Page 88 of Beast

39

GASTON

Ipace the floor of my office, seething with rage. That smug bastard Estrada thinks he’s won, that I’ll roll over and hand him fifty million dollars’ worth of prime real estate. He has no idea who he’s dealing with.

My lawyers are drafting the transfer paperwork to buy some time, but there’s no way in hell I’m signing anything. Estrada wants to play hardball? Fine. I can play too.

I pick up my phone and dial Damien’s number. “Damien? It’s time. Shut down all of Estrada’s servers, everything. I want that whole operation dark.”

Damien maybe my second in command of operations here, but he’s also the best hacker I know. If anyone can cripple Estrada’s network, it’s him.

“Consider it done,” Damien replies. “Is there anything else, sir?”

I run a hand across the back of my neck, looking at Estrada’s personal offshore account. “There’s an account. Can you funnel two hundred and seventy million from it and place it into an encrypted wallet?”

“Piece of cake,” he affirms.

“Good. I’ll send you the details. I want you to do it now. I want this wrapped up with Estrada tonight.”

“On it.” He ends the call.

I allow myself a grim smile, envisioning Estrada’s panic when he realizes what I’ve done. Without his precious servers, his whole criminal operation will grind to a halt. Communications, security systems, transactions—all frozen with a few keystrokes. And when he realizes the amount of money I stole from him, he’ll lose his shit.

Estrada won’t know what hit him when his liquid assets are drained. I almost wish I could see the look on his face. Almost.

And once I have Blake safely back, Estrada will regret the day he tried to challenge me. I’ll raze his operations to the ground and drive him from this city for good. When I’m through with him, he’ll be scrambling back to whatever hole he crawled out of, penniless and broken.

No one takes what’s mine. And Blake is mine. I claimed her body and soul long ago. If Estrada wants to challenge that, he’ll learn the hard way with a bullet in his skull.

When this is over, Estrada will have nothing left but ashes. He will rue the day he decided to cross Gaston Marques.

And Blake will be back where she belongs—on her throne beside me.

I’m sitting at my desk when my phone rings, the caller ID flashing Pablo’s name. I feel a surge of satisfaction knowing he’s likely calling to scream at me for crippling his servers and draining his accounts.

“Pablo,” I answer smoothly, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

He’s practically sputtering with rage. “You son of a bitch! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

I make a tsking sound. “Such language. I thought we could be civilized about this.”

“Civilized?!” he roars. “You attacked my network, my finances...”

“Collateral damage,” I say dismissively. “You took something of mine, so I took something of yours. Though I’d say what I took was a bit more substantial.”

Pablo is breathing hard. I can envision the veins bulging in his forehead. “I will kill that blonde bitch for this,” he hisses.

At that, my amusement vanishes. My voice drops to a deadly soft tone. “Careful, Pablo. Threaten her again and you’ll never see your two hundred and seventy million dollars again.”

He pauses. “What are you talking about?”

“The money I drained from your account? It’s not gone. Merely relocated. To a place only I can access.”

Pablo is silent, the gravity of the situation sinking in. He thought he had all the leverage, only to discover he’s the one who’s been outmaneuvered. He didn’t know yet about the money.

“Here’s what will happen,” I continue calmly. “We will meet at midnight at the abandoned airfield outside the city. You’ll hand Blake over to me, unharmed. Once she’s safely away, I’ll give you access to your funds.”

“You manipulative bastard,” he whispers.

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