Page 27 of Sadist (The Triarchy Collection #1)

THEO

T he contents of my bag were laid out on the motel bed as I organized them neatly back in, re-checking the small array of items. This was it. This was everything I was walking out of my life with, leaving The Triarchy in flames behind me.

It had come down to a choice between Erryn and Octavia. It had been no choice at all in my mind, even though there was a bone-deep ache in my chest.

William would have gained the Chair. I would have been removed for the hand I had in Octavia’s abduction, and if I had survived that, I would have been helpless to stop the inevitable.

One slip, and Octavia would have been exposed.

And William would have sent a veritable army to terminate her, lest she expose him.

I would have lost her either way, and gambling with her life was a risk I couldn’t take. So, I did the one thing I could do.

William thought he was untouchable at that funeral. His safeguards against The Triarchy held their leash tightly. His face had been splashed across the media as a grieving father, bereft of his only daughter and heir.

I had made him scream until he shredded his own vocal cords, and when I had grown tired of his wailing, I had cut off all he held most dear and shoved it deep into his throat, only his testicles protruding from his vile mouth, and then carried on until his heart gave out from the agony I inflicted on him.

I had started with fifty-two slices in the most delicate parts of his anatomy. One for every nail in the chest he had kept Octavia in, and I had made sure he had survived fifty-two minutes of the torture. I wish I had fifty-two fucking days to slowly skin him alive, but I worked with what I had.

I had my laptop open to the flight tracker.

Octavia’s plane had been in the air for nine hours.

I wouldn’t relax until I knew she was there and out of the airport, but I needed to get moving.

Erryn would have already put a global termination order out for me, and I would need to stay ahead of them all if I had a hope of getting out of this.

Grabbing the small burner phone I had picked up from a gas station, I punched in the numbers to Octavia’s.

I just…wanted her to hear it from me. I hated that she was going to learn what I had done through a screen.

She deserved to hear it from my own lips, and god knew if I was going to make it out of London.

I had a flight booked from Manchester in two days, but I needed to survive that long first.

I hit call and immediately froze.

It didn’t go straight to voicemail as I had anticipated.

It rang.

There was a click as the call was answered, my eyes going to the small image of the plane on my laptop screen. The plane Octavia was meant to fucking be on, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.

“Of all the fucking knives aimed at my back I have dodged,” the icy voice murmured down the line. “I never thought yours would be one of them, Theodora.”

“Erryn?” I breathed, panic overriding every sense I had. “Where is she?”

There was a soft huff on the other end of the phone. “I never thought of myself as a vindictive person,” she said. “But I must say, I’m going to really fucking enjoy putting a bullet in this one.”

The line went dead, and so did my heart.

No.

The word detonated through me. I stared at the screen, at the ghost-flight that had taken off without her, and felt something deep inside me fracture.

Erryn had her.

I moved before I knew what I was doing. The phone clattered to the floor. My laptop slammed shut. The bag zipped with a vicious pull. I was already out the door and into the crisp air, breath fogging in a haze of adrenaline as I raced toward my car.

The Triarchy’s headquarters was an unassuming fortress, and there was only one way I was getting in there now. I would have to force my way in.

And when I kicked in that door—god help anyone standing between me and Octavia.

I think I’d played out every possible scenario of what would be waiting for me as I drove.

I don’t know how I didn’t get in a wreck.

Every second they kept her under that roof, pieces of the humanity that Octavia had coaxed out of me peeled away until there was only the darkest part of me stripped bare.

The first guard didn’t even see me coming.

His body dropped with a soft thud , and I dragged him into the shadows.

Two more followed the same way. People I had known.

Stood in briefing rooms with. Worked alongside.

And I didn’t care. Alarms tripped behind me, but I was already through the main building and heading for the upper levels. I had minutes. Maybe seconds.

Erryn fucking had her.

Gunfire tore down the corridor behind me.

I rolled between cover, returned fire, and didn’t stop moving as I left a massacre in my wake.

Shooting out the lock, I kicked through the reinforced doors of the command floor, steel squealing under the impact.

The hallway beyond was chaos—scattered guards, someone screaming orders, red emergency lights pulsing like a heartbeat.

