Page 4 of C is For Corruption (Horsemen #3)

“You could have saved him.” She hissed, inches from my face, causing me to rear back slightly. For a moment, I thought she meant Rich. “Why didn’t you pick Joey? You stupid bitch.”

Confusion clouded my mind and tied my tongue.

“You may be protected, but I will find a way to pay you back for this.” she snarled as she grabbed my upper arm in an iron grip and yanked me to my feet.

I allowed her to drag me from the bedroom and down the long hallway. Whoever this woman was, she radiated hatred for me with each step. I could only imagine how badly things would go if I said a word to her.

“That will be all, Ciara.” A familiar woman’s voice called out as I was jerked into a dimly lit sitting room.

“Helen?” I spoke, my eyes taking in Reginald Humphreys’ first wife before shifting to her right, where her daughter sat. “Sophia?” My eyes slid left, and I gasped. “Tiffany?”

Tiffany rose from her seat and raced to throw her arms around me. “You're safe. I promise, you’re finally safe.”

I pulled back slightly, confusion plain on my face. “What are you talking about? How am I here? What is going on?”

“Tiffany, why don’t you allow Victoria to take a seat so we can discuss everything.” Helen said, raising one brow at my friend.

Tiffany nodded before leading me to an empty high-backed chair and then returning to her place on Helen’s left.

“Victoria,” Helen smiled softly, “I'm glad that we were able to get you out safely, though our physician says you have a mild concussion and some minor bruising from the car accident. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be avoided if we wanted it to be believable.”

“I– Ms. Arnoult, I don’t understand.”

“Please, Victoria, call me Helen. You know I think of Tiffany as my own, and you are as close as she is with her own sister, Sophia, there’s no need for formalities between family.”

“Helen,” I said, testing the feel of her name. “I don’t understand what’s happening. I thought… Wait… Please tell me I am losing my mind and you’re not the leader of the fucking Jackals!” I shrieked.

Helen’s lip curled in disgust. “Absolutely not. I am the head of the Golden Devils, darling. Sophia is my heir, and Tiffany is learning the ropes. Though, I will deny all of that vehemently should you think turning me over to the police is the play here.”

I raised my hands to rub my temples. “This doesn’t make any sense,” I mumbled. “The Jackals are the ones that killed Rich and took me captive.”

“Yes, and no. Candy is one of ours. She’s been working as a double agent for years. When Tiffany brought your situation to my attention, well, it was time to extract Candy and go over her intel so we could clean this city up once and for all.”

My eyes snapped to my best friend. “You? You did this?” Shock and anger warred under my skin. “Do you know what you’ve done?”

“I know you thought you were safe with the Horsemen, Tory, but they were planning to trade you for intel.” She said softly.

“You fucking bitch!” I screamed, bolting out of my seat so fast it fell behind me. “It's your fault he's dead.”

My body seemed to move on its own toward Tiffany.

Every ounce of pain and grief within me twisted into an inferno of rage and a desire to kill , no— destroy .

In a blink, I was in front of my former best friend, my fist connecting with her face the way my men had taught me.

Animalistic sounds ripped from my mouth as I used every bit of training they'd given me.

My vision darkened with the destructive need boiling over inside me.

I didn't even realize I'd managed to take Tiffany to the floor until I felt arms looping through my own and locking behind me as I was pulled away.

“Victoria,” Helen tsk’d, a look of disappointment on her face. “What has gotten into you? This behavior is not acceptable for someone of your breeding.”

“My… my behavior?” I shouted in outrage.

“My behavior seems pretty fucking acceptable when I find out my so-called best friend is the reason one of the men I love is dead.” I let my gaze fall to where Tiffany sat on the floor, being tended to by someone I didn't recognize.

“I will never forgive you for this. If I see you again, I will do what I should have been allowed to do here, and fucking kill you. Do you understand?”

Tiffany’s eyes widened in alarm. “You don’t understand, Tory. The Horsemen broke their own creed. They were planning to give you to anyone who could bring them information on the head of the Jackals. They were offering to pimp you out among other horrible shit. I couldn’t let that happen.”

I rolled my eyes and scoffed. “You think I didn’t know about the message board posts?”

Tiffany’s mouth fell open in shock.

“My men love me, they would have never actually done any of those things to me. I told Craig I didn’t want the specific details, but he talked to me about what he wanted to do to try and flush out information.”

“I couldn’t know that,” Tiffany said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“I looked for you after news broke about the manor. I tried every contact I had and nobody could find you. None of my calls went answered, nothing. And then the posts started on the message board. What else was I supposed to think, Tory? Everything.. Everything pointed to you being in danger with them.”

“You could have trusted that I would have found a way to reach you if I were in danger!” I bellowed.

“This isn’t your world, Victoria.” Tiffany retorted. “You don’t know how this shit works. They never would have given you the opportunity to call for help.”

