Ruthless Heir, page 1
Ruthless Heir
Street Kings
Book Four
Sienna Snow
Contents
Street Kings Book 4
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Books By Sienna
About the Author
Street Kings Book 4
Sienna Snow
Copyright Page
Copyright © 2022 by Sienna Snow
Published by Sienna Snow
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All rights reserved.
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The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please email contact@siennasnow.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
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Cover Design: Steamy Designs
Editor: Jennifer Haymore
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www.siennasnow.com
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ISBN - eBook - 978-1-948756-28-0
ISBN - Print - 978-1-948756-29-7
ISBN - Special Edition - 979-8-88535-014-3
Author’s Note
Content Warning
This book is a dark romance with subject matter that may be triggering to some readers.
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Human trafficking/kidnapping (subject of the mission)
Sexual Assault (Not the lead characters or on the page)
References to childhood abuse by a paternal figure
Violence and graphic death
1
Three weeks ago
Devani
* * *
“We can’t do this anymore.”
I kept quiet and stared at the intricately designed ceiling with its multitude of patterns in gray and silver. My heartbeat drummed in my chest as my breath and body calmed from the activities of only moments ago.
“Are you listening to me?”
I swallowed the lump forming in my throat and the ache growing in the pit of my stomach. For over a month and a half, I’d waited for this conversation to come. Then, the second my foot had slipped through the hidden passageway leading into the penthouse, something told me tonight was the night.
I shouldn’t have come here in the first place. I said this to myself every time I snuck inside his building.
But, he drew me as a butterfly sought nectar.
I was the Queen of Diamonds, the one without emotions, whose blood ran as cold as the jewels in the many mines I owned. Instead, I used logic and calculation in every aspect of my life.
I was a master chess player, strategizing, exploiting, and utilizing every asset in my arsenal to achieve my end goal.
I’d coined and owned the name “manipulative bitch.”
My petite size was one of my greatest advantages. No one knew when I’d strike or if I felt anything while making a kill.
At thirteen, I’d learned one of the keys to surviving the game, and I lived by it religiously: Never let anyone matter.
Until him.
Samir Krishan King.
Why had I let him in? Why had I fucking broken every one of my damn rules?
I knew better, for fuck’s sake. I was one of the directors for Solon North America, an underground organization tasked with using any means necessary to stop human trafficking worldwide.
I hadn’t even crawled out of the hole of cleaning up the mess from one of my best agents seeking her happily ever after. And now, I had to face the consequences of my mistake and pay the price.
“Don’t ignore me, Devani.” Sam leaned over me, his deep amber eyes boring into mine and reigniting the arousal he coaxed to life with his mere presence.
The way his pupils dilated until his irises became rings of gold told me he felt it too. However, just as fast, he reined it in, and a crease formed between his brows.
If he only knew I found him more attractive when he scowled.
He’d taken my breath away from that very first meeting so many years ago. Every plane of his handsome face appeared as if a sculptor had precisely designed it. Then there was how he carried himself that made a person stop to look deeper. It was a mixture of sheer confidence, the aura of danger, and the intensity with which he studied everyone around him, friend or foe.
“I couldn’t ignore you even if I tried.” I resisted the urge to run a finger down the dark shadow of stubble covering his jaw and seduce him into pushing this conversation off for another time.
“Acknowledging my words would be nice.”
But as always, changing Sam’s mind was like trying to move a mountain.
“What is it you expect me to say?” I wrapped my legs around his waist, shifted my hips, and flipped him onto his back.
He countered just as fast, grabbing hold of my arms and pinning them to the hollow of my back. We both knew I could break free if I wanted.
Except I wouldn’t.
Anger radiated from his golden gaze. “You keep coming back to my bed. Yet you’re planning to marry another man.”
Guilt and shame coursed through my heart and mind. This man knew who I was, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the unforgivable.
“Maybe.” I looked away, hating the charade I’d have to play to reach my goals.
It was the only way. I had to make everyone believe, to make Sam believe.
He’d never understand why I’d agreed to this and betrayed him.
Why would the notorious Devani Patel, the Queen of Diamonds, allow herself to become another man’s arm candy? Why would she walk into a den of diseased vipers and let them believe she would become their saving grace?
He’d never know that I’d sacrifice everything to give him the one thing he’d never admit wanting. The one thing he dreamed of, the one thing that, if he carried out, would destroy the empire he’d built.
But the answer was simple.
Revenge.
Revenge for so many people, but especially for him.
Sam’s grip tightened. “Bullshit.”
“Nothing...nothing is set in stone, Sam.”
“What are you hiding?”
I smirked. “Many things. That’s my job.”
“Are you saying tonight you came here for a last fuck before you walk into another bastard’s bed?”
“You know damn well it’s not like that between us. We don’t just fuck.” I couldn’t hide my raw emotions.
This connection we had went deeper than the physical.
He knew it. I knew it. Well, I thought he knew it.
Maybe it was better he felt this way. I’d never said the words, even though they burned on the tip of my tongue.
Saying them would change everything, and neither of us was ready for the consequences.
No, that wasn’t the truth. I couldn’t risk it.
How had something that started as a one-night stand after a poker game become something neither of us could label but left us raw and exposed?
This was taboo according to where we were in society. I was the diamond mogul from the world of the polished elite. He was one of the notorious billionaire King Brothers who dealt in favors and lived between the legitimate world and organized crime. If only our paths had never crossed, I wouldn’t have challenged him to that poker game, and we’d never have become lovers.
One of his hands slid up my back, threaded into my hair, and drew my face to his. “No, I don’t. We fuck when it’s convenient. We have a good time. No strings, no commitments. Weren’t those the rules?”
