“And I care about Ravu,” Celine told her. “I’ve been coming here for three years, Valerie. I might not love him. I’m too…jaded for such sentimental notions like that.”
Her words surprised Valerie.
“But I do care for him. He’s been a friend to me and I can’t say I have many genuine friends. He’s listened to me. He’s comforted me. He’s been good to me,” Celine said, a small smile crossing her lips. Her eyes flickered up to Valerie when she said, “I’ll miss him when he’s gone.”
Valerie wondered just how much Ravu had told her.
Something pulled at the back of her mind, of Dravka saying that she wouldn’t have to worry about Gabriel Larchmont, that ‘they’ would take care of everything.
“What…” Valerie licked her lips, lowering her voice. “What did he tell you?”
Celine inhaled a long breath through her nostrils before sighing. “Everything.”
Valerie’s heart stuttered a bit in her chest, panicked that Celine might go to Madame Allegria, panicked that Ravu might be—
Suddenly, Celine held something up between them.
Something Valerie recognized.
A Blue Light drive that had been in her desk. A slim, thin stick, no bigger than a pen.
“Did you know about this?” Celine asked.
“About what?”
“Ravu said the financial records of the brothel are on this,” Celine continued. “The untampered ones. The client list. The rushed business licenses, paid under the table. The accounting with false numbers. All of it. He told me everything about Madame Allegria, about what she’s been hiding.”
Valerie’s lungs didn’t seem to be working.
“I know why he gave it to me,” Celine continued, still regarding Valerie carefully. “Because of who my son is, because of you. And because I have the resources to help.”
What had Dravka been thinking?she thought, her mind whirring. She pressed her palm into the desk, the whole lobby seeming to sway a bit.
They’d planned this, that much was obvious. And while Valerie hadn’t been on the premises, they’d obviously managed to hack into the records downstairs and store them. But how? How would they have the knowledge to do something like that?
Suddenly, it made sense why Ravu was insistent that he meet with Celine that night. Because none of it would matter if he didn’t give her the Blue Light drive.
The Blue Light drive, given to a powerful woman who could actuallymakeherself be heard, that had enough incriminating evidence on it for serious criminal charges to be brought against Madame Allegria.
Madame Allegria, who had no doubt blackmailed Celine Larchmont into agreeing to this marriage. Madame Allegria, who Celine Larchmontdetested, who was sleeping with her son, which she also might know about or at least suspect.
Valerie stared at the woman across from her, her lips parted though no sound came out.
“For the record,” Celine said, “I never wanted you anywhere near my son. I never wantedheranywhere near my family.”
“What…what are you going to do?” Valerie asked softly, realizing that they were completely at Celine Larchmont’s mercy.
Because with the information on the Blue Light drive, Celine would have power over Madame Allegria. She would cancel the engagement since Celine never wanted the marriage to happen at all. Valerie would lose her leverage. What did that mean for the bargain she’d struck with her aunt? That Madame Allegria would close the brothel and pay the Keriv’i what she owed them…and her promise that she’d never harm any of them again?
Valerie swallowed. Suddenly, everything was vanishing around her like smoke.
“Like I said,” Celine murmured quietly, “I care about Ravu. And I want to help my friend.”
Celine slid something over the desk. A thick paper card, rectangular in shape.
On it, she’d written an address and a patch number.
It was a private dock number at the Port, one she knew was used for private charters because Madame Allegria often used them herself.
