Page 111 of Silk and Sirens

“She actually believes her sister is still alive, but then again she was stupid enough to fall for Mother’s trap in the first place. You see, there’s always a catch with Mother’s offers, and hers just happened to be her life.”

Vivienne leaned forward, eyes wild. “I didn’t expect you to be as stupid, honestly. It’s disappointing that you haven’t figured out she’s been playing you from the start. Everything she told you was calculated. Every confession, every tear. All planned, and you fell for it.”

My jaw tightened, though I kept my expression carefully blank.

“Let me guess,” Vivienne went on, pacing now, unable to contain the excitement bubbling through her. “She told you it was all a double bluff? That she was secretly helping you bring us down?” She scoffed. “And I’m guessing she conveniently forgot to mention that if anything went wrong”—Vivienne’s smile widened slowly—“she was supposed to kill you.”

“Are you finished?” I finally said, needing to get her closer. “Why am I here, Vivienne?”

Her eyes narrowed slightly, clearly irritated by my calmness. “To prove to you that I’m the better choice,” she replied, stepping forward. “To show you that I deserve it.” Another step.

Her perfume drifted towards me, something floral and far too fucking sweet.

“Now you know,” she murmured, circling nearer, “are you going to kill her yourself?” Her fingers brushed lightly over the back of my chair. “Or have one of your men do it?”

The second she leaned in, I moved. My hand shot out, gripping her wrist hard enough to make her gasp as I yanked her forward violently. Vivienne stumbled against me with a startled cry, dropping the gun as my other hand clamped around her throat.

The chair scraped harshly against the floor as I stood, forcing her up on her toes. Her eyes widened in shock, mouth opening in a silent gasp. She clawed at my wrist, nails digging uselessly into my skin, but I didn’t let go.

I squeezed harder, watching with cold satisfaction as her face flushed red then began turning purple. Only when her body went limp in my hand and her eyes rolled back, fluttering wildly, did I finally let her drop. She crumpled to the floor like a discarded doll, gasping and coughing violently as she fought for air.

I kicked the gun away and kneeled, enjoying the terror spreading across her expression.

“You seem to have forgotten who I am.” I pressed my shoe down, crushing her fingers beneath my heel. “You really shouldn’t have threatened what’s mine. Because I’m really going to make this hurt.”

Chapter 45

Aeris

When I built Atlantis, Selene had Renley oversee every detail, making sure I created nothing that hadn’t been pre-approved. No hidden rooms. No safes or vaults. Nowhere for me to conceal anything. So, I had to be clever.

Whatever I needed to hide had to be hidden in plain sight.

Reaching up, my fingers brushed over the grooves and raised patterns surrounding the mirror hanging on my wall. The frame intricate, opulent, and deliberately busy.

Click.

The mirror let out a delicate hiss, the entire glass opening to reveal a hidden compartment that no one but I knew existed. It was where I kept my poisons, each vial carefully held in a wooden rack in an order of potency and fatality. It was also where I kept my most important secrets, the names of the inner workings of the Bratva, a list of known assassins much more competent than I, and things that could destroy an empire as successful as the Beast’s.

It was a folder full of things I’d purposely kept to myself, information I used when Selene squeezed me too tightly, when her patience wore thin and I had to give her something.

There was only one physical copy, because digital files were too vulnerable. Safer, I’d believed, to hide them inside a mirror no one realised wasn’t just a mirror.

Or so I had thought.

The folder was there, exactly where it had always been. Inside lay the map that had taken three years and the lives of eight separate mercenaries to piece together, all born from a single whisper I’d once overheard from a client. It marked the estimated location of the Beast’s production facility, along with the delivery routes that stretched from the site into the city and far beyond it.

Everything I knew had been built from whispers and secrets spilled in the throes of passion and dying gasps, then carefully documented and locked away. The folder was still here, untouched, which meant one of two things: either Sebastian’s men had started letting their tongues slip, or someone had discovered the mirror.

The first was almost impossible. Of all the crime lords, Sebastian was notoriously strict and would have eliminated anyone who posed a threat. Which left the second option.

Atlantis never closed, my Sirens and staff always somewhere in the building. No one could have slipped in unnoticed without triggering alarms or drawing attention. Which meant whoever had gained access wasn’t a stranger.

It was someone I knew and who had unrestricted access to my office.

My stomach dropped, the mirror clicking closed as I simply braced myself against it. Pulling the silk screen partially over the wall, I turned to find Albus standing frozen in the doorway. The office had been locked, yet there he was, a key he shouldn’t even have held in his hand.

“You’re … you’re not supposed to be in today,” he muttered, quickly shoving the key in his pocket.