Page 80 of Heart of Stone (Dark Billionaires)

The cellar lay at the bottom of the elevator shaft, and right now Brax and his men were likely imprisoning Graves, ready to face Warren’s justice. The same justice that her father had been facing since that fateful night he’d gambled away his club.

Had Kate not seen photographic evidence of her father’s crimes, she would have been truly disturbed at what Warren was doing to him. She had never loved her father, but even she would have protested.

But now whenever she thought of him, she saw those girls underneath him. All she saw was their pain, their terror.

Graves was guilty of so much more. She forced herself to walk on, leaving the lift behind, reminding herself that whatever torture Graves would face, it was earnt. He’denslavedpeople, trafficking them into sex work. When he worked as a police officer, he’d accepted bribes. He’d raped the women he trafficked, and facilitated the rapes of others, selling things that weren’t his to sell.

When she re-entered Warren’s bedroom, her thoughts were so consumed with the endless list of Graves’s crimes that it took her a moment to realise she wasn’t alone.

Movement was coming from the dressing room, and the fear that had so recently dissipated returned with a vengeance.

Please be Linda. Please be Linda. Please be Linda.

Though why the housekeeper would be rifling through Warren’s possessions at dawn was a mystery.

Kate edged towards the doorway connecting Warren’s bedroom to his walk-in wardrobe, hoping against hope that whoever was in there couldn’t see her through the mirror.

At her first glimpse of the intruder—and her long, white-blonde hair, Kate’s knees almost buckled with relief. “Saffron,” she breathed, laughing away the tension.

Saffron yelped, jumping out of her skin. “Kate,” she stammered, resting her hand on the open watch drawer in front of her.

“Is everything okay?” Kate stepped closer, frowning out her confusion. Her eyes drifted to the drawer. It was usually full to the brim, with Warren’s watches neatly organised in plush fabric. But now it was nearly empty…

And at Saffron’s feet lay a dark satchel, bulging with watches. A small black cylinder hung from its side, reminding Kate of a deodorant can.

“Saffron,” Kate said again, her voice heavy with uncertainty. Saffron was…stealingthem. “What are you doing?”

Despite the low lighting, she recognised the faint twinkle of a tear in Saf’s eye. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“What are you sorry for?”

The tear fell, but Saf zipped up the satchel and swung it over her shoulder. “For everything.”

“You’re leaving? But they have Graves, Saffron. They’ve just brought him in. Your sister—”

“I know. A friend has managed to get Evie out in the uproar of Graves’s capture. I had a message. She’s safe.”

Despite everything, Kate’s relieved smile was genuine. “Oh thank god. Is she all right?”

“He doesn’t say,” Saf shrugged, edging closer to the door that led out into the corridor. “But I need to get to her, Kate.”

“You don’t have to sneak away like aliteralthief in the night, Saf. Graves has been captured. Warren’s coming home in the morning. We’ll give you whatever you need. You don’t have to steal. Warren gave me money. I’ll give you anything.” Kate bit her lip, almost ashamed at the admission. “You’re my friend.”

“I almost killed you.” The admission was so faint that Kate nearly missed it.

Even so, it trickled down her spine like icy water, leaving a shiver in its wake. “I’m sorry?”

Saffron gestured to the window. To the gardens beyond it. “The party. I… Graves made me do it. He was going to do to my sister what he did to me, Kate. He wanted Warren out of the way, so I agreed to be planted in the Ruislip warehouse.”

“Where Rhys found you,” she remembered.

“Exactly. I was to put the fentanyl—”

“Fentanyl?”

“It’s a drug. An opioid. It’s used for pain relief.” Saffron bit her lip, looking away. “I put it in Warren’s whisky the night of the party, but then he gave it to you.” Her breath shook, her voice getting higher and higher. “And then the next day you wouldn’t wake up.”

Kate remembered Saffron shaking her awake, white-faced with terror—and suddenly her terror made sense. “You drugged me?”

---