Page 65 of Vengeful Rotten Casualties

I don’t have long to contemplate because as soon as that question appears in my mind, she comes back into the doorway. I shake off the concerning thoughts and set the laptop down on the counter. She approaches and slides onto a stool at my side, flipping the laptop open and settling in.

“What’s this?” I ask, leaning around her as she slides a USB drive into the side of the computer. A box pops up on the screen and she clicks away, moving her finger across the bottom touchpad.

“I’m sure you know this, but no one in the elite truly trusts each other,” she answers. I quirk a brow. Not an incorrect statement, but I’m not seeing where she’s going with it. “When my husband died, I found some notes on his computer—notes that lead to a security deposit box in New York.”

Pictures flash across the screen. My eyes widen. It’s more than just pictures. Videos, contracts, documents, screenshots. “Jesus Christ.” I scrub a hand down my face.

“I retrieved it and found everything I needed—at least the start of it all,” Micki says. She sits back, her eyes glued to the small laptop screen. Disgust strikes me deep, but her expression remains placid. How many times has she looked at it to remain so impassive? The things depicted … they’re horrendous, even for me.

“Then this is blackmail material?” I guess. It’s not surprising that whoever my father sold her to would have his own files as well.

She nods. “They all had something.” Her lips quirk. “I’m sure Thomas thought he was invincible. He never even considered someone could collect so much evidence against him. Enough to ruin his reputation and his life.”

“That’s it,” I realize. “That’s why you were going after them all?”

Her head turns and big round brown eyes look up at me. Vast and innocent and yet so incredibly fucking hard and devious. “Tax evasion, trafficking, sex tapes, you name it, Luc,” she says. “This containseverythingI need to get my revenge. I’m going to go public with all of this.”

Motherfucker. My eyes flash to the screen again. She won’t just be outing my father, but an entire cast of the upper echelon. It’s a list of people from my father to Dash’s. Shit, even Abel and Braxton’s fathers are in some of these—though they’re dead now. The effects of what she’s planning are about to cause a ripple effect in our world. She’s about to make so many fucking enemies…

“What are your plans in terms of protection?” I demand, flashing a dark look her way once I pull my gaze back from the computer.

“I won’t need protection if I do this right,” she replies.

That’s what I was afraid of. “Fuck no.” The words come out on a growl. “You’re smarter than that,” I say. “You have to know that not all of them will be taken out. Some will escape unscathed and when they do, they’ll come after you.”

She shrugs. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

"Not good enough.” I shake my head. “We need more than allies,” I say. “We need…” Plans begin to form in my head. Yes, there’s a way. A slim chance, but I know for a fact each of these men and women on the flash drive has a weakness. Everyone does. Micki is mine and she was used against me once—as much as I hate it, now I know exactly how to use such a method myself.

I close the laptop and carefully extract the flash drive. “Let me handle the protection part,” I say.

“You’re already looking into finding our sister,” Micki replies.

“Dean is handling that,” I reply. “Some hacker somewhere is looking into it. I can do this. I will do this—or I swear to fuck, Micki, I’ll lock you in this house and never let you out again. You cannot go through with this without a full-fledged plan.”

Her lips part as her brows curve together, a little v forming between her eyes. I hold up a hand to stop her. “I’m not saying you can’t go through with it, but you need to be smart about it. Don’t fly off the handle. If you go into this with only a half-baked bullshit idea of what you’re going to do, then you’ll end up dead … or worse.” Back in chains with my father as her master.

I’ll die before I let that happen.

Straight white teeth flash as Micki sinks them into her lower lip and chews thoughtfully. I swallow and redirect my attention. “So, what do you suggest?” she asks.

“Their weaknesses,” I say. “Most of these people probably have children either in or near Eastpoint. I’ll put some feelers out and get in touch with them. If they’ve got someone waiting on the sidelines to take advantage of the situation and take over their roles in their respective empires then they’ll not only lose their reputation, they’ll lose their power. No power. No money. No reputation, and a good amount of them will hopefully end up in custody.”

“Can you make that happen?”

I blink and look back down at her. Her lips have been released from her teeth and look perfectly swollen now, but her face still remains stoic—serious. Without even thinking, I reach up, cupping her cheek as I lean down and press my forehead to hers. “I can make it happen,” I promise. “Everything will work out, pretty girl. Trust me.”

Her little inhale of breath goes straight to my dick. Micki reaches up and grasps my wrist, holding on as she locks around my arm.“Thank you, Luc,” she breathes. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to make this happen.”

I’m sure she’s not the only one—definitely not the first—that these people have hurt and fucked over. But she is the one who has gained enough power to stop them and I’m going to help her. Whatever I have to do, whatever gods I have to sacrifice to, whatever deals with the devil I have to make—her dream will become a reality. I will make sure of it.

“There’s just one more thing,” she says, stopping me when I mean to take her lips with mine. A groan rumbles up my chest and I drop my head against her shoulder.

“There’s more?”

Her quiet chuckle is relieved, light. “It’s nothing big,” she admits. “But I was wondering if …maybe you could help some friends of mine. Give them a job?”

“Friends?” I lean away from her again and eye her with pseudo-suspicion.

---