Page 13 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER EIGHT

“ H i, yes, hello,” I said brightly to the disinterested security guard at the concierge desk in the lobby of Hargraves Tower. “I’m Annika Volkov. Just visiting my father and dropping off some coffee for his late night in the lab.”

I smiled with all my teeth as I pushed my copy of Annika’s Academy ID, doctored perfectly with my picture, toward the guard.

I smoothed my pleated skirt and adjusted my pale pink sweater vest like I was making myself presentable for my father while the guard gave my ID a cursory look before shoving it back at me.

“Fifty-third floor,” he intoned, bored, until he finally actually looked up at me, interest sparking in his eyes. He gave me a flirty smile before he said, “Have a nice night, miss.”

I beamed back at him like he’d just made my whole day. “You too!” Then I flounced away, my borrowed high heels clicking on the shiny floor as I made my way to the elevator with my tray of coffees.

Mari thought I was borrowing her clothes to go to a Halloween party in Southside tonight dressed as “a rich bitch.” Instead, I was breaking into Hargraves Tower by walking through the front door.

Max and his team hadn’t had to dig very far through the information I’d pulled from Noah’s laptop to find this week’s security codes.

Noah had most of his shit locked up in a way that had impressed even Max, but what might have been unhackable normally was easier to crack when I’d stolen it right from the source.

I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the fifty-third floor.

I spotted the security camera in the corner, and I waved to it so that my new friend would see I was thinking of him.

When the doors opened, I found myself in the lobby of Eagle Pharmaceuticals, a star in the Hargraves portfolio and completely deserted at ten o’clock at night on a Saturday.

It was also conveniently located two floors below Peter Hargraves’ private library and server room.

The few cameras placed around the company’s hallways had already been looped, so I quickly made my way out onto the large balcony where the lab employees took their smoke breaks.

Once outside, I ditched my coffees and kicked off my shoes, then shoved them into my backpack. I hurried over to the side of the balcony and climbed onto the railing, annoyed that I was having to do this in a skirt.

I stuck to my planned route, reaching out with my bare foot and bracing it on the ledge of the large windowsill that was offset from the balcony at about the height of my shoulder.

I used it to launch myself upward, grabbing the railing of the identical balcony on the floor above, then I swung my legs up and climbed over onto the next floor.

I repeated the process one more time, clinging to the window ledge and then the balcony railing like a chimpanzee before finally hauling myself onto the smaller balcony just outside Peter Hargraves’ private library located just one floor below the penthouse.

I smoothed my preppy outfit like it mattered how I looked during my first B&E, then I approached the balcony doors to enter this week’s code onto the keypad next to them.

Before I could finish, the door swung open, revealing two large men dressed in black, weapons strapped to their bodies and matching smirks on their faces.

“What the fuck?” I shouted, jumping in surprise. “How did you two beat me up here?”

Max’s grin widened. “I made a friend last night who worked for the caterer at last night’s dinner party at Casa del Hargraves. We took a chance that his assigned code for the service elevator still worked. ”

Dom chuckled next to him.

I pouted, crossing my arms. “Both of you are bullshit . I just scaled two floors’ balconies in a fucking skirt!”

“What are you doing still standing outside, Jojo?” Dom asked, pasting a stern look on his face intended to rile me further. “Get in here. It’s time to work.”

I shouldered past them, grumbling, and they followed me down the narrow hall that we knew from studying the original building plans led to the library and server room.

Peter Hargraves’ private server was the first stop on my tour of where we had determined the Families’ kept their most sensitive information. I intended to leave here tonight with the security camera footage of that conference room many floors below us on the night of my parents’ murders.

When Dom first began explaining to me how we could possibly gather evidence that my parents had not in fact perished in a tragic plane crash in the Bahamas and had instead been killed by the other three Families, I’d thought it sounded nuts.

Why on earth would James, Andrea, and Peter hang on to a shred of evidence that would ruin their reputations and crumble the facade of the Shining City on the Hill that the Families had spent generations building and presenting to the rest of the world?

The apparent answer? Mutually assured destruction.

They would all have kept the evidence that implicated each other, ensuring that no one broke their little murder circle of trust.

We reached the library door, and I keyed in Noah’s code.

The door clicked, unlocking, and we opened it slowly and crept inside with only Dom’s penlight for visibility.

It was too dark to make out the details of the grand library, but I’d been in here once as a kid, and I remembered thinking it looked like the Beast’s library.

Noah, Bennett, Zach, and I had snuck in behind Peter one evening when we were supposed to be in bed, and we’d hid in the stacks, laughing and reading curse words and sex scenes from grown-up books, and then we’d all fallen asleep there on one of the priceless Turkish rugs.

Noah’s nanny had found us the next morning and chewed us out, but we’d all thought the thrill of sneaking into places our parents labeled off-limits to us had been worth it .

I shook myself out of those memories. They gave me so little happiness and so much grief, as I could only mourn what I’d lost.

