You Are Mine Little Sister (by Syra Tucker) novel Chapter 94

VOID

"Thorne." I nodded once. "Wife of the freshly minted Governor?"

"A win which was made possible by me."

Hm. Now we were finally cutting into something juicy.

"Vlyrissa reached out to me long before the election. She needed dirt moved and I got my hands dirty enough to plant a goddamn forest."

"How?"

"Well, part of it was sabotaging her husband's opponent. For some, I damaged their reputations by leaking implicating information from their pasts. Others were threatened to back down. Even the charity work that made her look like a Saint in designer heels? Most of that was me. I hired actors to sob through fake testimonials about how she saved them from ruin."

"In return?"

"Access to a trade route the second she won."

I tilted my head, slowly. "What trade route?"

"It's cut across the southern checkpoints—a blind spot between border surveillance and port patrol. If given access, I control the permits. That road becomes clean on paper but dirty underneath. No questions, no inspections. You'd be able to move weapons, tech, narcotics—hell, even people—straight in and out of the state without a single red flag."

I dragged my fingers along my jaw, stroking it in slow contemplation. "So... what exactly do you plan to snuggle?"

"I'm a businessman, Void. Maybe not the kind you see at board meetings, but I move things. Valuable ones"

Yeah. "Like Underworld shit."

"What? No, no—Jesus, no. I don't traffic people or steal organs. I deal in objects. Expensive ones. Illegal? Maybe. But nothing as grim as that."

"Funny. Two of the people you killed had their organs missing. Coincidence?"

"No, no, no. I promise you, that was just me rattling Vlyrissa's cage. I needed the deaths messy enough to make her panic."

Hm.

"So, the people you killed had some sort of connection to the woman?"

"Yes. They're just... you know, one of these unregistered assets. The kind of people who'd take a bullet for her without ever showing up on payroll. I had to kill a few of them to unsettle her."

"Yet, she's been very stubborn." I tsked.

I drummed my fingers on the table again. "So, the men had been willing to die to protect you?"

I was referring to the cowards who blew up the house a couple of weeks back when I'd gotten so close to putting Blade in the ground.

"So, you've been disappointing them."

His jaw tensed. "For now. But once Vlyrissa holds up her end and gives me access, I'll be able to move shipments through without a hitch."

I didn't completely doubt him. That kind of route would put him in prime position. He'd become the invisible thread tying Stonebridge to neighboring cities. Goods in, goods out.

But I also understood why Vlyrissa hadn't delivered yet. Securing a route like that wasn't child's play. She'd have to bend some serious steel and slice through some thick red tapes. If she didn't maneuver it just right, she could jeopardize her husband's seat and possibly his neck.

What the hell was she thinking making that kind of promise to Blade?

Well, I was as interested in politics as I was in reading privacy policies before accepting cookies. Vlyrissa's entanglement with the man in front of me wasn't exactly on my favorites list.

Blade spoke again. "I promise you, as soon as I get what I'm owed, I'll flee Stonebridge. There won't be another word from me, brother."

Hm. My brain chewed on the thought.

Suddenly, something clicked. "How did you come to know the Thorne woman? She must've trusted you to an extent to involve you in her campaign."

The ghost of a smile crossed his lips. Leaning back in his seat, he laced his fingers behind his head.

"Vlyrissa and I go way back. She's always been a dangerous thing, that woman." He clicked his tongue. "How about we leave out my past, brother? Wouldn't be fair to spill my secrets when you keep yours padlocked in a vault."