Erryn’s office sat at the end of the corridor, and I swore to every god that had ever been …If she wasn’t in there.

If I was too late…

Two more bodies fell as I streaked down the corridor toward the door, my last two bullets embedded between their eyes.

A third man flinched as I trained my gun on him and pulled the trigger, a brief look of relief flashing across his face at the dull click of the empty magazine before I pulled my blade and slashed it across his throat.

Warm blood splattered across my skin, but I was already turning, the red haze of rage overtaking me as I dispatched every person who put themselves between me and that fucking door.

My breath rasped in my chest as I skidded to a stop, punching in the access pin like I had a hundred times before, memories rising and cutting tiny wounds in my soul.

Erryn pressed against this door as I had whispered in her ear. Her hands on my skin, my lips at her neck as our entwined bodies burst inside and sprawled onto the desk beyond…

The door swung open to silence. My thundering heart was all I could hear as I stepped inside, drawing my blade.

Octavia sat at a terminal, her hands moving over a familiar interface, eyes locked on the code unraveling in front of her. And across from her?—

Erryn.

Gun aimed at Octavia.

Scared, hazel eyes met mine, and relief slammed into me so hard I barely held back the sob that caught in my throat.

She was alive.

I still had her.

Two steps had me across the room, relying on the familiarity between Erryn and I to stay her hand as I swung my blade to her throat, and I didn’t miss the brief look of shocked pain that passed across her face before the cold mask reclaimed it.

My blade rested against flesh I had kissed a thousand times, the muzzle of her gun shaking slightly as she pointed it at Octavia’s temple.

“You wouldn’t,” Erryn scoffed.

“You hurt her, and I will fucking end you,” I warned, and meant every damn word. “Lower your weapon, Erryn.”

She cocked her head to the side, sliding her gaze from me, to Octavia, and back.

“Why her?”

“Lower your god-damned weapon, Erryn,” I snapped.

“Theo, it’s okay.” Octavia didn’t look at me as her fingers flew across the keyboard, and it was only then that I properly looked at what she was doing. Code. The dual monitors were filled with it, flying across the screen at speeds that made my head spin.

“You threw your life away for a liar,” Erryn murmured, the silencer of her Glock mere inches from Octavia’s head. “You didn’t know what she was, did you?”

Octavia’s back stiffened, but she kept working.

“She had the ability to fix this, and she never told you,” Erryn said, a cruel smile tilting her lips. “And now look at what you have done. Everything you have worked for…gone.”

I dragged my gaze from Erryn to Octavia.

“Sweets, what is she talking about?”

She didn’t answer me, her breath catching in a sob. I could just see the side of her face from my position, and the truth of Erryn’s words was clear on her devastated face.

“Octavia?”

“I’m sorry.” The word was barely more than a whisper.

“What’s going on?” I snapped.

“It’s mine.” There was a waver to Octavia’s voice, though her fingers never faltered on the keys.

“Vanguard tech. Their software. The systems. It’s all mine.

I built it, perfected it. My father stole it from me and turned it into this.

” She glanced at me, her beautiful eyes filled with tears.

“I didn’t lie to you, I just didn’t tell you.

I would have. I would have told you everything.

But before…I couldn’t trust you. And then when I did…

I was a ghost. If I’d said anything, you would have known I could break through the firewalls, but then you would have had to tell them I was alive.

You would have had to choose between me and… ” she trailed off.

“You would have had to choose between her life and mine,” Erryn finished, anger flickering in her eyes. “And I guess we know who you chose.”

“You can break the firewalls?” I asked, my ears ringing.

The cold metal of a gun pressed to the back of my head.

“Lox.” The low, sultry voice was laced in a French accent, and I froze as I realized how ridiculously short-sighted I had been.

Erryn’s gaze was fixed on whoever was behind me, her head tilted away from my blade.

“I’m okay, Helena.”

“I’d be a lot happier if that blade was removed from your throat.”

The woman behind me rounded my side, her gun skimming my skin as she did.

Her pale green eyes were startling against the light brown of her skin, and the dark mass of curls pulled back from her face.

She grinned at me, and there was a hint of something feral in that smile, enhanced by naturally long canines that belonged in one of Octavia’s damned novels.

