Page 38 of Revenge & Truth

“Wow, way to tell someone they’re a controlling bitch without actually saying it,” I muttered, taking two fingers and flicking them in a mock salute. “Message received. Now can we just enjoy breakfast and hash this out in the conference room? We have more important things to tend to than Ryker’s paranoid brain. We finally have what we need to get Luca out, so let’s move forward with that plan.”

With my fingers crossed under the table, I prayed Ryker would remember the signal we’d come up with to steer clear of a topic. For a man who was convinced the founding families could easily infiltrate the house, he was blabbing about things that should be dealt with behind closed, soundproof doors. Ryker answered my request pretending to wipe something off his bottom lip with his thumb, telling me he remembered perfectly.

“Don’t have to tell me twice. If I’m not in trouble and you’re just gonna agree, then I’m not saying another word on the matter,” Ryker said, stabbing a sausage and shoving the whole link in his mouth at once.

“Ryker, you need to chill, dude,” Braxton cautioned. “I know Glenda’s sausage is amazing, but even I can’t handle shoving all that meat into my mouth at once.”

Slapping a hand over my mouth was the only thing to keep me from spewing coffee all over the place at Braxton’s joke. The whole table erupted into laughter, changing the topic into safer waters, sharing about the best sausages they’d ever eaten. Watching the guys joking and having a good time together made me think back to the first breakfast we had at this table. Three people were now missing, and it hurt to see Luca’s chair empty. However, it hurt a little less now that I knew we had a plan, and soon enough, he’d be right back where he belonged.

When the meal was over, we headed for the conference room. It was the most secure room in the whole house besides the panic room hidden in the conference room wall. This was where all the important matters pertaining to the criminal side of the Caprioni business were attended to. Half of the room was filled with files written in code only the heir to the Family could translate—another safeguard in case the house was raided by law enforcement.

Braxton came up, linked our arms together, and smiled at me. “Tell me the truth… are you going to chew Ry-Ry’s ass out for not telling you about the twenty-four-hour shadow? On my way back to my room, I noticed it wasn’t Boykov standing outside Atticus’ door. If I remember correctly, he was on your father’s security team.”

“Thad mentioned that when I asked him who the hell he was. Bastard is lucky I didn’t try to sneak back to my room naked or in a sheet,” I grumbled. “If I had done either of those things, then I would’ve had to kill him.”

Braxton let out a dreamy sigh. “You’re so sexy when you talk like that. Seriously, I don’t think there is anything sexier than a woman in power who’s not afraid to use it. Plus, if you didn’t kill the dick nugget after seeing you like that, one of us would have done it the moment we found out it happened.”

“Aww… you’re sweet,” I said, hugging his arm and resting my head on his shoulder as we entered the conference room.

“Only for you, My Queen,” Braxton whispered, pressing a kiss to my head. “Also, I’d like to add that I’ve been a good boy and done everything you asked.”

I looked up at him with a raised brow. “Is that so? Tell me, pet, are you expecting a reward for doing as your Mistress instructed?” I demanded.

Braxton’s eyes lit up at the change in my tone seconds before he dropped to his knees, head bowed. “No, My Queen. The only reward I need is to be of service. Forgive me if I sounded ungrateful.”

“Good, now get off the floor… we have work to do,” I ordered, heading for the table without looking back to see if he’d follow.

Braxton and I would need to work out the parameters of our dynamic, but I wanted to see how the others would react to the display. Brax wanted a more full-time situation, but I wasn’t sure it would work. Interestingly enough, none of the others showed any sign they’d even witnessed the interaction. Could it be they weren’t bothered by it, or possibly they hadn’t seen it happen? Either way, I planned to test out a few other situations to see how Braxton and the others responded.

Settled at the head of the table, I leaned forward and rested my arms on the wooden surface. “Who’s ready to clean up the mess in our yard and pay a little visit to the neighbor who keeps throwing shit over the fence?”

thirteen

Our first order of business was to lay out everything we knew about Judge Rupp. Jace spread out the blueprints of the man’s house on the table for me to show what I’d found for an access point.

“Hound, what did you find out about his security?” I asked.

Flipping open the cover on his tablet, he offered it to me. “Whoever sold it to him was a fucking con artist. That system has all the right bells and whistles to make it seem more high-tech than it really is. As you pointed out, there isn’t a sensor on the window itself, making it the perfect entry. The motion sensors won’t be much of a problem either since you can cut the power to them once inside. The fuse box is down there, which is like taking candy from a baby. As long as you get me tapped into his phone lines, I’ll make sure the lost power notification never reaches the company.”

I smiled and shook my head. “God, this almost seems too easy.”

“Don’t you think we’ve earned something easy after all the shit we’ve been through?” Braxton reasoned.

“Let’s not relax too quickly. We still don’t have any information on the safe,” Ryker pointed out.

He was right about that. If I didn’t have time to figure out what type of safe I was dealing with, we could be dead in the water. My skills were getting in and out of tricky locations, but being a thief wasn’t my end goal. While many trained at picking all kinds of locks and learning every type of safe-cracking skill, I was memorizing names and testing out the best way to rip off someone’s fingernails. For this to work, I had to know where the safe was and what brand.

“Ivy will get back to me when she has the information,” I said, choosing to put my trust in this woman I barely knew. As she told me, we women in power had to stick together. “Liu, have you had a chance to set up another meeting with Luca?”

“That was on my list to get done today if we had everything we needed, but I think it’s best to hold off saying anything to Luca until we know you can get into the safe,” Liu answered, a concerned expression on his face.

I looked him over, making sure I didn’t miss if there was something wrong with him physically. Not finding anything amiss, I assumed he was worried I would yell at him for pushing back. No, on second thought, that didn’t seem right, either. He worked with my father for years. If he couldn’t handle when my father got into a bad mood, he’d never have made it this far.

“Is that the real reason you want to wait to speak with him?” I challenged.

Liu sighed and handed me a piece of paper. I scanned the document riddled with legal bullshit, making it nearly impossible to figure out what they were saying. Then when I reached the final paragraph, it all became clear.

“Are you shitting me?” I yelled, my grip on the paper causing it to crinkle. “They want to add charges for conspiracy and collusion because I went there to see him, and someone recognized me? So because we were in the same room for all of thirty minutes, it’s obvious we were there to conspire?”