Page 24 of Sinner's Vow

I take a swing at a light lamp, one of the fancy directional kind, and shatter it to pieces.

Nico yells out, jumping to his feet. But I point the metal stand at the man, my dark eyes warning him to stay where he is.

“You’ve got the money now to replace it, right?” I say, low and dark. “I’m just balancing the books.”

I swing for another expensive light. It shatters.

“Better get those backups pulled up,” I say as I look back at him with a raised eyebrow. “Or I might just decide the entire house is fair trade.”

Nico makes a low growl as he sits at his computer and starts tapping away.

One by one, I take out his lighting equipment. And there, across the studio, set on a stand, I see a fancy, very expensive-looking camera.

“Here,” Nico says, his voice shaking. “Take a look. This is my backup server. I store everything here.”

I round the desk, looking over his shoulder. Really, I don’t have any way of making sure beyond a doubt that there are no more copies anywhere. But I’ll do what I can.

I watch as Nico deletes the files. My stomach clenches harder at the sight of dozens of images of Kennedy on his computer, in such vulnerable and compromising positions.

“The cards?” I ask.

Nico gets up from the chair and goes to a filing cabinet against a wall. He digs through one drawer, removes something, and then digs through another, coming away with a piece of paper.

“Her contract,” he says darkly as he hands the paper over to me. He returns to his computer as my eyes scan down the contract.

He paid Kennedy ten thousand dollars for the entire photoshoot and she signed away exclusivity to him so he could do whatever he wanted with the images. And I’ve seen her sign her paintings, so I know that is her real signature at the bottom of the page.

“Here,” Nico says, venom and anger in his voice. “You can see here what’s on the SD card.”

Once again, I lean over his shoulder. I see the display of the card, and a section of photos selected, all from the same date. All images of Kennedy.

“Delete them too,” I command.

Nico makes a low hissing noise, but I watch as he deletes the files.

“Now, any prints you’ve made,” I say, because I don’t have any doubt that some exist.

The man continues to complain in obnoxious little noises as he gets up and shuffles out of the studio. While I wait for him to return, I cross to that camera. I click it on and then start scrolling through the images.

And there, I find the gold I’m looking for.

The way to utterly ruin this man.

I pop open the SD card slot and pull it out. Lucky day, it says, in his own handwriting, Property of Nico Gasteon.

I slip it into my pocket, and make my way to the stack of canvases. I slide them over next to the gauzy curtains covering the window and place them just below.

Nico walks back in, warily eying what I’m doing. In his hands, he holds four large canvases. With fury in my blood, I stalk to him and yank them from his hands.

Every one of them is my wife. And in her eyes, I see self-hatred and disgust.

“You’re going to know the humiliation she felt,” I say as I cross back to the other canvases and set the ones of Kennedy on top. I hold up her contract. “And you’re going to deal with the consequences of your perverted actions for the rest of your life.”

“It was all legal,” Nico repeats, glaring death at me.

“Oh, not all of it,” I say darkly. I pull the lighter I swiped from his desk out and hold the flame to a corner of the paper. Once it’s lit, I drop it on top of the pile of canvases. Nico shouts as they light, and then he screams in fury and terror as the flames jump to the curtains.

I just smile with a chuckle as I follow him out of the studio. He frantically reaches into his pocket as he jogs for the front door.

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