The hag has an entire government at her disposal. But she is as weak as the shield she hides behind. Forced to use others to protect herself because she’s incapable of doing it herself.
She only has the brains behind the operation, but not the strength. Whereas
Zade… Zade has both brawn and brains.
Claire knows she can’t hide on that island forever, not any longer than she can
evade Zade’s wrath. She’s backed into a corner and knows that Zade would be
hard to kill. She’s met her match, and the only way out is with a bargain.
“Let’s sit, shall we?”
“Let’s,” Zade murmurs, turning his back to grab the back of the chair Jeff is
sitting in, literally dump him out of it, and motion for me to sit in it as if he’s pulling out my seat in a fine-dining restaurant. Claire takes the one across from me, Jeffrey’s bound body between us.
His face has turned a concerning shade of purple from both anger and
embarrassment. Claire hardly glances his way, flicking her eyes to one of her men and ordering, “Dispose of him.”
Seconds later, a bullet is sluicing through Jeff’s brain and out the other side.
He’s dead before his head hits the floor.
Mine and Zade’s gazes clash, an amused glint in his mismatched eyes as he
grabs the third chair, twists it, and straddles it backwards, turning his intense gaze to Claire.
Her pulse thrums in her neck, and she works to swallow. I snort softly. If I didn’t know any better, it seems that her lady bits are no more impervious to Zade than any other red-blooded woman. Given the chance, she would gladly fuck Zade before she put a knife in his throat.
“Before we start, how about we establish a mutual trust? All of my men are
tucked away out of sight, not a single barrel down your throat, so how about you
send your cronies to the door? They can stay if they must and will have a perfect
shot at me, but they need to back the fuck off, yeah?”
Thinning her gaze, she considers Zade’s request for a moment before
acquiescing. Reluctantly, her guards spread out across the front entrance,
ensuring they all have a perfect view of us.
“Lay it on me, Claire. What’s your proposition?” Zade asks but then holds up
a hand to stop her when she opens her mouth. “Make sure it’s good, too. You had
my girl kidnapped, raped, and tortured, and her mother nearly killed.”
Her red-stained lips tighten into a firm line, seeming not to appreciate the reminder of all her wrong-doings. Makes me wonder how the fuck she sleeps at night. Or maybe she’s secretly a reptile and doesn’t need to. That’s honestly more believable at this point.
“I will help you eliminate trafficking,” Claire says. When Zade and I stay silent, processing her offer, she continues, “While the skin trade is vastly profitable, there is something more that I desire.”
“And what is that?” Zade prompts, voice deep and low.
“Absolute control over the human population, of course. Right now, people
are too self-aware of their useless existence. I want full power—us both to have full power.”
My brow pinches, a nasty look on my face.
“To do what with?” he asks. “What exactly do you intend to do with this power?”
“Create a whole new era, of course. We can do anything we want. We could
make their lives useful, give them a real purpose.”
“And what would that purpose be?” I cut in. “To be mindless robots that would serve you?”
“Suffering would end,” she snaps, turning her glacial green eyes to me. There
really is no soul in there. “And this planet would thrive. If humans had real law
and order, we could do so many things. End world hunger, close the gap between
the poor and the rich, and lessen poverty and homelessness.”
I shake my head. “You’re trying to make taking away people’s free will sound
virtuous.”
“It is,” she retorts.
I blink, absolutely confounded. “Are we in a movie? There’s no way you’re
serious.” Turning to Zade, I find him staring at Claire, absently rubbing his fingers together, his brain churning. “She’s serious, isn’t she?”
He cocks a brow. “It would appear so.”
More than anything, I’d love to know what he’s thinking. This is something
you only see in theaters or books. Some new world order shit that seems so far
outside the realm of possibility, people turn it into fiction for entertainment. I’ve literally written books like this myself.
“You’re exchanging one form of slavery for another,” he says finally.
“I’m exchanging human suffering for a new, better world,” she argues. “The
technology you could create would advance us into an entirely new era.” She turns her attention to me, and I realize she is a fucking reptile. She’s a goddamn snake. “No one would ever suffer through what you have ever again. No more children sacrificed. No more women sold. I would dismantle it all.”
“What’s stopping you from doing this now?” I argue. “What’s stopping you
from trying to take over?”
“Zade,” she answers simply, turning to address him. “You’ve been a thorn in
my side since you created your organization and have set out to destroy
everything I’ve worked hard for. And I’ll admit, you’re quite good at it, which is why I want to form an alliance where we’re working together, not against each other. I will give you what you want so badly, and in return, you help me with
what I want.”
“Talk to me like I’m stupid, Claire,” Zade says dryly. “You want me to stop
exposing the government? No, you want more than that. You want me to create
some type of technology to implant in people’s brains and make them actual robots? Make it to where they have no fight?”
She raises her brows, a smile forming. “Now there’s an idea. I can create a new world with laws and consequences for breaking them. Your technology could advance us and make it easier to enforce these laws. We could force people to walk in a straight line, wherever we draw it. But taking away their ability to think for themselves? My God, that’d be wonderful.”
Her eyes alight with excitement. “Could you do that?”