Page 81 of Seduce & Destroy

The same red text flashed when I input my log in. Strange.

I tried again.

Red.

I slammed my hand on the desk in frustration. “What are you even looking for? What do you need this for?”

“During the Union we kept tapes of everything, every angle that you could view this estate was covered by CCTV and backed up in a file log. In it, we can find leverage, blackmail, what have yous but also—”

“The tape of the fire.”

“Exactly.” Daddy said as he leaned closer, breathing heavier. I threw my shoulder back, but he just clamped a hand down on it and held me still.

“Those files are kept in the Cove.”

I tried once more.

Rejected.

Hmmm, I didn’t have high clearance. I casted my mind back to training but only fantasies of Laney and I walking into this very office popped in my head. God, I missed the distraction.

If only I knew Laney’s password. She created the Cove which held all the top priority surveillance files and data that would be essential to sealing the Ravencroft fate. That was what Dad was after, and as I typed in Laney’s credentials, he yelled, “Yes!” close to my ear. I tried my best to suppress a flinch.

The only problem was that I didn’t have the password. I was a bit too distracted the last time I was here. My numerous attempts flashed red in my face. I tried her favourite books, members of the Ravencroft family, her friends. Her first pet’s name. Me.

With each attempt, a red glow penetrated my sight.

I pictured Laney in my head, fighting hard to not think too much about the wrong things in front of my dad. This security office. The back garden. The feel of her breath on my ear at target practice. The plume of the Egyptian cotton of her sheets. My hand on her throat. Trailing my lips on her skin down the valley of her breasts. Her skin. Her tattoo. Tattoos.

On the inside of her wrist was a date in roman numerals.

V/V/MMI

I typed it in. Wrong.

Dad groaned.

“You know you’re not helping, right?” I snapped.

He just grumbled but thankfully, stepped back.

I tried the date again but only using numbers. Wrong. Then the date in words. Wrong. It was her birthdate. “My mother died in childbirth.” No, it was her mother’s death date.

I typed: Mother2001

Wrong.

Then, after a few combinations, I typed: VVMama1

Bingo.

?

The victorious feeling didn’t arrive the next morning, it just felt like it was yesterday. Before my family ransacked the entire place and took it over. The hallways went in the same directions, the gaps between the windows still let in a draft, and a parent ate breakfast with their child on the front facing balcony.

“We can’t keep him much longer.”

“He doesn’t deserve the mercy of death. Let him struggle to breathe a bit longer.”