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It was the voice from the phone, but I’d figured as much. I gazed straight back at her and her colleague. “Here I am. Maybe you can start explaining why the hell you’d give the Blood Hunter’s entire estate to some stranger who’s not only a total unknown to you, but also his killer.”
The man chuckled. “We’re offering it to you preciselybecauseyou’re his killer. We have a code of honor, and we recognize when strength beats strength. Anyone who can topple one of us deserves a place in our ranks.”
“So you’re Devil’s Dozen members too?” I clarified. I hadn’t been completely sure whether they were the Blood Hunter’s equals or simply high-ranking lackeys of his fellow overlords.
The woman nodded. “We want to see our membership filled with those fully capable of handling the pressures and responsibilities that come with it. You’ve proven yourself adept at both strategy and stamina. And you’re hardly an unknown. We know about your kidnapping and your training under the Blood Hunter’s watch. It’s a pretty irony that he orchestrated his own destruction.”
“I don’t know anything about ruling a criminal empire,” I said.
She shrugged. “Few do. I believe you can step up to the challenge. If not, you can always choose an inheritor and step away. But it’s generally easiest in a squabble like this for the winner to take the spoils. You’d get control over all his business assets and personal property.”
“And what’s in it for you? Why don’t you all divide it up amongst the rest of you?”
The man shook his head. “That’s not how we work. The Devil’s Dozen maintains a balance of power between the thirteen of us. If we started consolidating, it’d ruin us in the long run. No one can hold on to too much without their empire imploding. You’ll be helping us by stepping in to fill that power vacuum as a force to be reckoned with before less deserving parties start making a grab for it.”
I was still grappling with the idea of all this being possible. “You just arrange to have everything transferred to my control? Simple as that?”
The woman’s smile came back. “The process will take some time, but yes, it is relatively simple in the long run. We can provide you with a little guidance, and I’m sure the men who have us in their sights right now will help you settle into your rule. All you have to do is say you’ll take the inheritance, and we can get started.”
I swallowed thickly. This seemed too incredible to be true and too intimidating at the same time. I didn’twantto be associating with criminals who were on the same level as the Blood Hunter. I’d be stepping farther into the fire instead of pulling back from it. I was never going to run things the way he had…
But maybe that was exactly why I should take this chance. I didn’t have to do things his way. If everything belonged to me, I could make my own decisions about what happened to his empire. I could disband the operations and income streams I disagreed with. I’d have access to all his records, the data I needed to help the other girls he’d sold and whoever else he’d victimized.
If I walked away, my life would be easier, sure. But whoever stepped up to fill the void instead might revel in the human trafficking trade. They might expand the Blood Hunter’s pursuits into even more horrifying areas.
This was my chance to make a difference on a global scale, to end so much of the kind of horrors I’d endured as a child, from right inside the den of corruption.
Part of me still balked, but I lifted my chin high. I couldn’t pass up this opportunity—I couldn’t abandon all the people I now had the ability to save.
“All right,” I said, the words falling heavy from my mouth. “I accept.”
