89. Dom
DOM
I clicked my cufflink into place, straightening out the bloodied sleeves of my white button down.
Inside the glass elevator, the golden hour casting a yellow glow over the Manhattan skyline. Kiera stood next to me, watching the numbers climb on the LCD screen. While Leo and Spencer stood behind us, watching us rise higher and higher above the city.
Kiera’s skin was covered in blood splatters and dirt; she still hadn’t had a chance to shower since her captivity. We were all in the same clothes we’d worn all day. Leo’s balaclava was wrapped around her neck, her pistol still holstered to her side.
The security guards at the front desk had tried to stop us, but one flash of my badge and they’d backed off.
A reckoning was coming to Zeus, and no one wanted to be on the wrong side.
Our wedding best should have said enough. What we were willing to do, the price we were willing to pay.
Spencer leaned against the elevator's railing. “Feels wrong to be in a place this nice with blood on my hands.”
“No point washing them,” I grumbled. “We’ll just spill more.”
But as we neared the executive floor, Kiera’s hand reached for mine, intertwining our crimson stained fingers.
It was time for us to stake our claim. To take our birthrights.
A soft ding announced our arrival.
And as the doors swung open, I marched forward.
The receptionist shot up from her seat. “Ms. Dumont… I…” Her eyes darted down to my clothes, the splatters decorating my collar making her yelp.
“No need to worry, Sophie. It’s not mine.” Dom offered her a polite smile before tapping on the desk. “Do me a favor? Make sure no one comes to this floor. I need privacy.”
All I could do was hope that the kindness I’d expressed over the years could have bought me some loyalty. Behind her desk, my gaze caught on a packed bankers box.
She’s read the files.
Her face grew stern as she met my gaze. “Yes, Ms. Dumont.”
“Thanks.” With a wink, I pushed off the desk and strode toward the glass-walled conference room.
I kept my grip on Kiera’s hand as Leo jogged ahead of me. Inside, executives I’d known my entire life screamed at each other in their pristine suits. Some of them wore tuxedos, some dresses. They’d seen the chaos of my father’s failed nuptials.
But they had no idea that somewhere in the woods upstate, pieces of their CEOs body were being dissolved in acid.
Leo grabbed the metal handle and swung the door open.
Kiera and I stepped through first, Spencer following behind to the one other exit in the room and closing it off. Two locks clicked into place as Leo and Spencer worked in unison to seal us inside, hands on their pistols.
At the head of the table, a black leather chair sat empty. I walked straight to it, as the arguing quieted. Standing over the seat, I let my hands touch the fabric.
How many years had I watched my father sit here, take command of the company, drive it into the ground?
Kiera took her place to my right, towering over Gabriel’s puny chair. Never to become anything more than an evil henchman.
But before Gabriel ever walked into this room, it was Brennan’s. A chair not below Isaac’s but adjacent to it. Two allies, one goal.
The board members stared at us, two killers at the head of their table.
“Call the police!” Bernard called out, tears nearly welling in his eyes. His suit was clean, pristine. Like he’d run straight out of the wedding, happy to turn tail and leave.
Waving to my father’s — now former — assistant, I shook my head. “Cathy, that won’t be necessary.”
A few others stepped forward, ready to move on me.
But Spencer and Leo trained their pistols on them immediately.
Leo’s voice was a growl. “Wouldn’t be very wise.”
“We’ve dropped a few bodies today, all warmed up. Right, Major?” Spencer laughed.
The men backed off.
Pursing my lips, I leaned against the glass table at the center of the room and looked into each of their sniveling faces. “There will not be a vote of no confidence today.”
“What are you—” Bernard pushed again.
Slamming my hand into the table, I pointed at him.
“It’s enough, Bernard. Sit. Down.” His eyes went wide, knowing he was backed into a corner.
And then I met my Viper’s green eyes. “With the majority shares, Ms. Tierney and I have agreed that I will succeed as the CEO and Chairman of Zeus Industries.”
Scoffing, Mr. Talbott shook his head. “You’re a fucking murderer. Killed your own father in broad daylight. This will never stand! We’ll expose you!”
