Page 38 of The Mafia's Omega Queen

Vinny

You’ll pay for that, princess.

Oh fuck. What the hell did I just start?

Three weeks in, I’m still fighting through the scrabbling done to our cameras before the attack on the compound. At this point, we still aren’t sure who is behind the attack—no one has claimed the carnage—but I have a feeling the answer is in the corrupted files.

Why else would they have scrambled our feeds the second they actually entered the house? In normal circumstances, the corruption would be done prior to the beginning of the attack, or they would loop the feed. But no. Whoever is behind this decided to wait until we were already in the thick of it.

The only thing I can think of is that the main player showed up then, and this was their way of hiding it.

But they obviously didn’t do their homework if they think they can keep anything hidden from me for long. I always find my way past corruption; it just takes longer than I’d like.

The program flying across my screen is one I helped develop a few years ago, but there are still some glitches that need to be worked out. This is evident in how long this process is taking. One of these days, I’ll just get back into the encryption files and figure out a way to speed it up.

Time is of the essence, after all.

On one of my other screens, facial recognition software is still running, looking for three different faces. Lionel Kilroy, Archibald Kilroy, and Bianca Abernathy. If that’s even the cunt’s last name. Everything with that woman has seemingly been a lie, so I wouldn’t doubt that her last name is, too.

Finally, after what feels like forever, my computer pings. Alerting me that the program has finished fixing the corruption. I’m giddy with anticipation to find out, but fuck. This will change everything. It will give us a clear picture of who has been coming at us fast and hard. And not in the hard and fast way we like to take Haylee.

Speaking of Haylee, my knot aches with the need to be locked inside her. I already missed out on that because of work, and it hasn’t slowed down since. She’s been cleared for weeks now, but between the attack and Vinny’s recovery, time has not really been on our side. Or mine specifically since I’m the only one who can do what I can do.

Minimizing the facial recognition software, I move one clean file over to the blank screen on my left to play while opening another on the screen directly in front of me. After hitting play on both, I sit back in my chair, getting comfortable for the hours of footage I’ll need to go through. I would kill for a pair of extra eyes.

Hold up.

I pause the playback on both screens, open a second copy of the facial recognition software and the command prompt, and type in the coding I need to run the software over the videos. Once everything is set and ready to do, I hit play on both videos again, sit back, and do the only thing I can do. Wait.

Before I forget, I grab my phone from my pocket and fire off a text to the boss.

Me

Does it hurt?

Vinny

Does what hurt?

Me

Blue knot.

Vinny

What the fuck… Godsdammit, you can fuck off, too.

Slipping my phone back into my pocket with a chuckle, I tuck my hands behind my head and kick my feet onto my desk, watching my program run.

My eyes grow heavier the longer I sit here, and before I know it, a knock on the door makes me jump, startling me awake. I rub at my blurry eyes, trying to focus on the screen, but everything is muddled. A tell-tale sign that it’s been a couple of hours since I’d fallen asleep.

“Come in,” I croak, then clear my throat.

The door opens, and my eyes are greeted with the most beautiful sight in the world.

My beautiful mate.

“You missed dinner, so I thought I’d bring it up to you.” She steps in with a steaming plate in her hands and a sweet smile on her face. “Andre outdid himself tonight. Beef Wellington with duchess potatoes and roasted asparagus. The potatoes are so cute. They almost look like little, swirly mushroom caps.”

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