Page 90 of Devilish

“Thanks for being here for our brother, Lucien,” he said. “As you all know by now, Lucien’s club, The Veil, was blown to shit by Rupert McGuire. We’ve compiled everything we know about him—his businesses, family, and assets—which you can find on our private server.” King nodded at our tablets, and I opened the folder we’d been sent and skimmed through it.

Ex-wife in New Hampshire… No kids… No living direct relatives…

Translation: no one would miss him. Good to know, though unnecessary. I wasn’t planning to set Lachlan on him, after all.

“Alessio can take over from here,” King said, taking a seat.

Alessio stood up and crossed his arms. “So this motherfucker got his panties in a twist when Lucien kicked him out of his club. That would probably be enough cause for a pissant like him, but then he lost his little plaything to Lucien too.”

I started to object to calling Kai a plaything, but Alessio held his hand up.

“Sorry,Kai,” he said, and I nodded.“Rupert, being an ugly prick with a small dick, couldn’t handle the fact that anyone could offer something better to Kai, got butthurt about it, probably stewed over it for a while, then decided to do something stupid, like blow up Lucien’s building.” Alessio clicked the tiny remote in his hand, and a 3D image hovered over the center of the table.

Theo’s lips twisted. “Heisan ugly prick.”

“And I don’t want to even imagine his small dick,” Benoit said with a shudder.

Alessio clicked again, and a bank statement popped up. “It seems Mom and Pops left him a sizeable chunk of change, most of which he keeps in offshore accounts—that I now have full access to.”

“Nicely done,” Shep murmured, his hands steepled in front of him as he watched the presentation with intense focus.

“Assets.” The image changed, and Alessio scratched his jaw. “His main house is on East Sixty-Ninth Street, and yes, I’m sure he chose that number for a stupid-ass reason. Worth about twelve million at its last valuation. Also owns a place in the Hamptons as well as Miami. Net worth, about fifty-eight million, almost all of which comes from family, since being the owner of a gallery only nets him about five hundred K a year.”

“Great, so we take it all and leave him in Miami for the alligators to feast on,” Lachlan said, looking a little too excited about the prospect. “I’m in.”

Alessio nodded at me. “I’ll let you handle this next bit.”

When the image changed to different candid shots of Rupert with young guys, none of which were Kai, I clenched the arms of the chair and shoved to my feet.

“It’s not just that Rupert’s a pathetic piece of shit, it’s that he treats the guys he’s with like they’re nothing. He buys and trades them like fucking stock and then uses them, knowing they’ll do whatever he wants because they’re coming from the streets and have no better options. He preys on these guys. He’s the worst kind of human.”

A tense silence descended, and I could read the reactions on each of their faces. Every one of us abhorred guys like Rupert, and now he was fucking with one of us.

“Those alligators are looking better and better,” Shep said, his jaw tight.

I agreed, but somewhere in the back of my mind was a tiny voice warning me of repercussions. Whatever we did to this asshole, I didn’t want any of the blowback landing on Kai. He might loathe Rupert and want to see him punished, but I didn’t think that included feeding him to reptiles.

Such a shame.

“As much as I’dliketo take Rupert for a little trip to Florida, I think for now the best course of action is neutering the motherfucker.”

“Literally?” Lachlan said, eyes gleaming.

“Figuratively.”

He huffed and sat back in his seat.

“Someone like Rupert measures his dick by how much money and power he holds. I think it’s time to show him mine is a million times bigger.”

“Ooh…” Benoit licked his lips, his eyes dropping below my belt. “We about to get a little show-and-tell?”

“You arenot. But I’m about to fuck his shit up. I want his money drained, his assets seized. This dipshit has been making high-profile sales and forging their certificates of authenticity. Kai knows where those certificates are.”

“Ah, I see.” King rubbed his jaw, perceptive as ever. “You want to go in and get them.”

“I do. We expose the fraud taking place at his gallery and his business will immediately tank. His accounts will already be drained courtesy of Alessio, so no help to be found there, and how do you pay for your million-dollar properties when the money stops coming in?”

“True.” Benoit pursed his lips. “You’re really not going to touch him?”

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