Page 113 of Perfect Order

— Beautiful Today

I immediately recognize where I am the moment my eyes wake up. “I see you haven’t bothered redecorating since I died, Ivan. You liked the decor in my office that much?”

I pay for my snark with the crack of his hand to my face. My head whips to the side. He snarls, “What the hell did you do to my software, you bitch?”

I outright laugh. “Yoursoftware? I’m sorry. Are you talking about Dioscuri? That would bemyinvention. You just worked on some of the coding.”

He looms over me and declares, “If I didn’t need you alive to reverse what you did, I swear, I’d already have the bullet in you.”

I shrug, knowing that nothing short of a complete shutdown of Dioscuri using the biometric keys will stop its destruction at this point. Still, “I’d like to know why. I deserve that.”

“You deserve nothing,” he spits at me.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” a third voice says from a dark corner.

I immediately tense. “A partner? I’m surprised, Ivan. I would have thoughtyoubelieved you had the balls to take me out on your own. I, of course, know otherwise.”

He yanks his hand to club me across the face again, when the man in the corner calls out, “Enough. We need her alive.”

I hold my breath until his face comes into view. “Linus Messenia? What the hell are you doing here?” My gaze darts between the two men.

Then Linus’s lips twist in a familiar way—one I’ve never seen during our forced negotiation meetings set up by none other than Ivan. I direct my question at Linus, since he’s obviously the one in charge. “Brothers or cousins?”

He jerks his chin back. “Does it really matter?”

“Well, when we’re all dead, I’d like to be able to tell Lee who I killed on her behalf.”

He laughs at me. “Oh, Leanne. I’d offer condolences for your loss, but it was such a pleasure to wrap my hands around your fucking throat and squeeze the life out of you—even if it wasn’t you.”

So, it was this monster who killed my Lee. Out of the corner of my eye, Ivan’s howling with laughter, and the piece of Lee’s journal finally connects with her cryptic messages the weeks before she died. As the memory of what Lee said clicks together with Ivan coming to our meeting late, everything begins to snaps into place. I hiss, “Don’t get too cocky, Ivan. She saw you. Said you loved her outfit at the party. Your reaction must have been a doozy. After all, she left me a clue about wanting to run over you with a bus in her journal.” That goddamn “I.” Mentally, I’m kicking myself in the ass for not remembering it sooner.

“I searched her place. I didn’t find a journal,” he scoffs.

God, I’m so sorry, my Lee.You left me a clue, and I missed it. Berating myself, I sneer, “Obviously, you didn’t check that closely. I’ll admit it took me some time, but I, at least, have the excuse of grief. Once I was back in the game…” I let my voice trail off.

Linus turns to face him slowly. Ivan stammers, “I…uh…that is…”

“Did you see a journal?” Linus demands.

“Well, sure. But I didn’t see what she’s talking about.”

“It was toward the back. Maybe if you went past the pages where the diary ended to make certain your name wasn’t mentioned, you might have found it,” I drawl at Ivan.

Linus cuts his eyes toward me. Within seconds, he pulls a gun—shit, my gun—from his slacks and shoots Ivan through his pant leg. “You motherfucking bitch!” Ivan shrieks.

“I’m not the one who shot you!” I yell.

“He wouldn’t have hurt me if it wasn’t for you. He never hurts me unless it’s because of you.” Ivan’s rolling around on the floor, clutching his leg.

I coldly watch the blood ooze and mercilessly tell him, “I would have shot to the left.”

Linus pins me with a snakelike smile. “And this, my dear Leanne, is why I wanted to merge our empires. Your heart is just as relentless as my own.”

I wheel the desk chair back just a bit as Linus approaches. I’m mentally counting tiles as I scoot away. Five over.

“Now, let’s forget Ivan.”

Four.