13. Chapter 10 - Hillary
“ A aron Rodriguez, billionaire business mogul and recent partner of Lane Enterprises, is missing and presumed dead after evidence of a gruesome car crash off the gorge of Cascade Falls was discovered late yesterday afternoon. Sources say the gray Mercedes registered in his name was last seen leaving the parking lot of his central office in Carlisle, and no one can attest to his whereabouts since. The investigation is ongoing, but foul play is not suspected at this time.”
I scrolled through the online news story the minute it landed on my phone. I sat in his very office chair, having spent the day overseeing a myriad of business decisi ons on his behalf. The last time I’d been in here, I’d pinned him to the floor and rode him until my body couldn’t possibly come anymore. Today, I was keeping up the facade life was continuing on without the man who’d changed everything.
The news he was missing had leaked the previous afternoon, so I was heavily immersed in damage control. Now that the ‘presumed dead’ status was circulating in the media, I’d have to manage the shit storm for the next several weeks to keep operations running and suspicions diverted.
As a saving grace, everything was reported as we’d expected, but it didn’t stop the shiver that swept up my spine at an image of Aaron’s lifeless body at the bottom of the gorge, as if it had actually happened.
Especially now I’d finally admitted how much the man meant to me.
I hadn’t uttered those three fateful words to anyone romantically in a long, long time. I’d expected them to taste rancid when he dragged them from my throat post-orgasm. Instead, they’d tasted like a pure sugar hit; overindulgent, potent, and all-consuming, for the brief period it took to dissolve on my tongue.
The ambrosial flavor still coated my mouth, a delicious memory I couldn’t wait to treat myself to again.
I loved Aaron Rodriguez. The admission made my tainted heart flutter at the possibility of something real, but the flutters instantly sunk to the earth when I admitted another truth:
My love for him wasn’t enough.
I’d always known it. Perhaps that was why I’d always kept him at arm’s length—somewhere I could always grab hold of him when I needed his touch, but push him away when the touch became too real.
His declaration hadn’t come as a surprise. From the first time we’d fucked in the limousine more than ten years ago, I’d held his heart in a vise, and squeezed it whenever the mood s uited me. Now that I’d finally given him what he wanted, I was going to have to take it away—or wrap it in a series of caveats that might make him want to take everything back.
The thought sliced viciously through my chest, the stabbing pain saying all the words I wasn’t willing to.
I didn’t want to lose him, but I couldn’t keep him if I could only have him.
I was a wishy-washy bitch at best; a cruel heartbreaker at worst.
The stress of it all: this monumental realization, the race to get to Alvarez, my unwanted roommate, and the serious lack of sleep from my nightmares, had wormed its way under my skin. My veins crawled with the insatiable need to hurt something. We were sitting on the precipice of losing control, and I did not lose control.
People died when I lost control.
Scanning to the bottom of the article, I closed my browser and let those depressing thoughts slide from my mind before getting back to my very busy day. I was the Queen of Compartmentalization, and our list of ends to tie up was currently infinite.
Drawing in a deep breath to bury the anxious ball in my chest, I blew it all out in a forceful rush, then turned my attention to the task in front of me: running Aaron’s company.
Thankfully, it was close to Christmas, and the company would shut down for a week to allow employees to enjoy their holidays. I just had to hold down the fort for a few days before the break, enough time to come up with a better game plan than impromptu office visits.
Our legal operations were very similar, so it wasn’t hard to fill his shoes from that perspective. Aaron had more fans than he’d realized, because the tone in the building was considerably reserved and downright distra ught.
Gabby was distraught, anyway. The poor woman had sobbed continuously at her desk, but she refused to go home when I offered her the rest of the day off with pay.
“He would want me here,” she’d sniffed. Her watery eyes and puffy face pulled at my heartstrings. “He’d want me here, making sure you were taken care of.”
Her attempt at a smile brought on another fit of crying; I gently patted her shoulder and carefully tiptoed back to the office.
While many employees would be more concerned about their job security, Gabby had a good heart and cared more for the man for his existence, not his signature on her checks. She would quietly get a sizable raise this year for her loyalty. At Lane Enterprises, loyalty mattered.
The board could fight me on that one, but I’d win.
