Page 139 of Rise of the Queen

“I hope you’ve vetted her thoroughly,” I said, with a hint of sarcasm that the guys picked up on. I could hear them all laughing in my head, but outwardly, not a single one of them cracked a smile.

It caught Henry off-guard. He blushed. “I have. I’m very thorough,” he said.

“I would hope so. For her sake. Ricardo is a dangerous man. There’s no telling what he’s capable of,” I said.

“You just made him clench a little, spider monkey,”Andrei said, laughing.

“Good. That was my hope. I want him a little nervous. Can you see where the switch-hitter is? Now I know I need to get closer to her. You’re coming with me.”

“This has been the most fun I’ve had at one of these functions. In the history of ever.”

Once Henry left us, I explained that I felt I needed to get closer to Henry’s switch-hitter. We caught Battista and Vitaliy up on the plot twist involving Henry that Misha and I had seen earlier. Battista looked at me, completely amused. “I can introduce you, if you like.”

Adrik bristled immediately. “I don’t like that idea.”

Vitaliy agreed with Adrik. “I don’t either. Malishka, you don’t need to actually talk to her, do you? You just need to be close to her?”

“Right. I don’t need to talk to her. But if Andrei and I can get close to her, we can take a peek and see what we can find out,” I said. Battista thought for a moment. I’d never seen him smile as much as he had tonight. He was absolutely gleeful at the events that had transpired so far.

“You know a doctor from the hospital, no?” he asked me.

I nodded. “Dr. Williams.”

“I need his help. We’re going to discuss a new wing for the hospital, but we’ll need her input,” Battista said. “It’ll be obvious if all of you follow me, but Sephie has already been seen with just two of you. Sephie introduces me to the doctor, he and I go to the representative while Sephie stays in the background, but close enough she can get what she needs from the representative.”

“We should warn poor Dr. Williams that he’s part of our plot,” I said.

“Why would we do that? He’s getting a new wing out of this plot,” Battista said, very matter-of-factly. I just stood and stared at him for a moment. He laughed. “Money is a means to an end, Sephie. I will gladly spend it on something that will help the people of the city if it means I can be devious.” He grinned at me.

There really is something to this generational wealth thing.

“Ivan and Andrei, go with her,” Adrik said. He pulled me closer, kissing my temple. “We’ll be close by. You’ll be able to see us the whole time,” he said quietly.

Battista offered me his arm as we set off to find Dr. Williams. As luck would have it, he wasn’t far from the representative.This should be easy.

Ivan showed me and Andrei what he could see as we got closer to the representative. Just like Henry, her demon had gained access and was the shadow behind her face. Unlike Henry, her demon was even more defined and more prominent, which I was beginning to learn meant that it had been running the show for quite some time.

Dr. Williams’s face brightened when he saw me approach him. “Hello again, Sephie,” he said, smiling warmly at me.

“Dr. Williams, I would like you to meet my dear friend Battista. You’re going to be very happy to meet him, in fact,” I said.

Battista extended his hand to Dr. Williams, introducing himself. He got right to the point, telling Dr. Williams that he had heard about what great work he did for both me and Ivan, which I didn’t even know Battista knew about, and he had decided that the hospital needed a new wing added on.

“Because I’m not a citizen, however, I believe we need to get some kind of approval to move this process forward?” Battista asked innocently.

Dr. Williams looked shocked. He just stood in front of us for a moment, unable to speak. Ivan laughed. “Remember to breathe, Doc.”

Dr. Williams looked at Ivan, now snapped back to reality. His mind started racing, as his excitement level increased. He quickly looked around the ballroom, his eyes landing on the representative who wasn’t very far away. He pointed to her, saying, “She’s the person we need to speak to.”

“I’ll let you two do just that,” I said, winking at Dr. Williams. He objected, wanting me to come with them. I smiled warmly at him, saying, “I enjoy this anonymous thing too. Ivan and I already have a legend told about us among the hospital staff. That’s enough for me.” He laughed loudly but motioned for Battista to follow him to speak to Henry’s switch hitter.

As they walked to her and began talking, Andrei and I got to work. Before we started, I told Ivan he needed to lower his bubble.“You’re very quick now, Squish. I have full confidence you’ll catch anything before it gets to me, but I need full access to her to go fishing.”

I could feel his discomfort at the thought of lowering his bubble, but he did so. Begrudgingly.

Andrei and I quickly snooped through her head as she was talking to Battista and Dr. Williams. She was quite excited about the possibility of getting a new wing for the hospital, but not for the reasons one would think. She was already planning on ways to launder money through the project, taking a significant portion for herself, of course. She was also planning on making the publicity around the project all about her, making it seem like she was the one who made this happen.

She knew everything about Ricardo. She was in touch with Ricardo, just as Henry likely was by now. She was following his orders when it came to anything to do with the city. She was going to be slightly more problematic to get rid of than I originally thought. But not impossible. She was just more connected than I thought she would be. I should’ve known.

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