Page 92 of Bedeviled

Kincaide hesitates a moment longer, then thinks better about lingering. Without giving me so much as another glance, he leaves the room.

Once the door clicks shut behind him, Memnon picks up the phone.

“Matthew, Kincaide confessed to trafficking the woman in the ledger. He’s coming down now. You know what to do.” He hangs up the phone, then looks at me.

I exhale loudly. I feel like I need to change my pants after that meeting.

“What’s going to happen to that guy?” I ask.

“The authorities are going to be waiting for him when he gets off the elevator. They’ll then charge Mr. Cole with the appropriate crimes, and he’ll be put away.” He says it with the sort of certainty of a man who has rigged the game in his favor, which I’m sure he has.

My lips part, and I stare at Memnon wondrously.

After a moment, I regain my composure and walk back to the desk.

My eyes never leave Memnon’s as I begin to speak. “The morning of our wedding, Kane called me away⁠—”

My husband’s eyes narrow at the mention of the shifter who has been not-so-secretly trying to pursue me.

I press on anyway. “He told me that you had taken over the Fortunas’ empire. And I’ll be honest, when I heard that, I assumed the worst.”

“Wise of you to think the worst. I am both flattered and annoyed that you would do so.”

“But…” I round the table to both get closer to Memnon and to look at the ledger. My fingers skim the bottom edge of its leather cover before I open it and gaze at the sickening list of names and bonds scribbled down the rows of each page. A few of them are now crossed off—the bonds Memnon has already broken.

“You’ve been freeing the trafficked supernaturals.”

He doesn’t respond to that.

I search his face. “I didn’t ask you to do this.”

“You didn’t need to.”

Oh, Memnon’s definitely getting laid later.

The sorcerer’s gaze heats, and I’m pretty sure he overheard that stray thought.

“Please be careful,” I say. Cole’s warning to Memnon about those who were plotting against him still lingers in my mind.

He nods, though I notice that in doing so, he’s sidestepped any vows to be careful. Slippery man.

“Would you like to know what Cole heard about those scheming against me?”

“Of course,” I say.

“There was a third individual who was involved, maybe even someone these men answered to.”

I search his gaze. “That sounds like⁠—”

“Like the pyramid scheme the Fortunas were using?”

I nod, my brow furrowing. “There still is one Fortuna out there.” Juliana’s brother, Leonard. “Do you think he’s behind this?”

Memnon shakes his head, puzzled. “I don’t know, but I do think I need to now have a meeting with both Zachary Greer and Samuel Zhang.”

My eyes drift back down to the ledger, landing on the column with the title of each trafficked supernatural.

Witch, witch, mage, witch, witch, witch, witch, lycanthrope, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, witch, demon.