I was doing my best to balance the line of heartbroken business partner and fierce boss-babe, but I struggled with the job. Thankfully, my reputation proceeded me; after years of honing a ruthless but fair persona, the business world wouldn’t expect Hillary Lane to crumble when her business partner died.
The piles of paper in front of me slowly grew smaller. When my eyeballs became sandpaper, it was time to pack in for the day. I looked down at my messages I’d ignored for a good hour.
Kellan ViKing: I’m not playing babysitter tomorrow.
A girlish snort escaped me as I imagined all sorts of hell Lucky would put Kellan through. Watching the big man squirm under Lucky’s pestering was a primary source of amusement these days. Especially knowing Lucky was a particular weakness for the man who had none. I was still figuring Lucky out and how best to use him, so it was convenient to have someone else on the receiving end of Lucky being, well… Lucky.
I w as my own brand of con man if I said picturing Kellan and Lucky fucking didn’t set my insides on fire and disintegrate my panties. To have been a fly on that wall…
I flicked through my other messages to save my current pair of panties until I got home.
Sammy: Packaged secured.
A violent smile filled my features at the message. The incessant need to dig my nails into something and bring it pain had hounded me for days while I waited for my team to find the right moment to capture Sandra.
She was a trickier person to get my hands on than I’d anticipated. Her husband was a military officer home on leave, and Sammy had struggled to get her alone over the course of the last two weeks.
We didn’t torture innocents; I’d found no evidence of her husband’s involvement in any of the obtained footage or documentation, so he wasn’t a part of the equation. I wouldn’t risk him in the process of nabbing her.
Sandra, however, was unequivocally guilty.
As a precaution, all employees of the foundation were closely monitored via not-so-legal exterior cameras and discreet trackers hidden within their security badge—I was the only one who received the information. Blackbird glanced through the data every so often throughout the month and updated me if she found anything out of the ordinary.
Naturally, something had come up. I’d rewatched the video Blackbird had sent me. The damning evidence of Sandra’s duplicity was all over the screen.
The new families she’d brought in weren’t there to give a new life to a suffering child—they were a new wave of demons with direct access now to their prey; Sandra pocketed a hefty sum in an offshore account for her delivery service.
She’d sold four children back to Alvarez this way. Today, she would pay the price for her greed.
I m essaged Joey to meet me at the front doors of the office in five, quickly assembled my things, and sent off a text to Marty to close off the rest of my afternoon.
I was tired of the restless desperation, and my body ached for the sweet release that only came from delivering justice. Everything else on my agenda could wait.
Anita and Sammy were instructed to secure Sandra within a cell at the Palace—Sammy was the only other person on earth with his own access code. Other than sedation, they weren’t to touch her.
I asked Gabby to lock up before racing down the hallway to the elevators, eager to get to my prey before the day was done.
I’d wanted to drive myself today, but Kellan insisted I go nowhere alone, like a big grumbly, overprotective bear. I’d been in no mood to fight him, so I relented. Joey silently drove us to the Palace in record time, understanding my sense of urgency with no need to be told.
Sandra would get her comeuppance from two well-trained pissed off women with a thirst for vicious vengeance.
She didn’t know what she was in for. But today was introductory. A simple lesson. We’d work up to the torture part.
When we arrived, I changed the settings on her cell glass, turning the entire transparent wall into a frosted translucent screen, shielding our identities until I revealed them. I could watch her on the monitor outside her cell, which could see her from all angles, except for one corner underneath the panoramic viewer.
“Hello, Sandra,” I intoned. My voice stayed calm and level with only a slight edge of threat to it. “Welcome to your new home.”
The woman cowered in the far corner of her cell, her round form still in the rumpled clothes she’d been wearing when Sammy pulled her out of her car at the gas station. Mauve pants and teal blue shirt shone brilliantly in the bright light, but her skin was tight and pale—and a real flicker of fear shined through her dull complexion.
“Where am I?” Her hesitant voice trembled, and her hands clenched into fists by her side as her gaze flitted around the room, looking for the source of the sound.
“I call it… The Palace.” I cocked my head as she shook in her cage like a snared mouse. “It’s quite luxurious, isn’t it? Three square meals a day, water, and indoor plumbing. Quite an offering, considering what you’re in here for.”
Her wide eyes frantically scanned the room before she crumpled into a ball against the wall and slid down it into a heap on the tiled floor.
