Page 11 of Microburst

I met the guy’s gaze. “He abducted, drugged, and sold women against their will. He’s lucky I’m very busy and only have tonight to take it all over. I wanted to draw it out and peel his skin off for years to come.”

He swallowed loudly. “Right, got it, treat chicks with respect around you. Cool.”

I rolled my eyes. “Or be more than a bug and treat women wellallof the time but fine, we can go with treating them with respect around me.” Otto snickered when I muttered the man was a dipshit under my breath.

“And I don’t like addicts,” Otto added. “The drugs stop, but also gambling addicts. It’s stupid this is all illegal and we provide a service, not prey on people who are sick. So if they’re in serious debt, cut them off. That brings trouble. Too much drinking and fighting in here brings trouble. It stops. This is fun.”

The assistant manager was on board and basically got a promotion to run this club for Otto while he went between the places throughout the night.

“We’re also going to shut down this one or that one more often since they’re all under one owner. It’s fucking stupid they’re all open all the time. The queen brought in a new,betterpolice chief and will hire more cops. No more flaunting this,” Otto added when we wrapped up. “You’re all too pretty for prison, and I don’t just let my people take the fall for us.”

That made them seriously happy.

And then we went to three other clubs and did the same thing. There was one more, but honestly it wasn’t even worth doing anything with. It was pathetic and sad. Otto promised he would stop by and make it clear it was done and see if anyone was worth hiring on.

I didn’t kill all of the managers… Just two of them. The one that was left alive had been fighting back against the sex trafficking, taking beatings over it.

He got to live. He stood on his morals and the others could have too, but they were maggots.

So they got squashed like them.

The first one was the biggest, and in a fun turn of events, had been owned by the elder who had attacked Sagan. I learned a lot else had been as well—legal and illegal. I would be handling that and making sure it all found its way to Sagan even if it had to go through me to be made clean for her.

But there was something very important to handle first.

Plus, it was always nice to say hi to an old friend.

“Ohhhh, what’s the latest doomed plot?” I mocked when I found him looking over hand-drawn floor plans of Sagan’s castle. I smirked when he jumped and let out something close to a yelp. “You really are the worst villain ever, Cassius.”

The former elder—mostly head of those parasites—bared his teeth at me. “I cannot believe you have the audacity to show your face in front of me, witch.”

I snorted. “Try to say it without dripping with jealousy of my abilities, child. You just sound silly when it’s all over your aura.” I waved around him, clearly able to see it. I sat down on one of his plush chairs and, with a flick of my wrist, destroyed the maps. “Whoops.”

He slammed his hands on his desk and stood up straight. “I don’t know why you crawled back here from your swamp or wherever you’ve been hiding, but the time of the ancients isover. It’s time for the new generation to—”

I waved my hand and forced him to sit down. “I was once tired andfoolishto believe your bullshit, child. I still don’t disagree with that argumentifit came from anyone elsebut you. You wantpower. It’s all about power and greed. You think you should be in charge and—”

“I was in charge!” he roared and tried to stand again. “I owned Rhys and Amelia—controlled everything they did! Those fools ruined everything with this accident and—now that dud of a—”

I threw my head back and burst out laughing. I’d just started to calm down when I saw how he was struggling with all he had against my power just to stand and I started all over again.

None of it was actually funny. He’d set the trap that landed Sagan in this ridiculous mating contest. He’d done so much more damage and was constantly puppeteering people who would harm her.

“Oh, child, you silly, baby fool,” I mocked. “You controlled nothing. YoutrappedRhys and he sent his very smart, very powerful daughter away so she could be free of the same shackles. And it worked. She handled you in… A week? I’ll saytwo for your pride.” I stood and clucked my tongue. “Rhys knew what was going on and you weren’t in control.”

“You know nothing.”

I put my hands on the desk and leaned over. “I know because I heard it directly from his mouth, you silly little fool.” I nodded when he froze. “Sagan trained withmeduring summers. It’s not a lie. He sent her to us ancients to prepare her for the day she would battleyouweak bullies.”

“No. No, you know nothing and that they were—”

“Going to replace her with a male heir?” I purred, standing back up when he flinched. “Then why didn’t they? Nothing was wrong with Amelia.” I snickered. “She wouldn’t do it. I heard it from her mouth that she wouldn’t ever do it to Sagan.” I nodded when his face turned red with anger. “Oh, you silly little boy. You may have won battles and hurt them, but you lost the war.

“They sent off their champion and had her train and train for the day it was her time to take you on. And she did wonderfully even before we all came out of ourswamps. But now we’re coming back.” I leaned back in and flicked his forehead, breaking his skull just from that. “So, I suggest you stop your delusions of getting any power back and focus on staying alive.

“Because I’m going to come for you, Cassius. The moment the spotlight is off of you and Sagan wouldn’t get blamed, I’m coming for you. You lied to me. I trusted you to take care of Thovudin’s future like you promised me. Instead, you turned the nation we worked so hard to make amazing into this sexist cesspool of morons and corruption again.”

“I’m not scared of you, witch!”