“What is it?”
“We need to work fast.” The cogs in his brain must be spinning on overdrive. A vein pops in his temple, like something just occurred to him.
Something I missed.
“What do you need me to do?”
“Get on the dark web, analyze the chatter, and find out if anyone knows thatwehave Kiara. Do it now.” His expression darkens. “We have the upper hand, but not for long. As soon as Leonardo figures out we have his cash cow, he’ll be coming for us.”
“We weren’t spotted leaving with her, but I’ll triple check.”
Relief loosens Finn’s shoulders a little. “The next thing we have to do is figure out what to do with her.”
Tires screech to a halt in my head.
I know what Finn means.He’s planning to use Kiara. Not just for information. Maybe for bait or blackmail.
And for some reason, I don’t like it. At all.
In the past, I never protested the practice of using hostages for the Kings’ personal gain.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me or why the idea of using Kiara offends me in every sense. Only that the thought sends my blood pressure soaring and my fists itching to pummel the person who suggested such a thing into the mush.
Even if that person is my boss.
Every muscle fiber in me rebels over the idea of endangering Kiara. I want to keep her here on the estate, safe and sound.
I just want to keep her, period.
I’m aware that makes me almost as bad as Finn or the De Lucas, who’ve been using her as their own personal art machine to funnel money back into their family.
But I can’t let her go. Not yet.
Maybe never.
For fuck’s sake. Now I feel like Cian with his sociopathic obsessiveness about Harper.
I shake the thought off, forcing myself to tune back into the conversation I’m missing. “We don’t know how best to make use of Kiara yet, but leave that to me.” Finn heads for the door. Once I catch up, he continues. “Start with the chatter. Survey the landscape. Find out how much time we have.”
“Right.”
“We’ll hold off for now and wait until my father makes a decision about our next move,” Finn carries on. “The real issue here is…Kiara’s been making those assholes money for at least a few years now. The De Lucas wouldn’t sell off their main money-making operation unless they had something big to replace it with.”
“I’ll dig into it.”
“Cross-reference your findings with people who were there,” Finn suggests, shoving the doors to the war room open. “The De Lucas probably struck a new business deal or formed a powerful alliance. We need to know what it was and whether kidnapping Kiara slowed anything down.”
Finn’s got my mind racing as we head toward the grand staircase.
“I expect an update by tomorrow morning.” Finn throws the command over his shoulder as we part ways. He’s likely off to his father’s study, while I’m headed down to the security hub.
“Done.”
When I’m back in my natural habitat, surrounded by screens, keyboards, and live sensors, I begin my deep dive into the dark web for word or fallout related to Kiara’s abduction.
I don’t find much of anything. I wish that relieved me, but it doesn’t.
Kiara was the prize auction piece last night. The ‘artist Libertas.’ There’s no way the De Lucas don’t realize she’s missing. They lost a fuck-ton of money when she disappeared.
