I snort out. If I only knew. I am everything because I learned from the best. Rosalia Vittare. A shadow herself, who came to take what was never meant to be owned by men. And I became not only her protegee, but her biggest success. Because I am everything I had to become to do what had to be done. Nothing and everything.
“If I knew who I am, I wouldn’t be here,” I say, because she can never know who Rosalia is. No one can ever know. “But I’d say I am decent in my profession of equalizing and everything that comes with it.”
“Equalizing, huh?” she says. “Nice way to say you’re on a fucking murder spree.”
“Anyway,” I say with a grin, “This is the warehouse they use and have set up with alarms. Some of the kind I was unable to detect. I murdered three of them to get to the boss or whatever he is. I was taken by car, and I slipped a transmitter in it, so we can track them via—“ I open a software on my computer. “This here.”
“So,” Lilian says, sunken in thought, “You convinced them you’d kill me?”
“Yes. I told them I could get to you, and they were missing an inside man. I had leverage.”
“You didn’t find out who’s the bankroller by accident?” she asks me, and I keep my mask on to tease her, before I crack into a grin.
“Accidentally, I did,” I say.
“Who?”
“The President of the United States,” I say, and watch Lilian have the same reaction as I had.
“But—“ she stutters.
“But why? Why endorse and fund it and then come after you?” I ask. “There is only one reason. It was used against him; Zeus has something on him. If I were to have a guess, I’d say Sutton used Zeus to blackmail him, because blackmail was Sutton’s main business.”
“Believe me, I know,” Lilian says darkly as she sits down on her chair and slides herself to the desk.
She takes the laptop I took from her.
She stares at it for a moment with her elbows on the table, her hands in a triangle in front of her mouth as she is considering something.
“There is a solution,” she finally says, and she types the President’s name into Zeus.
“Don’t,” I say the moment I know what she’s up to. The thought has occurred to me, too.
“It’s the only way,” she says. “I’ll uncover what Jared had on him, and then I’ll blackmail POTUS to go public in case anything happens to me.”
“He’ll vanish you and every public figure who learns of it.”
“They can’t vanish the entire press,” she says, “I have many favours to call in.”
Her finger lingers for one moment over the key, and then she presses enter.
It takes a moment, and the air gets more tense with every second passing.
What we find is not a single thing but everything. And by everything, I meaneverything.Things that put the President in a highly volatile position.
“Doug,” she says after scanning through the files. “We need to get an audience with the President.”
“You are not going into the lion’s den in your state!” I tell her angrily.
“Don’t you dare tell me what I can and can’t do,” she hisses back at me. I mean, I would’ve done the very same, but that’s not the point. I came here to save her, not the other way round.
“And what if he uses the moment and tells the Lords?” I ask. “You may not even get there.”
“I’ll be there too,” says Hannigan in his deep voice.
“Yeah, because one person will help against the lot of them,” I snap and lean onto the desk next to her. “Let me—“ I begin, but Lilian cuts me off.
“No, I will not let you,” she says sharply. “You will let me do this,” she adds, anger in her voice, as she carefully gets up from her chair.
