"You’re quiet," Thorne notes as we step into the plush hallway.
"Just anticipating," I lie. "I like seeing where the magic happens."
"Oh, the magic happens in many places," she says, her voice taking on a suggestive lilt that makes my skin crawl. We reach the double doors and Graves swipes his badge on the scanner causing the doors to click open.
"After you," I motion her ahead.
The three of us step into the office. It’s dark, the moonlight casting long shadows across the floor and in one of those shadows waits Demi. The heavy door shuts behind us and someone hits the lights.
Thorne freezes. Her head snaps up as she sees Demi standing in front of her desk. "What the hell are you doing in my office? This area is off limits to staff!"
Blue stands there with a fierce expression on her face and a small smirk on her perfect lips. Her eyes slide to Graves and she watches him unholster his side arm but she doesn’t react in any way. I on the other hand immediately tense up. She’s not Martha anymore. She’s ripped the glasses off, her wig is slightlyaskew, and she’s standing with her legs planted wide, holding the keycard up like a badge of office.
"Sorry to interrupt," Demi says, her voice dripping with that delicious, bratty sarcasm I love so much. "But I think you’re with my date."
Thorne spins around, her face twisting in confusion and rage.
"She’s the runner," Graves tells her. Stepping further into the room and lifting his gun slightly so he can cover all of us if he needs to. "A temp. And the girl who keeps showing up in places she shouldn’t be."
Thorne laughs, a harsh, incredulous sound. "A temp? For fuck’s sake! What kind of security are you running here, Graves?" She moves to the desk, reaching for the panic button under the ledge.
"Don't bother," I say, dropping the Julian Vane act instantly. My voice drops to its natural, rougher timber. "The alarms are dead and the cameras are looped.”
Thorne stops, her hand hovering over the button as her eyes bounce from me to Demi, the realization dawning on her.
"You know each other," she hisses.
"Intimately," I drawl, moving to stand beside Blue. I wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her flush against me. "In fact, she gets really jealous when other women touch her things."
Demi looks up at me, her eyes flashing in amusement. "I’m not jealous. I just have hygiene standards."
Thorne gawks at us unbelievingly but then she gasps and spins around, clocking the frame of the picture that hides her safe popped open. She barks out that annoying condescending laugh of hers again as she turns back to us.
"The alarm? That was you? You actually thought you could crack my safe and steal from me? How stupid are you?" she chokes out on another laugh. “There’s no money in that safe!”
"I know. But there were some other wonderful things inside there." Blue taunts her and that has Thorne’s eyes widening in panic. She spins back to the picture and almost rips it from the wall in her haste. She goes through all the biometrics protocol and just like that, the uncrackable Heart Box is open.
Chapter 16 – Blue
Thorne ruffles through the contents of the safe and then jerks back and turns to us with a smug smile, now sure that I hadn’t managed to get into it. She shouldn’t be so fucking smug with that safe door still open. I step slightly to the right to see past her and my eyes take in the thick, leather-bound folders and the external hard drives.
"Got it," I whisper to myself just as Damon speaks in my ear.
“Views are climbing by the thousands every thirty seconds. Spill the tea for them. They’re eager for it.”
Now I’m the one who’s smug. So far in my quest to avenge what was done to my mom, I’ve kept to the shadows. I’ve exposed the crimes of these greedy fuckers and spread the money I’ve stole from them to as many of their victims as I could but I kept it anonymous so far. I’m finally stepping into the light to expose all the lies and corruption that hurt so many people and I hope it goes fucking viral.
“Graves, take this trash out of my office and dispose of them,” she orders, but I jump in before he can even move.
“I didn’t come here for your money. I came here for the ledgers and the software. It’s time people understand exactly what you and Horizon Wellness are doing to your victims. You need to be stopped.” She arches one thin platinum eyebrow at me like she finds what I just said funny so I keep going. “You and your company scavenge what’s left from grieving families like vultures. After they've lost so much, you take what’s left!”
Her expression is seeped in condescension and like the true narcissist she is, she can’t help but spew all about herself. Like I hoped she would.
“Victims? Please! What a joke. My "victims", as you call them, get what’s coming to them when they’re too stupid to read the fine print! If it wasn’t me and my company, it would be someone else. I just got there first.”
I shake my head at the gall of this woman. “Those people just watched their loved ones die. Mothers, fathers, daughters and sons. They go to those hospitals for help, pay fortunes for help, and you strip them of everything they have left. You threaten them with financial ruin before the bodies of their loved ones are even in the ground. Sometimes, before they’re even dead. You add fake charges to bankrupt them, destroy them all just to add more money to your obscene bottom line. Don’t you care at all about the damage you’re doing to all those families?”
She crosses her arms over her chest and smirks. “Not one damn bit. Why would I care about the masses of poor, uneducated fools in this country? They’re like cockroaches. Most of them bring on whatever they die of themselves. They pollute their bodies with garbage and then whine when the consequences come calling and it kills them. Death is a business just like any other and I’ll never stop capitalizing on it.” She waves a red nail tipped hand in a dismissive way like she’s done with all of this business and turns to Graves.
