“After they got away with murder, I started paying attention to the crimes that made headlines and the ones that vanished. The people who walked away because of who they were, or because someone erased the evidence, or because the system failed. I realized too many people were getting away with depraved crimes.”
Names surface in my mind, faces I’ve made sure the world will never see again.
“I’m paid, and paid well, but I don’t do it for money. I do it because they are people who will hurt again.”
Her hand presses against my chest, right over my heart.
“And you stop them.”
“I make sure there are no future victims.”
She leans in, forehead resting against mine. “I understand. The law doesn’t always protect the right people. Sometimes it protects the men who can afford it.”
I study her face and steadiness in her eyes. “Can you live with what I do?”
She shifts closer, palm warm against my chest.
“I can, as long as it’s for the victims and as long as it’s about stopping the harm.”
A pause.
“There are men in this city who are untouchable. Corruption. Human trafficking. Abuse that never makes it to trial because it’s buried so deep. I’ll never be able to touch them.”
I know how much that pains her.
“None of them are beyondmyreach, Laurette.”
She pulls back, eyes locked on mine. “It’s interesting, isn’t it? The way our worlds have collided. Seems like we’re fighting the same war but from opposite angles.”
“You and I could have some very interesting conversations. But not tonight. You have court in the morning, and you need your rest.”
She settles against me, exhaustion claiming its due. Within minutes, her breathing evens out, soft and deep, trusting enough to sleep.
I watch the woman who understands the system from the inside, who knows where it breaks, who isn’t afraid of what bleeds out of those fractures.
This woman has intelligence, access, and a ruthless sense of justice. And underneath it all, whether she realizes it yet, a taste for blood.
She’s everything I never allowed myself to imagine wanting.
And she’s already mine.
I feel like I’ve won the fucking lottery.
Chapter 38
Laurette Devereux
There’sa realization that lives in your bones once you sample vengeance and like the way it tastes in your mouth.
Morning comes too fast. Deep sleep never took hold. Only shallow, broken stretches where my body shut down. Every sound pulled me half-awake. Every shadow registered before reason could catch up.
Bastien is there when I surface, and I savor the heat of him at my back.
Our first time waking up together.
His arm rests across my waist, and he pulls me close, pressing a kiss into my hair.
“Good morning, Babygirl.” His voice is low and rough with sleep.
