Page 33 of Beautiful Ascension

He gets it—he always does.

“You would cosign this bullshit behavior,” Wes snaps. And as usual, Wes’s pissy attitude rears its ugly head.

“Pot meet kettle,” Sebastian fake coughs, making me chuckle.

Owen’s arctic glare pivots from me to Wes. “Let’s not act like you don’t do the same shit. We all have for one reason or another. So, instead of griping at each other, let’s focus on how we will get back at the cantankerous bitch responsible for this.”

Feeling chastised, Wes huffs as he leans back in his seat and crosses his arms.

Big fucking baby.

“I had Q send out a virus to anyone who received the video,” Lev explains.

“How do you know it’ll work?” I ask.

Lev turns and pulls up an invitation. “Because we’re throwing a party, and the only way to get in is with a code unique to each person. Which can only be accessed by downloading the invite.”

“Fucking genius,” Owen cheers. “Though, I’m not looking forward to partying without Ariah.”

Sebastian squeezes his shoulder. “Same, but we’ll get her back soon.”

“Oh. We won’t be partying. We’re just hosting the event,” Lev divulges.

“Then where the hell will we be?” Wes questions.

Lev pulls up another screen displaying his email. “We’ll be meeting with Mrs. Davenport.”

Fucking finally!

“How did you get her to agree?” I inquire.

“Teagan,” Lev answers. Seeing that none of us are picking up what he’s putting down with his one-word response, he continues. “She set up an untraceable video conference so Samantha’s mother can contact us while her daughter parties.”

“Fuck yeah,” Owen shouts. “She can finally explain her outburst during the Chosen ceremony.”

I grimace at the reminder of that night. Each time someone congratulated us, I wanted to rip out their larynx and shove it down Samantha’s and the Senator’s throats. The only good things to come out of that night were capturing Jameson, a feat I’m still curious to get all the details about, and discovering Samantha’s mother was not colluding with her daughter and stepson.

We’ve been trying to arrange a way to speak with Mrs. Davenport for weeks. Our intel has revealed that Samantha has her parents under house arrest with round-the-clock guards ensuring they never leave the house. The vindictive brat has no loyalty except for maybe to Senator Baker. But I guess since she’s fucking him and he gave her who and what she’s always wanted—Wes and elevating her status—it’s not surprising that she’d be loyal to him.

“You know at least one of us is going to need to be at the party,” Sebastian states. “Samantha is going to want to preen like a proud peacock.”

“More like a green anaconda, squeezing the life from us before attempting to swallow us whole,” Wes mutters.

“That’s a more accurate depiction of Samantha,” I jest.

I see the moment resignation sets in because Wes’s shoulders slump, and his face pinches. “It has to be me, doesn’t it?”

Lev nods. “Unfortunately. She’s made it known that she’d get rid of everyone except you in a heartbeat on many occasions.”

“The lecherous viper has been vocal about killing you if she can’t have you,” Owen adds.

Wes massages his temples as if he can rub this entire situation away. “It’s fine,” he sighs. “As long as we can get the necessary information from Sam’s mom, I can put up with her shit for one night.”

Now that we have that settled, I need to ensure all traces of that video will be wiped. “What happens to anyone who doesn’t download the invitation?”

“An email from the school Bursar’s office has also been sent out,” Lev replies. “And before you ask, I have code scanning for anyone who tries to upload the video to any site.”

Satisfied with that answer, Sebastian stands. “If you’d all excuse me. I need to meet Matthieu at the club. He finally has the information we’ve been waiting for.”

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