Page 59 of Promise of Punishment

I giggle.

Wes

I race my McLaren F1 down the highway toward Hellfire, about twenty minutes from the estate. I was already on the way to the mansion to see Fable when Felix texted me he had the information I’d been looking for. Even with all the data Vantage has access to, it still took the helpful skills of an exclusive PI I recommended to get the information I needed, proving technology can’t do everything.

“I’m driving,” I say to Felix when he answers the call from my burner phone. “Give me the rundown of what you have.”

“I think Fable’s dad is after her.”

“How?” I ask even as I shake my head, the idea too impossible to believe.

“Vera Farrington has been making large donations to her son’s Psychiatric facility. Her husband doesn’t seem to know. He’s had no connection with his son since he and Vera cut off Kip when he married Lola Navarro. But Vera has visited him twice. After the first visit, he was moved to a less protected suite in a less secure wing. He has connections to the outside world through one of the other patients and is suspected of having an affair with one of his doctors. Several things have been smuggled in and out for his benefit. He’s also been linked to Harvey Jones, who used to work for the notorious hitman Slade O’Brien. Slade died in a car bombing over a year ago, but Harvey runs in the same circles and could have anyone, if not himself, threatening Fable’s life.”

My skin chills. “Why would Kip want to murder his own daughter?”

“He murdered his wife.”

“In a brutal crime of passion,” I think out loud. “Going after Fable is premeditated.” But then, Lola’s murder could have been planned too—if he’d been hunting them ever since they returned to America. Fable has these answers. I need to get her to talk somehow.

“Thanks for the help.” I end the call and send a voice-text to Trae, the guy I use for operations like this. It requires a person whose morals are as compromised as mine.

If I’m to get in and out of that facility like a ghost, he’s the only person I trust to make it happen.

Me: I need your help. Contact me ASAP.

23

WANT TO PLAY A GAME?

Wes

A blindfolded and cloaked Fable is ushered into the guest room by her friend, Noah. I couldn’t have Camila deliver her to me. After our interaction at the bar, she knows I’m pissed at how she acted toward Fable. Camila doesn’t like that I give Fable special attention because she can’t understand it. To her, Fable is just another employee, lower than guest status, given the elite visitors here.

Noah’s instructions are to set her on the bench at the foot of the bed and leave.

I watch her do this through a two-way mirror in the wall separating the bedroom from the en suite.

Noah fixes Fable’s dark hair over her shoulder, which I requested be left down, and whispers in her ear before leaving the room. Fable sits there, her body completely covered by the black silk cloak except for her hands, which are folded on her lap. Her tense fingers and stiff posture tell me she’s nervous.

I stroll out from behind the wall, my hands in my pockets, and stop a few feet away from the bench.

“Hello, Fable.” I use my English accent.

She jolts at the disruption in the quiet room, even though my tone is as warm as cashmere. Her face lifts to me, her eyes shielded by the red sash. “Hello.”

“Do you want to play a game?”

“What kind of game?” she asks hesitantly.

“One that involves ties at your wrists and ankles.”

She rubs her lips together, considering my offer. “If I don’t like it, will you release me?”

“Your hands and ankles?” Not you.

“Yes.”

“If that is your wish. Yes.”