“I’m not who you’re looking for,” she blubbered, bringing her fisted hands to her forehead. “I’m innocent, I swear, I—”
“Oh, no, no, no, Sandra,” I cooed and nodded to Joey to unlock the door, giving her permission to step inside. “That’s not the truth, is it?”
Joey smirked at me. Her gray eyes went flat, though, when she wrenched open the door and stalked toward our guest. Grabbing Sandra by the hair, Joey hauled her up by her roots. Sandra screamed, the sound absorbed by the padding lining the walls.
“Meet Josephine,” I introduced. My smile widened at the wet spot growing at Sandra’s crotch. “Josephine hates women who prey on the vulnerable. Don’t you, J?” I tossed the question out casually, and Joey tightened her grip on Sandra’s matted bottle-blonde hair, causing another rich cry to sputter forth. “Show her how much you hate it,” I commanded. my velvety tone freezing into icy shards.
Joey flipped out a switchblade in her other hand and held it to Sandra’s jugular with a firm grip. She shifted the weapon suddenly and sliced the seams of Sandra’s clothing, ripping the material off her body. A moment later, Sandra was completely naked, tatters of urine-soaked fabric in a loose pile on the floor.
Joe y immediately brought the blade back to Sandra’s exposed throat, and the woman whimpered in distress.
“It’s quite scary to be vulnerable against your will, isn’t it, Sandra?” I mused. Joey’s blade traveled southward and nicked the delicate skin of Sandra’s sternum between her fleshy breasts. A small bead of blood trailed behind it. “When strangers hold you hostage and take your body as their own …”
I let the statement hang in the air as the woman shook violently in Joey’s hold. She choked out stuttered sobs between gasping breaths. Joey simply held her there, waiting for my next set of instructions.
“If you were a man, I’d cut off your cock.” The declaration brought another wave of wails. “I haven’t decided just how to punish you yet. But you’ll be staying here indefinitely, so I suggest you get comfortable.”
Joey yanked on the chunk of hair in her grasp, then abruptly let it go. A large clump fell to the floor along with the flailing body of our naked prisoner. Sandra scrambled away from her and huddled in the cell's corner once again.
Joey stalked back to the door and joined me on the other side. The panel shut behind her, leaving Sandra alone with only a pile of ribbons to keep her company.
I’d throw her a potato sack or something just as demeaning in the coming days. For now, she could enjoy the 50-degree temperature without the comfort of clothing, and reflect on her life choices.
“Welcome to hell.” I shut off the sound feed to cut the symphony of agonized screams. Joey and I shared a violent look of satisfaction.
Beating Sandra was not the play today—as much as I wanted to decorate my body with her blood, the adrenaline for violence was on pause as I considered the long play.
This woman needed to be terrified first. Stripped, threatened, and driven mad with all the possibilities of what we could do to her. She’d either crack or double down. I’d give her that opportunity first. Judging by her current position, though, we wouldn’t have to wait long.
I gestured for Joey to follow me to Alec’s cell a few blocks down the hall. I had found no incriminating evidence why he’d been limping the last time I’d interrogated him, so I needed the reassurance he wasn’t getting any misguided ideas.
Joey opened the cell for me. With her gun at the ready, she entered first to secure Alec so I could investigate the space.
He was seated on the toilet when we barged in; the murderous outrage on his face laughable given his defenseless position.
Joey cuffed his hands behind his back, leaving his naked ass perched on the bowl while I conducted a thorough sweep of the ten-by-ten cell.
Alec liked to tuck himself away beneath the camera’s blind spot, but that corner was spotless, save for a greasy stain on the padding where he must rest his head.
He spewed a flurry of curses, each more colorful than the last, while I investigated the other corners, under his bed, and around his sink, but I found nothing. Nothing implied an escape plan or even the slightest bit of tampering.
Satisfied, I nodded to Joey to release the shitting man.
As I exited the cell, I waved my fingers at him with a malicious smile. The sight of his wasted body and tortured eyes was almost enough to soothe the rip in my heart he’d caused all those years ago.
Alvarez was going to wish he was dead by my hand soon enough. Then maybe, just maybe, after I rid the world of that demon, I could finally find it in my heart to kill Alec, too.