Page 104 of Suspicious

The governor sits forward, his hands joined together in a fist on his desk as he fake-smiles at me. “So, Beatrice, I assume you have come to talk to me about a contract stating the information I obtained from your app won’t be traced back to you when it’s used in the future. I agree itisthe smart move for you moving forward. Of course, you won’t have to announce publicly that there has been a breach, saving you,andyour company. Naturally, I foresaw this coming, so I have already gone ahead and drafted up the paperwork for us.” He leans down into the drawer beside him, opens it, and pulls out a file, then places it on his desk in front of him and slides it toward me. Then grabs a pen, clicks it with that shitty smile he’s known for, and reaches out to hand it to me. “There’s no need to read it. It’s allperfectlylegitimate.”

Letting out a scoff at the audacity of this man, all his words do is to light an insatiable fire inside me. Faking a smile, I reach for his pen, spin his contract, look for my name and the dotted line, and then start writing.

He exhales, sitting back in his chair, completely relaxing. “I knew you’d do the right thing here, Beatrice. You know why? Becauseyou’rethe smart one in Defiance,” he states.

Smirking, I glance down at the contract, nod my head, and spin it back to face him. “Yeah… you’re right. I am.Here’swhat I think of your contract, Governor.”

His brows furrow as he glances down at my signature area, which reads, ‘Bennett has a small,’ and then I drew a picture of a cock and balls next to it.

Haven bursts into a fit of laughter, racing to give me a high five. I slam my hand against hers as I stand back, glaring at Bennett, who does not seem impressed at all. He inhales sharply, rolling his shoulders, then, as if he can’t handle it anymore, leans over, shifting the papers Haven messed up back into a neat pile. He then sits back with a scowl on his face. “Okay… you want to do this the hard way, Beatrice. You know you have no leg to stand on. I gave you a decent offer in this contract, and you dick and balls me. You’re only fucking yourself over in the long run. I honestly don’t give a shit what happens to you. But now, you’ve made a bed for yourself and your stupid club.Youneed to leave.” Bennett goes to call Samael, so I step forward, pulling out a flash drive.

“I don’t think you want to do that, Governor.”

His hand hesitates over the call button, his eyes transfixed on the flash drive. “All right, little miss. I’ll bite. What have you got there?”

I glance back at Haven, and she grins, nodding at me. I turn back and decide to go full napalm on the asshole. “What I have here,sir… is the promise of you going onto your computer and deleting every. Single. File. That you stole from my cell phone. All the information from my app. All the details and personal information from my clients, and all of my personal images, videos, voice notes, and whatever the fuck else you took illegally from me.”

He purses his lips, nodding. “Funny… because that looks like a flash drive to me, not some promise that I have never and will never,evermake.”

“Oh… I think you will when you see what’sonthe flash drive.”

He tenses, finally showing a little unease. His eyes flick toHaven. “You said you worked at The Nest?”

Haven grins widely. “I sure did, and I am the one who took it down. Are you starting to get that little niggling feeling in the pit of your stomach, Governor?”

His nostrils flare, his breathing quickens, and his hand darts out toward me. “Give me that fucking drive.”

Hesitating, I tilt my head before I hand it to him. “And before you get any funny ideas about destroying it. We have copies. You might want to think about making a deal before you go doing anything stupid.”

Gritting his teeth, he snatches the flash drive from me and shoves it into his computer. The light on the stick flashes green, and I smile, walking around to watch what he decides to look at first. There are dozens of folders, and each folder has multiple folders nested within it.

So much fucking dirt.

“Jesus,” he mumbles under his breath.

I rest my hand on his shoulder and let out a long breath. “It’s funny, you know? You put out this image of a man desperate to bring down crime in America. Trying to delegalize cannabis in LA, working for all kinds of campaigns to bring justice and peace. And yet, if you click on that picture... yep, that one right there, oh yeah, look at that. Isn’t that you at The Nest signing a consent form to sell your daughter to them when she was only two years old? I mean, she wouldn’t even know her father isthe greatgovernor of California. Who even knows where she is now that the birds of The Nest have been set free.”

He glances up at Haven, fear in his eyes. Her arms are folded over her chest, her stare hard on him, anger clearly evident as he shakes his head. “I… I needed money to help fund my campaign.”

Haven scoffs, turning and starts pacing the room to walk off her fury, so I continue sliding my hand to the mouse andclick on another picture. “Oh,this is a good one!At thehugestate funeral of your two-year-old daughter, there were news teams everywhere. It was a massive story that gained you so much support. Poor fucking politician whose daughter died unexpectedly. Your approval rating went through the fucking roof after that. Am I right?”

He glances up at me, his chest heaving. “I made a mistake.”

“A mistake?”I snort out a laugh. “You sold your daughter, then profited off her fake death for your political gain. You’re a fuckingmonster!”

He throws his hands in the air in frustration. “So what? You’re blackmailing me with this now? You want me to give all your shit back, or you willout meabout my daughter? Is that it?”

Tilting my head, I smirk. “I could, but somehow, I don’t think it would be enough.”

“The fuck are you talking about now?” he snaps, seemingly frustrated and nearing the end of his tether.

Leaning past him, I click on another folder in the flash drive, opening up the images. They flood his screen, a never-ending barrage of evil and vulgarity.

He slides his chair back, and horror flashes over his face like he had no idea this would ever come back to haunt him.“How the fuck,did you get these images?” he snaps.

Standing back from him, I shake my head, curling my lip up, and take in a slow, steady breath. “You know… in a way, I’m sofucking gladyou sold your daughter. She grew up in a training facility to become a strong, powerful, amazing young woman. If she had stayed with you, she could have ended up like the poor, defenseless girls in these images. Some of them have got to be no older than what… seven or eight, maybe, give or take. And thevileshit you’re doing to them…” I trail off, scowling in disgust as he stares at me, finally with undeniable terror in his eyes.He knows there’s no way out of this now.

“I don’t know what kind of darkness you have to have inside you to do that kind of…I can’t even.But tohonestlythink that you were going to get away with this and become the most powerful man in the country? Are youcompletelyinsane?”

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