I laughed at him. He didn’t like that. His dead eyes watched me as if he was imagining what my organs would look like displayed on his desk.
“You think paranormals are going to come into that bar ifyouown it, Nero? You’re fucking dreaming.”
Would you look at that. His eyescouldget even scarier. “You can still work for me, Meredith. I have plenty ofopportunitiesfor someone like you.”
This explained why he had ordered his men to graffiti my bar. He didn’t care about whether the damage cost money to repair—money that could go toward paying him back. No, he no longerwantedme to pay him back.
When my father took out his loan with Nero, the bar was close to going under. Now? It was the most popular bar in Durham for paranormals, and it attracted a large human crowd as well.
But I had a feeling it wasn’t so much the money Nero was after.
“You want the contacts. You want to try to get in good with the paranormals. You’re an idiot if you think they’d do business with you.”
“Because you’ll tell them not to? You own a bar. You’re still human.”
He spat the word.
“I am,” I agreed. “But that’s not all I am.”
God, I hoped this worked.
I slowly raised my hand. Nero sneered at me. I smiled.
His chair lifted off the floor. With him in it.
“Stop!”
“I don’t think so.”
Sweat dripped down my back. This part of my power drained so fast, I wouldn’t be able to control it for much longer. I lifted him higher. Behind me, several of Nero’s men ran into the room. I raised one hand warningly, glancing at them as Nero’s chair rose, until his head was brushing the ceiling.
One of his men made the sign of the cross. Another turned and ran. Oh, Nero was definitely going to make him pay for that.
“Release me, witch!”
I didn’t have a choice. My power flickered out, and his chair crashed to the floor, with him in it. Oops.
He groaned, and his men rushed toward him.
I glanced at his laptop. The virus I’d silently been programming was beginning to take hold. It wouldn’t act for a few days, but when it did, every file he had across any of his devices—and any device that had synced to his devices—would disappear.
“The interest goes back to the original percentage,” I said. My legs were trembling, and I needed to wrap this up before I collapsed and ruined my new badass image.
Nero stared at me. His face was ashen. “You’ll regret this.”
“The original percentage. Say it.”
“Fine.” His mouth twisted. “Leave, witch.”
I smirked. “I thought you wanted to hang out with paranormals, Nero.”
He made the sign of the cross with his fingers as if repelling a ghost.
“Cute. Have a good day, everyone.”
I strolled out of his office like I had all the time in the world. I had just enough power left to ward my back, in case one of them got any bright ideas about putting a bullet in my head.
The metallic taste in my mouth warned me I’d pushed my power too far, but I slowly opened my car door and started the engine. I just had to get out of Nero’s territory, and then I could pull over and rest.