“That’s rich, coming from some boozed out party girl who—” I started.

“I think that is quite enough, girls.” Helen interjected. “It appears we have acted on a misunderstanding that we must now rectify. Tiffany, find Melissa and let her know to bring Craig here, have yourself tended by the physician when you’re done.”

Helen motioned for me to sit as Tiffany slipped from the room, her shoulders hunched forward.

Righting my chair, I let myself collapse into it.

Time ticked by slowly as I seethed, my anger toward Tiffany growing with each passing minute.

Sophia attempted to make small talk with me while we waited, but I couldn’t be bothered to respond.

I felt like I’d aged a decade when I finally heard two sets of footsteps nearing the room.

Turning toward the doorway, I caught sight of a woman leading Craig into the room.

I lurched out of my chair and hurried to close the distance between us. My eyes roamed over Craig's body, taking in the sheer number of gauze bandages covering his torso. A number of them were stained with fresh blood as if the wound they covered still bled.

“I’m okay, Bunny.” He whispered, taking my face in his hands and pressing his forehead to mine.

“This is far from okay,” my voice was thick with tears I struggled to hold back. “What did they do to you?”

“Nothing I wouldn’t have done if I were in their shoes.” He shrugged, wincing.

“You are far too patient with people, Craig.” I said softly, pulling back and tracing my fingers over his face like I was trying to convince myself that he was real. “I don’t know what I’d have done if I lost you too.”

“You’d have survived, Bunny. And then you would have found the others so they could enact your vengeance.” He smirked. “But don’t go thinking I was going to make it easy for them to take me from you, Bunny.”

Before I could stop myself, I slipped my arms around his waist to hug him. Craig hissed in pain before his arms settled around me.

“I am going to murder Tiffany the next time I see her and I don’t mean that as a turn of phrase. I mean I am literally going to gut that vapid bitch alive.”

Craig's eyes widened in shock for a moment before a grin split his face, and pained laughter bubbled out from him. “Don't… don't make me laugh, Bunny. It hurts to laugh. I know you're not being funny; I was just surprised.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but the sound of Helen clearing her throat behind me pulled our attention to her.

“Mr. Dougherty, I would like to apologize for the misunderstanding that has led us here. It is clear from this little display that you are very much in love with Victoria, and from the way she reacted that she is with you, and the intel we had that led us to believe otherwise was pure misdirection.”

I helped move Craig over to sit in a chair, even though every part of my body was loathe to let him out of my arms. I settled for standing behind him. I fought the urge to fuss over his injuries while waiting for him to address Helen.

“Ms. Arnoult, while your apology is acknowledged, I think I can speak for everyone when I say it's far from accepted.

Your hastiness in not seeking us out cost Rich his life, nearly cost me mine, and our organization suffers from the losses you've caused.” Craig said, his voice still pained as he sat up straighter in his chair.

“To be fair, Mr. Doughtery, the attack from the Jackals against your organization was in motion already. Our mole simply capitalized on it to extract Victoria from what we thought was a dangerous situation. She was not authorized to eliminate any of your men, only to show as much force as required to retrieve Victoria, and one of you for questioning, while maintaining her cover.”

“Well then you need to get a leash on your little psycho–” I snapped, reeling as Helen offered us technicalities to answer for what had happened because of her people.

“Bunny. I know,” Craig said, patting my hand on his shoulder.

His eyebrow twitched, and I could see the tightening in his jaw.

“Ms. Arnoult, I respect that you weren't the orchestrator of the entire situation.

However, that doesn't change the fact that your involvement led to losses that we wouldn't have otherwise taken.

Your mole murdered Rich in cold blood in what seemed to be a game for her.

This, I'm going to hope, was well beyond anything you would have been aware of when it happened.” His voice was steel as he leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees.

I cringed internally at the pain he was putting himself in to look strong.

“You knew Richard Innocenti, Helen. You should have gone to him directly about this before acting on information so inconsistent with the way we do things that it should have given you pause.”

“I will not deny that Candy wildly overstepped the bounds of her orders. For that, we will make amends. But it has been a long time since we worked with your crew. You and I both know how doing the things to make it in this world can change you. I am willing to hand over my best hitwoman and intelligencer by giving you Candy in reparation for her overstep.”

“I want Tiffany.” I spat out before Craig could respond. “She deserves to pay for this too.” Craig looked at me briefly, his brows furrowed as he searched my face.

“Bunny… You can be angry with me for this later. But no, we’re not going to take Tiffany as reparations. That’s a road you don’t want to go down. And besides, the reparations are owed to the Horsemen, which you are not.”

I bit my tongue to avoid arguing with him. As much as I wanted to rail against his assertions and demand my due, I knew it wasn't the place for that. Instead, I swung sharply between relief that he was alive and stewing in silent anger as I tuned out the rest of his negotiations with Helen.