“My father has taken an extended leave.” I met his gaze with a laugh. “But I seem to have some papers that would say you were at Isaac Dumont’s estate in 2005, Mr. Talbott. Isn’t that right? You made a few orders, if I recall correctly.”
Turning to each member of the board, I recounted the blackmail I’d uncovered from all of their years in service to my father. “Good luck calling the feds. You’ve left quite the paper trail, and I’m sure they’d love to see what you all got up to when you thought no one was looking.”
Stunned, the board members looked like deer in the headlights of an eighteen wheeler.
I snapped my fingers, meeting Spencer’s dark gaze. “But someone was looking, weren’t they?”
“All of those women and children. Each and every one of them.” Spencer spoke through gritted teeth.
“Right. They never forgot. And I’m sure the ones who survived would love to tell the truth.” Clicking my tongue, I tapped the table. “Oh right, they tried. And each of you silenced them. Didn’t you?”
Heads fell into palms, devastation hitting all of them as they realized their lives would be ruined.
Smiling, I stood up straight. “Or, I could help you. See, I have all the evidence I’d need to force you all into a jail cell. One click of a button and it would be done. Your homes would be raided by dawn.
“Unless… you’re willing to cut a deal.”
Bernard hissed. “What do you want, you sick fucking brat?”
“All of you will walk out of here, right now. Dissolve your shares and cede total control. And I won’t release the treasure trove I’m sitting on. You’ll retire comfortably and save your reputations.”
Before they could speak, Spencer pulled out folders of paperwork from the back of her combat pants. She placed a folder on the table in front of each board member. From the door, Leo kept her hands on her pistols.
Next to me, Kiera’s chest heaved with anxiety. This was our last chance.
Mrs. Evans was the first to sign, eager to sign away her responsibility.
The rest followed, one by one each of them signed their names to the agreement.
Over the intercom, I called for security. In a matter of seconds, enough guards to empty the board room appeared. Leo opened the doors for them.
“All of them. Get them out of here, strip their security clearances. No office clearing.” I nodded.
Without question, the guards did as I said.
I watched as they were shepherded to the elevators, like scared cattle. Once the room was empty, I took my seat at the head of the table.
A woman appeared from a long hallway, her gray bob bouncing as she swept into the room. My mother wore a gray pantsuit, scoping up the folders from each board members’ seat. “Well played, my dear.”
“Thank you, Mom.” I smirked.
Turning to Leo, I nodded. “Release the files, please.”
The elevator doors swung closed, the board being kicked out onto the street as Leo clicked send on our last trove of files.
“Devious.” Vivienne smiled as she took her place in the corner.
Next to me, Kiera shrugged. “A promise made to a den of snakes by a pride of lions.”
I turned my attention to Spencer, who stood sheepishly by the door, unsure of her place in all of this chaos. “Spencer, we’ve decided to create a new kind of shareholder. We’ll have a lot of work cut out for us, making good on the terrible shit this company has done.”
It was a plan Viv and I had cooked up late at night, sitting around her breakfast nook. How could we make so much evil right? How many lives were lost or ruined by these people?
“You’ll hold thirty percent shares as an ambassador.
Your job will be to represent the victims of Isaac Dumont’s crimes here, in this boardroom.
You will speak for them, you will help us seek Justice for them.
You and your mother’s legacy will help steward this company into a new era of accountability and long overdue compensation. ”
“Dom…” Spencer shook her head, stepping forward and looking at the seat to my left, one I gestured for her to take.
Shame washed over me. “I never should have lied to you. But now, I want to make it right. And I need your help.”
Looking at Leo, Spencer froze — unsure what to do. But Doctor Callahan nodded, “Go. It’s yours.”
Hesitantly, Spencer moved around the curved glass of the conference table, sliding the chair out, and lowering herself slowly into the leather seat.
As soon as she was seated, I turned to other matters. “We have a long road ahead of us. Let’s get to work.”
It was going to take a lot to keep us out of prison. We’d killed one of the wealthiest, and most powerful men in the world in broad daylight. It was recorded. Our identities were obvious.
But we held the power now. And we would find a way to stay together. Until our dying breaths.