He shrugged, setting the glass down. “Relaxes me. What’s in the bag?”
I adjusted it. “A few chess pieces,” I answered, eyeing the glass on my way to the back.
Malachi and his fake wife, Diedra, were in the basement cleaning up some of the blood from the last guest. They both looked up when I walked in, Malachi taking in the bag I was pulling from my shoulders. “What did you bring us?”
“You want money from Ms. Rose, I can get it for you,” I said, placing the bag on the bench. I opened it up and dumped the contents out.
Basic tools of torture. A few different varieties of pliers, some rope, gags, lighter fluid. I wasn’t sure what my plan was yet. For now I’d keep my distance, keep following both of them, test her out again when she returned to The Club. Maybe I’d even pullan Azrael and install some cameras in her house. He loved his cameras, which was why I took the initiative of borrowing some. They were small, undetectable. I just had to wait until she left the house again to install them.
There was no harm in adding a little extra layer to my studies.
She didn’t stand a chance, and perhaps I could get a little extra pay from it too. Nearing a billion, she the youngest, richest person in the world.
Her money would be mine, she and her boyfriend would be buried together six feet deep for the rest of eternity, and we would move onto the next target. Just another day in the life of the Kingsmen’s.
5
Olivia
March 29th, 2022
Ifelt as if I was being watched constantly now. Eyes on me wherever I went. Judging, studying, waiting for the right moment to strike.
It felt the same as it had growing up, except there was something eerie about it now, something not right. Instead of cameras and scripts I had to follow to the letter or risk being scolded, I was waiting for the feeling of hands around my throat or a gun pressed to my temple—
“Olivia?”
I blinked, shaking my thoughts away as I met the eyes of my publisher. She was a beautiful woman inside and out, and the only person who knew me by the name Olivia Rose and Abigail Ross. Usually, an author would have an agent to work as a go-between for author and a publisher, but Katie and I had always had a really strong relationship. We were close and I had been studying how businesses worked since I was 14. Anything to getahead of my mom and her constant scheming.
I owned a third of my father’s company because of some contract they had misread. Upon the contraception of their first child, me, a third of the company would be put under their name, an after finding out about it at 14, I realized that there was no way I could allow them, my mom, to manipulate me into giving it up, so I started studying my ass off to understand businesses, contracts, legal jargon, how business attorney’s worked, and everything else under the sun.
It had prepared me for a lot growing up, and honestly, I think Katie was more grateful than anything else that she didn’t have to work with an agent. Grateful that she could work directly with me without any third parties involved.
I loved it too. It just made things easier.
Mom hated that I still owned a third of the company though, and I had known that for a long time, but there was nothing she could do about it. Not unless I gave it up willingly or died. My third was protected under the law. Even if they managed to bankrupt the company, which was impossible, I’d still be safe. In fact, there was a stipulation in the original contract that stated that if they managed to fuck up that bad, the company would default to me.
I could fix it, rebuild it, and it would all be in my name.
I still wasn’t sure why mom, after grooming me to be her perfect little pet my entire childhood, had been doing everything she could to convince me to sign it off, but my stubbornness and pride held me in place.
Even if I wanted to get rid of it, I wouldn’t, not when I now had something to prove.
“Sorry,” I apologized, straightening. “What were you saying?”
She smiled and leaned back in her chair. “I love the first two chapters you gave me,” she said, placing her hand on the small stack of pages I had emailed her that morning. I hadn’t evenrealized she had printed them out. “This one sounds a little different than the others, I like it.”
Relief flooded through me. “So, then the renegotiation?”
She nodded, setting her pen down. “It’s a-go,” she confirmed. “You have been renewed for four more books. Including this one, five. You did good, kid.”
I couldn’t help but smile, joy filling me. “Thank you, Katie. Thank you so much.”
“Thank you for keeping a roof over our heads.” She laughed and waved me off. “A joke. You’re a good writer, Olivia. Keep it up, you’ve got a promising future ahead of you.”
I gathered my bag and stood. “I will, thank you,” I said again. “I’ll get another chapter done by the end of the week.”
“Perfect, I look forward to it.”
