Chapter 35

Baldy pulled out his phone and called Whitney Stone. She answered on the first ring, her voice dripping with anticipation. “So? Did you get those nasty photos of that bitch? Make sure you get shots of her face and all the intimate parts. Strip her down completely…”

Baldy had his phone on speaker, so Whitney’s vile words echoed through the entire warehouse. Anastasia’s hands balled into fists, rage burning through her veins. She couldn’t believe Whitney could be this twisted, using such sick tactics against her.

Baldy didn’t give a damn about Whitney’s feelings anymore. His voice turned threatening and cold. “Look, Ms. Stone, if you don’t want this whole mess splashed across the internet, you better wire me thirty million. Right now. Otherwise, we’re all going down together, and I’ve got nothing left to lose. You, on the other hand…”

Whitney felt like the floor had dropped out from under her. She fought to keep her voice steady since this was so fucking embarrassing. “What… what happened?”

She’d hired them to grab that slut Anastasia. How did this turn into them blackmailing her?

“Everything went to shit. Someone rescued the girl, and now she’s about to call the cops. I’m risking my ass calling you right now. If I’m going to prison, I need to set my family up first. So either you pay me thirty million, or I spill everything about you.” Baldy’s threat was crystal clear.

Whitney’s knees almost buckled. She could barely stay upright.

Fuck! How could these two be such unprofessional pieces of shit? She’d already dropped five million on them, and now they wanted more like some kind of loan sharks.

Chapter 35

Whitney was so pissed she wanted to tear their heads off. “Are you fucking crazy? I already paid you five million!”

Did they think she was some kind of ATM? Either do the damn job or don’t – but this was insane. Had they completely lost it? If they wanted to rob someone, why not hit Fort Knox? How was she unlucky enough to hire these two morons?

But Whitney was scared shitless of this going public – it was career suicide. And her daughter was getting close to Jasper Hale now. Once she locked down that marriage, Whitney’s golden years were guaranteed.

So she choked down her fury. But thirty million all at once? That was gonna hurt.

“Not gonna pay? I recorded every sick thing you just said. If you don’t cough up the cash, I’ll leak it all online and we’ll see if you can ever show your face in this city again. Word is your daughter’s got herself a real prize catch…” Baldy was following Anastasia’s script perfectly.

Whitney went dead silent. Her hands were trembling with rage, veins popping out like cables. She was screaming every curse word she knew inside her head. What kind of monsters were these people?

This was a complete clusterfuck – she’d tried to screw someone over and ended up getting screwed herself! She couldn’t blow this up, or things would get ten times worse.

Whitney forced herself to take a deep breath, letting some fake vulnerability slip into her voice. “I… I don’t have that kind of money lying around. I’m just a wife, for God’s sake. That five million cleaned out my accounts…”

“Bullshit! You think I was born yesterday? You’re Mrs. Kingsley, lady. Thirty million is chump change for someone like you.” Baldy wasn’t having it.

“You don’t get it – things might look good from the outside, but money’s actually really tight for me.” Whitney started spinning her sob story.

“Spare me the tears. You clawed your way up from being the other woman, right? Someone who knows how to work men like that should be able to squeeze money out of her husband no problem. And think about your baby girl – if word gets out about what a psycho her mommy really is, you think any decent family’s gonna want her?”

“So here’s the deal: pay up and keep my mouth shut. Or this hits social media and goes viral, and your daughter can kiss her rich husband dreams goodbye!”

He’d gone straight for Whitney’s jugular – the one thing she cared about most.