Page 144
Story: Princes of Ash
On the list of voices I don’t want to hear while holding this fucker at gunpoint, that one’s definitely near the top. I only take a quickfire glance, equal parts pissed and horrified to see Verity standing in front of the lobby door, her wide green eyes fixed on Charlie. “You’re selling videos of me?”
“What the hell are you doing?” I hiss, putting myself between them. “I told you to stay in the car.” The hoodie is gone, so she’s standing there in that pretty dress, gawking at the blood.
Her hand brushes my back. “I heard a gunshot.”
Charlie doubles over, pushing his fist into his wound. “Look, I’ll delete them, okay?”
“No, you won’t,” I snap. “Because you’re lying. Verity was barely showing on April twentieth, and the only fucking she was doing was done in pitch fucking black.”
“I don’t make up the rules for what people kink on, man.” He squints at me. “You should know that better than anyone.”
Jesus Christ, I raise the gun again, but her fist twists into my t-shirt. I glance back to see her face, all drawn and sickly.
“Pace, I can’t…” Her throat clicks with a swallow. “I can’t have another video of me out there. The cleansing is bad enough. I can’t…I can’t.”
Spitting a curse, I look back at Charlie, jerking my chin. “Let’s go into the back. We’ll look for ourselves.”
“Okay,” Charlie says, sucking in these long, hissed breaths. “After you?”
“Like hell.” I wave the gun, waiting for him to take the long, painful trek down the hallway.
Verity sticks close, her grip on my shirt never easing as I lead her to the main security room. It certainly smells the same, my nose scrunching up as we enter. But when Charlie goes for the monitor, I make a sharp sound.
“Not you,” I bark, motioning with the gun. “Yougo to the corner. Verity can verify for herself.”
Charlie moans in pain, staring longingly at the chair. “She doesn’t know the root password.”
“Then I guess you’re gonna tell her,” I say, jerking the gun toward the back of the room. “Charlie here has never been the best or brightest,” I tell Verity as she moves warily to the seat. “He’s Ashby blood, but only tangentially. Some cousin, however-many-times removed. Less of a creation than a shruggable mistake, I’d wager.”
Before she sits, she turns to him, grimacing. “Does that mean… you’re my family?”
Charlie slumps against the wall, groaning, “I’m a lot of peoples’ family.”
She probably doesn’t understand what he means, but I do. He’s also no one’s family. The bond my brothers and I share is something Charlie could never conceive of. He skates by in East End on a flimsy technicality. Never Royal, only useful.
Until he becomes a liability.
“Pace? What do I do?” she asks, staring at the screen. There’s a wallpaper illustration of a pin-up boy, his ass hanging out as his hand flutters over a shocked mouth.
“Click the folder icon on the taskbar,” I begin, hearing the little clicks as she navigates obediently to each directory.
After a couple of minutes, I hear her shift. “This one wants a password.”
I arch an eyebrow at Charlie, who squirms.
“Look, do we really need to—” I aim at his kneecap, and he sucks in a sharp gasp. “Okay, no, fine. This is fine. Listen carefully.” He then proceeds to grit out a long string of random letters, numbers, and symbols. The password is at least sixteen characters long, making my eyebrows hike up higher and higher as he goes on.
This is his fucking vault.
“I’m in,” she says, the mouse clicking a few more times.
Impatiently, I ask, “What do you see?”
There’s a small huff, and then, “There’s a lot of stuff here. Give me a second.”
Scowling at Charlie, I say, “A lot of stuff, huh?”
He tips his head back, eyes fluttering. “I think I’m bleeding out.”
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192