Page 28 of Kill for a Kiss

I lean against the counter, waiting for it to kick in, for my mind to settle into something useful. I need to focus. I need toread.

Turning back to the table, I flip the first file open.L. I already know it’s bad. But reading it over again, I feel something inside me crack open. Clo didn’t justfindElle. She purposelycollectedher. Like a fucking experiment. Like she was a problem to fix, a puzzle to solve, a test subject.

I skim through pages too fast, my mind tripping over details that don’t make sense.

Clo’s keeping her for a reason. A reason I still don’t fully understand. I rake a hand through my hair, already reaching for the next file, desperate for more pieces to this fucked-up puzzle.

Then I see it. A name I didn’t expect.Lix.The ghost. The one I couldn’t trace. I flip the folder open, scanning the first few pages.Nothing. It’s just as vague as everything else about him.

I exhale hard, forcing my mind off Lix. I’ll deal with him later. Right now, I need to focus—

But then I see it. A photo I shouldn’t. One I never expected.Stanley.

I freeze. His face as a smiling boy stares back at me from the tab of a folder buried beneath the others. My chest tightens as I reach for it, dread coiling thick in my gut.

My hands are steady as I open it. But my breathing isn’t. And as I start to read, the exhaustion vanishes. Because suddenly, I don’t feel tired anymore. I feel fuckingenraged.

I keep reading despite my heart hammering against my ribs. The pieces slide into place now. Silken links, delicate and invisible to everyone except me, wrapping around Elle’s wrists and her throat. Clo’s tangled her in them, spun her into a perfect little doll for Stanley to hold on to, tokeep. The relationship isn’t just being encouraged. It’s beingmanufactured.

So this is Clo’s latest investment. The kind of sick science Damon never would have approved of, had he been here to see it. Had he known what Clo was doing to Elle. To Stanley.

In the files, there are mentions of doses and schedules. And the drug used to do it is Kys, a shortened name of a popular street drug that’s been around since the eighties. A war the Song-Smiths have apparently had a hand in since then.

That’s news to me. I doubt Damon knows about this. He’s blackmail and stock market. Not this. This is more like our father, Kai’s handiwork, and most definitely Clo’s doing.

My pulse is pounding, my fingers digging into the edges of the folder as I fight the sickening twist in my gut. I know this drug. I’ve seen what it does. Kys isn’t just a cocktail of hallucinogens and tranquilizers. It’s precision-engineered to make people pliable, forgetful, and easy to control.

And it can be worse, depending on the person. It could make them drowsy, half-awake, or worse, barely alive, hanging on a thread while high. I’ve seen what it does to people, to the users, to the dealers, to their families. And worse than that, I knowwhocreated it. The corrupt, dirty father who begged. His family wiped off the map. Blood on my hands, seeping into my skin no matter how much I tried to scrub it off until it was my own blood.

Kys was his legacy. A drug designed to erase fear and hesitation. To make peoplestaywhere they’re told. To make themtrusttheir captors.

I grip the file tighter, my nails digging into the paper. My lungs burn, but I don’t breathe. Elle is being drugged.Stanleyis being drugged. Does he know? Does he even fuckingrealizewhat’s being done to him? Or is he as much a pawn as Elle is?

I don’t know what’s worse—the idea that Clo is feeding it to him without his knowledge, or the possibility that hedoesknow, that he’s letting this happen. And if he’s been drugged since he was a kid, then Clo isn’t raising a son. She’s making another weapon.

My vision tunnels, red-hot anger laced with something more dangerous. Something I don’t want to name. Because the wordmurderdoesn’t even cut it.

I turn the page, skimming some more. But there’s nothing else. Even the high-stim in my system isn’t cutting through, not with this much rage burning in me.

I snap the file shut so fast the air in the room turns sour. I want to drive back to the mansion and put a bullet between Clo’s eyes. But none of that will help Elle. Before I can even reach Clo, some idiot on her payroll will take the bullet. Then she’ll capture me and take Elle further away from me. Lock me up before I could even get to Elle in time.

I drag in a breath, forcing my pulse to steady.Focus. Clo has a planfor her experiments. A plan that requires them tostaytogether. To be inseparable. To be aperfect match. And if she’s using Kys to make sure of it, then Elle doesn’t just need saving. She needs towake upbefore she forgets who she really is. Before she forgetsme.

I inhale slowly, willing my pulse to steady. The weight of the files sits in front of me, their presence suffocating, but I won’t let it crush me. Not now. Not when I finally have something I never thought I’d find in this mess of deception and blood—a way to take down Clo.

Clo built her empire on manipulation, bending people to her will until they forgot they ever had a choice. She thinks she’sthatpowerful. She thinks she’s won, that she’sbeenwinning. But she’s wrong. Dead wrong. And I’m the one who’s gonna prove it.

I chug the rest of the matte black can before cracking open another, sipping it while I hold on to the table and read.

The cool metal in my hand grounds me as my mind sharpens. I can’t face her directly. Not yet. If I walk back into that mansion now, I’ll be stepping into a war I’m not ready to win. Like I did when I lived there as a kid.

I need to be smarter. I need to be patient. And I need to start where she never expects me to. I flip through the files again, scanning every page with fresh eyes, looking for the thread I can pull to unravel everything. I push past the reports on Elle, on Stanley, even on Lix. Their names are burned into my mind already. I need somethingbigger, something that holds Clo’s entire operation together.

And then, finally, a blur of hours later, I find a file about a lab. A fully funded, high-end research facility, disguised under a corporate shell. On paper, it deals in pharmaceuticals, biotech, and innovations that never reach the public eye. But my instincts know better.Iknow better. And I know Clo. This is where Kys must be made. This is where Clo’s power comes from.

A slow exhale leaves my lips. My heartbeat evens out. I know whatI have to do now.

I’ve spent the past few years dismantling leaner networks than this. Taking apart crime syndicates from the inside, making sure no one else gets caught in their web. I know exactly how to burn a place like this to the ground, how to turn a fortress into a graveyard.