The server room was located off the far wall, and we entered with ease, using the same code. Then Dom and I stepped back while Max helped himself to the files stored there via his tablet and whatever magical cable he’d procured for the job.

After a long ten minutes, he gasped, “I think I’ve got it.”

Dom and I peered over his shoulder. There, right on the screen in slightly grainy footage, were Peter and Andrea wandering into that conference room like they were headed to a boring meeting, flanked by their confused sons. James and Bennett entered a few minutes later.

“Oh, Jojo, don’t look,” Max whispered, now trying to block my view of the tablet.

But I had to see it. “No,” I croaked. “Let me.”

I forced myself to watch as the big, menacing Ferrero Enforcers dragged my struggling parents into that room, their bulk obscuring the view of the third Enforcer who would have been carrying unconscious eleven-year-old me.

After several long, excruciating minutes, they emerged from the room, hefting the lifeless bodies of all three of us between them.

As expected, there was no camera footage of the actual murder—even the Families weren’t that bold—but there was the proof that my parents were not in the Bahamas the night of their deaths and instead here in Hargraves Tower in the presence of the Families.

We saw them being forced to enter the room against their will, and we saw them exiting in a manner that said they were either unconscious or dead.

I felt… nothing. It was as if the high of the victory that we were, at last, one step closer to getting what I needed to bring the Families to their fucking knees was cancelled out by the low of the horror of reliving my parents’ last moments.

So, I was just numb. I’d cried my entire lifetime’s worth of tears in that first week while I healed in Max’s bed, and that was it. Never again.

There was only justice for my mom and dad.

Dom placed a soothing hand on my back before saying to Max, “Copy just what we need, then pack it up. We still have to get out of here.”

I brightened, looking forward to swapping the balcony hop for an easy ride down in the elevator and a quick waltz by the security guard with a wink and a wave, while Max made quick work of the file.

Then he packed his shit, ensuring all evidence of us being here was wiped, and we made our way back out into the library and then down the hall toward the service elevators.

After stopping to slip my shoes back on, I rounded the corner and ran straight into Gifford Buckley—the Hargraves Family butler.

“What the hell,” he hissed, gaping at me as I stood there, trying to look innocent and confused.

Well, shit . Gifford rarely left the penthouse unless Peter needed something when he was down here, but we knew Peter was abroad this week, like he so often was.

Max and Dom apparently heard him, thank God, because they did not follow me around the corner and into the elevator bank, instead disappearing in the opposite direction.

Gifford barked at me, indignant, “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

I put on my haughtiest Harper Jansen face. “I don’t believe I’m required to explain anything to the help ,” I spat. “But I am here to visit Noah . We have a date.”

“Mr. Hargraves is not in residence this evening,” he seethed. “And you are on the wrong floor.” He began fumbling with his cell phone, no doubt about to call security down here to haul me off to a dark room for questioning. “How did you even get in here?”

“Noah gave me the code, obviously ,” I snapped, then I breathed a huge sigh of relief as a gun was cocked right behind Gifford’s bald head.

“Put the phone down, please, Mr. Buckley,” Dom said in a soothing voice.

He froze, both hands shooting into the air next to his face, his still-locked phone dangling from one of them.

“Now, listen carefully to what is about to happen,” Dom continued, calm as could be. “You are going to turn around and head back to the penthouse, and you’re going to forget everything you saw here.”

“And why would I do that?” Gifford huffed.

Dom chuckled. “The gun pressed against your skull not enough reason for you?”

“I’m loyal to my Family,” he sniveled. “They’ll see you all executed for daring to steal from them! ”

“Oh, that’s interesting,” I mused. “Isn’t it, brother?”

Max stepped into view next to Dom, a wide smile on his face. “It is, indeed. I’d have to think that the Hargraves Family might also take issue with the fact that their loyal and trusted butler has been skimming off the Family accounts for years.”

Gifford’s face paled in the dim light of the elevator bank.

“I don’t… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Save it, Buckley,” I said. “It’s our business to know everything that goes on in this Tower. We have your file, and we will turn it over to your beloved boss if we find out you’ve even hinted that something odd went on this evening.”

Gifford swallowed, then nodded mutely.

“And I’m going to also throw in copies of your search history,” Max added. “I’m not sure how long you’ll have a job if it becomes public information that you get off to women crushing small animals to death with their feet.”

Okay, disgusting — and not information I needed to know.

“Alright, yes,” he said quickly, that little tidbit sealing the deal. “I’ll be going. I saw nothing.”

I reached out to pat his pervy chest. “Good boy. We’ll be checking on you.”

He retreated into the elevator like his ass was on fire.

After he was gone, I let my shoulders sag in relief. “Fuck, that was too close.”

“I know,” Dom replied. “But we’ve been prepared for this. You did great.” He looked over at Max. “You both did.”

“Thanks, Dom,” I said. “Let’s get the fuck out of here. Being back in the Family Towers is giving me hives.”

“Hope you get over that,” Max said with a laugh. “They’ll all be yours soon.”

I could only hope he was right.