was also aware that they were turning into a distraction I could not afford right now, not when I was so close. I had to send them away. I had to.
"Xin, I—"
"I also have some things I wanted to show you," they cut me off, and I realized they weren't here just to have dinner with me. They were here for work. Of course. What had I been thinking?
"Come on in," I choked out, closing the door after them. I stood there a moment longer, taking a moment to gather myself before I followed them into the living room.
Xin had already made themself at home on the couch, the pizza boxes open on the coffee table.
"Would you like something to drink? Beer? Water?" I asked, and they glanced up at me. I was trapped in their gaze, and when they spoke, my eyes dropped to their lips. Had they always looked so soft and pink?
"A beer, please."
Nodding, I hurried into the kitchen and grabbed two beers, then thought better of it and grabbed two more. I had a feeling I'd need more if they stuck around for a while.
When I returned, Xin patted the spot beside them on the couch, and I braced myself as I sat, keeping some distance between us. I placed the extra beers on the table, then handed them a bottle. Tilting their head in thanks, they took it from me, their fingers brushing against mine.
The touch lingered, the warmth of their fingers seeping into mine and chasing away the chill from the beer bottles. They were so fucking warm. What would it feel like to be held by them? To be wrapped up in that warmth?
Gray trundled into the room, making a beeline for the pizza and breaking the tension as we both hurried to grab the boxes before he could.
Xin laughed as they called Gray a 'naughty boy,' and I strictly forbade my body from reacting to it.
Of all the complications I'd imagined I would face in my quest to make Patrick Lewis pay for his crimes, I'd never imagined my biggest problem would be something like this.
I couldn't let myself get distracted by Xin, no matter how beautiful, kind, or sexy they were.