27. Torin

27

TORIN

Entering the house, with Bram tagging along behind me, I put a call out to Tate. It goes to voicemail, the fucking dick, probably screwing that blonde chick and ignoring his other responsibilities. I don't know why it bothers me so much. Maybe because he's hidden this infatuation or whatever the fuck it is, instead of telling me and Bram about it. Then, a thought occurs to me.

"Hey, did you know Tate was fucking that blonde girl we ran into yesterday? The one you had a run-in with?"

Bram's gaze snaps to mine. "What? No? Since when?"

"Since tonight, apparently," I growl. "I caught him with his fingers buried in her pussy when I followed him earlier."

Bram's eyebrows shoot up. "That doesn't sound like Tate. He's never shown interest in anyone but Poison before. I was starting to think he didn't have it in him."

"He doesn't," I mutter, thinking about his traumatic tale, which he has shared snippets of over the years. "Something's off about the whole situation. But we'll deal with that later. Right now, we need to focus on finding my father."

Bram nods, following me. "What's your plan?"

I go to the large oak desk in the corner of my bedroom and pull out a laptop from the bottom drawer. Bram sits on the bed while I pull up the desk chair and sit down, flipping the lid of the laptop open. "I'm going to put out a hit on him and specifically ask to know where the fucker is before the deed is done."

I can see Bram take that in and mull over my words. "Poison?"

"Why not? Surely you can request the best?"

"Guess so. This should be interesting." He leans back as I tap into the dark web. This isn't a place for the faint of heart. You will find everything from stalking to snuff videos to torture chambers and then some.

"Do you even know how to do this?" Bram asks.

I nod and pull out a purple velvet bag of runes. "Of course. I learned from my mother. She is a vindictive bitch." Throwing the runes and muttering a few words, the screen flickers and brings up a page within a page buried under high-tech security and ancient magick.

I navigate through the dark web, the glow of the screen casting eerie shadows across the room. Bram watches intently as I pull up the encrypted messaging system used to contact the killer-for-hire part of The Syndicate's business.

"How much are you willing to pay for this?" Bram asks.

I shrug. "Whatever it takes. Money's not an issue."

Carefully, I craft the message: High-profile target. Vampire Walcott Ashford. Location unknown. Half a million for confirmed location within 24 hours. Additional 1 million for elimination. Requesting Poison.

I hit send and lean back, a grim smile on my face. "Now we wait."

Bram raises an eyebrow. "You really think they'll take the job? Killing your own father is pretty dark, even for you."

"I'm not actually going to have him killed," I snap. Unfortunately. "I just need to find the bastard, and this is the quickest way I know how. They do the donkey work, and I sit back and reap the rewards."

"Fair enough. Wanna grab a drink while we wait?"

"Yeah." We stand up, but then a notification pops up on the screen. We both stare at it, surprised. "That was quick," I mutter.

"Guess they want your dad dead," Bram snorts, but I shoot him a look that tells him he's probably not far wrong. That was extremely fast work. According to my mother, it's usually a few hours at best, a day at the longest .

I open the message: Job accepted. Target location within 12 hours. Prepare payment.

"Holy shit," Bram breathes. "That is… efficient."

"Let's hope they give it to Poison. If she can lead us to my dad, everything else we do to her afterwards is cherry on the cake."

"I get first dibs on slicing into her exquisite skin so I can hear her scream while she bleeds," Bram says with an evil smile.

"Maybe. I want her coherent when I ask her some questions that need answering."

"Like what?"

I lean back in my chair, considering Bram's question. "I have been thinking about your stance on this. It's time to end this game. I want to know everything about this little killer, like how she got involved with The Syndicate in the first place. How long she's been working for them. What else she knows about their operations. We will use her to turn The Syndicate inside out and then…"

"Then?" He eyes me suspiciously.

"We take it over."

"Simple as that?"

"Why not?"

Bram nods slowly. "You think she might be willing to give up information?"

"Everyone has a breaking point," I say with a shrug. "And I'm very good at finding them."

A wicked grin spreads across Bram's face. "I do enjoy watching you work. "

"First, we need to catch her," I remind him. "And then we work on her, slowly, painfully and deliciously."

I'm more than happy with this plan. I've been going about this all wrong. I don't need to reinvent the wheel when the wheel has already been turning for centuries. Taking over The Syndicate is the perfect power play. Sure, hundreds have probably tried in the past. Some probably even had inside help. But no one has the determination I do to get out from under my father's shadow and my mother's bitchiness.

I'll be untouchable.