Page 58 of Titan

My fist closes over the image, claws piercing the paper and ripping it into tiny unrecognizable pieces. I hold a deep, primal roar at the back of my throat.

Nothing in these photographs should preclude her from being in charge of her own money, but that doesn’t mean they won’t use these images to paint a very different picture of her to a human judge.

I’ve been listening to cars as they pass the house. It’s a busy neighborhood, so it happens often. Another car approaches. No, it’s an SUV. It closes in on the house. I wait for it to pass. Instead, it slows and turns into the driveway.

“Do you hear that?”

“Yes, the traffic from Vegas must’ve cleared up,” Stiel confirms. “Everything is wiped, and the program is installed. I just need thirty seconds for the last of the documents to download, and we’re gone.”

I hear the engine cut off and the car door open and close. A man’s voice, Richard’s, is talking loudly on the phone. Someone didn’t get him something he wanted. It doesn’t take much to figure out he is talking to Kathleen about her lunch with Julianna. He’s angry.

I’m angrier.

“I got it.” Stiel pulls the thumb drive from the computer and grabs the hard copies of their Sweet Arrangements conversations and the several important folders I’d set to the side for us to take back to the penthouse.

As he passes me, heading for the back door, he slaps me on the shoulder, signaling me to move with him. I stay still.

I hear Richard put the key into the front door lock. I hear it turn. The door swings open, and his phone conversation gets louder. My pulse ticks up, and my hearing focuses down to only the actions of the human one floor below me.

“We should go, Titan. We have the information.”

I hear the sound of keys landing on a hard wooden surface and the thud of shoes being kicked off.

“We’ll talk about this when you get home, Kathleen. You can’t chicken out now. This isn’t over,” Richard says before I hear the sound of what I assume is his phone hitting something soft and pliable, a couch maybe. Sock-covered footsteps patter up the stairs.

Vaguely, I realize I’m no longer hunching. My wings are held half-open, loose and ready, and my tail is unfurled.

“Titan,” Stiel snaps. His claws dig into my shoulder, attempting, unsuccessfully, to drag me back out onto the balcony. “We need to go.”

“You go. I have something to take care of.”

He says nothing but does not leave. I feel him stand at my back. He will aid me if necessary, but he knows it’s not his fight. It’s all mine.

Richard lands on the top step. I can see his back through the office’s open door. All he has to do is turn and he’ll see me.

“Richard!” I roar, and I take vicious pleasure in seeing the human’s spine stiffen.

The man turns his weasel face towards me. His eyes start at a human level, then he raises his gaze nearly to the ceiling to match mine. I bare my fangs. He runs for the stairs. I take two long steps out of the room, my horns cutting twin gouges into the ceiling, and reach over the banister, catching him by the throat. His mouth opens to scream, but nothing comes out.

“I just want to talk.”

I squeeze tighter and drag him over the railing and back into the office. His throat feels puny in my claws. It would be so easy to make a fist and end his life right now. It could be that simple, and Julianna would be free.

“Why are you doing this to her?”

The source of at least half of Julianna’s pain is held in my hand. An odd kind of calm comes over me. My fury hasn’t lessened, only focused to a single point.

Richard sputters, his face turning a bright shade of red.

“If you want him to answer, you have to let him breathe,” Stiel says calmly.

Reluctantly, I loosen my grip enough for the human to suck in a desperate breath.

“What… the… fuck…. are… you?” he gasps. I choke him again, knocking his head back against the wall.

His eyes bulge, and his hands claw at my arm. I wait a solid ten seconds, then I release him.

“That’s not an answer to my question. Why are you doing this to Julianna?”

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