“Theodora Lancaster,” she murmured, hatred dripping from her voice. “I’ve wanted to meet you for a while. Why don’t you take your knife away from Lox’s neck before I cut your hand off, shove the bleeding stump down your throat, and drown you in your own blood?”

“You can fucking try,” I warned.

There was a dark laugh, the muzzle of the gun pressing harder against me.

“Helena,” Erryn warned.

“She has a knife to your neck, Lox,” Helena murmured. “This bitch isn’t walking out of here.”

Octavia tapped two more keys, and the screens went dark.

Erryn’s head whipped to the side, a tiny line of crimson appearing on her neck beneath my blade, ignored as she stared at the screens.

“It’s done?”

Octavia swiveled her seat slowly, her eyes meeting mine for a long moment, full of unspoken words.

“Theo,” she said quietly. “You are going to turn around and walk out of here.”

Helena barked a laugh. “Oh no, she isn’t.”

“And so am I,” Octavia continued, raising her eyes to Erryn. Behind her, the screens blinked back to life as they began rebooting. “The software has been removed, as you requested.”

Erryn’s shoulder drooped slightly. The only outward sign of relief she would give.

“Prove it.”

Octavia tilted her head, leaned back, and pressed a few keys, bringing up the home page now set to the prior system.

“See?”

Erryn crossed to her laptop, tapping something into it, her eyes tracking across the screen, then closed her eyes for a moment, and sighed.

“It’s done.” Erryn looked at me with an apology clear in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

The world slowed as she raised her gun toward Octavia.

I lunged, swinging my elbow back to connect with Helena’s ribs as I caught her wrist, wrenching it down onto my shoulder and knocking the gun from her grip.

Erryn moved, her gun now trained on me as my knife twirled in my hand, and I sent Helena to the ground, following her down as I put my full weight behind the blade.

Octavia screamed at the crack of gunfire, and my shoulder exploded in agony. I was thrown back; the breath knocked from my lungs.

“Stop!” It was Octavia’s voice. I struggled to get my bearings, my right arm limp against my side as I searched for her.

“Either of us dies, and it’s over, Erryn!”

Octavia was standing in front of me, and I groaned, trying to suck air in past the pain of my shoulder, and I peered down to see a jagged bullet hole in my jacket.

From the feel of it, it had gone clean through.

I blinked, pulling myself to my knees and trying to make sense of what I was looking at.

Erryn was kneeling on the floor, her arms around Helena in a growing pool of blood, my knife protruding from the downed woman’s abdomen.

“Let me take her to the medic!” There was panic in Erryn’s voice, and I looked up to see Octavia pointing Erryn’s own gun at her, though Erryn didn’t appear to notice as she fumbled with Helena’s shirt, ripping it open to reveal the wound.

She pushed the hair back from Helena’s face. “Lena,” she murmured. “Please. Not now. Open your eyes for me.”

“Theo and I walk out of here,” Octavia said, her voice shaking.

“You don’t come after us. You don’t come after her.

I have sent an encrypted copy of every file in the database offshore, and I have to enter a code into it every three months to ensure it stays locked.

If I die…If anything happens to Theo, I will not only leak the files that you have been so concerned about, I will tear down this corporation from the inside, leak the personal details of all three Chairs to the NSA, and ensure that you spend the rest of your life behind bars. Do I make myself clear?”

I pushed myself to my feet, swaying slightly, and Octavia stepped closer, slipping an arm around my waist.

“What did you do?” Erryn’s face was a mask of rage as she glared at Octavia.

“Took a leaf out of daddy’s notebook,” Octavia replied. “All I want is for Octavia Vanguard to stay dead, Erryn. Ellie Lancaster walks out of here today. Your files are safe if we are.”

Helena groaned, her eyelids fluttering, and Erryn looked at her.

“Yes. Just…She’s losing blood. Let me get her a medic.”

Octavia lowered the gun slowly and nodded, Erryn fumbling in her pocket for her phone. She pulled it out and punched in a few numbers before holding it to her ear.

“Code one. Main floor, state office. Hurry!” she snapped into the phone, before raising her gaze to both of us. “Get the fuck out of my office,” she said coldly.