“Sam—” My lips trembled for a split second before I harnessed my emotions.
“No. I don’t want to hear it.”
“I don’t want it like this between us.”
“How the fuck did you expect it to go? We aren’t in some from-lovers-to-friends situation. You’re stepping into a life you said you despised, into a life you swore you would never live, into that asshole’s world.”
That asshole being Ashok Shah. Sam’s biological father, the man who’d abandoned Sam’s pregnant mother, Veda Kumari, for a lucrative marriage to an heiress.
How could I tell him the road I was following would save him and countless others? I’d rather Sam hated me than let the monsters like Ashok Shah roam free.
And I planned to take down not only Shah but a whole organization, which included three other men—my uncles. They’d destroyed a little girl’s childhood, sent her off to boarding school, and then played Monopoly wit
“I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Did you forget that Sam King doesn’t have a heart? You can’t hurt me. I’ll be fine.” He released me and rolled me to his side as he shifted and rose from the bed.
As he reached the doors leading out of his bedroom, he said over his shoulder, “Don’t come back, Devani. What we had is over. You’re moving on. I’ll take your cue and do the same.”
I closed my eyes and nodded.
Ending things was for the best. Though one thing would never happen.
There was no moving on from Samir Krishan King.
Present Day
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“Ladies and gentlemen, you have your assignments.” I studied my team, feeling the weight of what would become my last mission as Lead Director of Solon North America.
After over a year of planning, everything sat on the precipice of activation. No going back now.
Whatever the outcome, one thing remained the same.
I’d go down in flames or die trying. I planned to take every risk necessary to reach my end goal.
Get my revenge and complete my last mission—ever.
I had nothing to lose.
I hadn’t earned the reputation for being a manipulative fucking bitch for nothing.
“As of now,” I continued, “we are on active. We will regroup in a week at a location relayed via our network.”
“When will we receive our security clearances?” Jesika Rawal, a field operative, asked.
In her non-Solon life, she was a managing partner of a well-known New York law firm and the daughter of an Indian-American venture capitalist.
We ran in the same social circles, and she would be my eyes and ears from the periphery for any necessary intel.
And based on the gossip sites and rumor mills, she was Sam’s new lover. I’d seen firsthand several events they’d attended together. Striking was an understatement to describe them when they entered a room: tall, stylish, and rebellious in a world where rules and expectations were the norm. Then there was the chemistry between them. They laughed together, genuinely enjoyed each other’s company, and no one could doubt their relationship went beyond sex.
I never begrudged any of my agents taking lovers. We all had them, but Jesika with Sam…
Just the thought of it brought bile to my throat.
“With the high-profile level of the case and the need for increased security,” Noah Carter, one of my field leads, answered, snapping me out of my thoughts, “each of you has a different security protocol that we will monitor using a trusted outside vendor. She is the best of the best.”
I’d trained Noah when he’d first come into the game as a green eighteen-year-old, who couldn’t believe someone the same age as him was his superior officer and could lay him on his ass if he got out of line. He understood me as a person and accepted all of my quirks, as a boss and a friend. Plus, I trusted him with my life. He’d head up my ground crew and cover my ass if I ever ended up in a situation where I needed extraction.
“And the equipment we are using? Can we trust it?” Tasha Lee, another of my team, probed.
“The equipment we are using is from one of our own, a former agent, now a freelance developer.” This time my partner and future replacement, Neil Joshi, spoke. “Director Patel, Agent Carter, and I know her well. There isn’t anyone else we would trust with devices for this assignment.”
Neil’s gaze flickered toward me for a second and then back to Tasha.
“Are there any more questions?” I scanned the room, holding each team member’s eyes for a second before moving on to the next.
When everyone remained quiet, I said, “As I stated a few moments ago, we are now active. Continue normal daily operation and training while you await location and placement. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.”
Slowly, the room cleared, with the exception of Neil and Noah. The two men remained quiet until we were alone and the door closed.
I’d expected this—the bad cop, worse cop routine.
If they weren’t the closest people I had to brothers, I’d punch them in the face for overstepping their positions.
“Stop glaring at me and say what you two need to get off your chests.”
“We don’t have to do this, Devani. You don’t have to play the sacrificial lamb.” Neil rose from his seat and leaned against the now closed door.
This was his signature move to ensure no one could return to the room and accidentally interrupt a conversation.
“Of course, I do. I won’t let any of the fuckers win. Do you think my uncles, your father, Ashok Shah, or their friends should get away with what they have done?”
Neil was my original partner at Solon over fifteen years ago. And we’d worked countless cases together since. However, my unconventional and extremely underaged start in the organization had given me a bit of seniority over him.
We’d both climbed through the ranks at an unheard-of speed with the same mission in mind.
To take down our families.
His was to destroy his father, Arun Joshi, and brother, Lukesh. They’d taken the real estate empire his grandfather had built and turned it into an organization to fund various illegal businesses, including human trafficking.
Mine wasn’t so virtuous as Neil’s.
All I wanted was to take down the uncles I knew were involved in the deaths of my parents and brother. Deaths I couldn’t prove were murders.
My grandfather had offered all four of his sons the option of gaining their inheritance early through cash or later in the form of equal shares in the company. My uncles took the money, and Papa inherited the entire company.
When Papa found diamonds and rare gem veins on land he’d purchased through the company, my uncles regretted their decision and wanted back in. And the rest was history. My parents and brother lost their lives, I became an orphan, and my uncles squandered my inheritance.
“Cut the bullshit.” Noah propped his feet on the table. “This is us. We know the truth, even if you don’t want to admit it.”
I lifted a brow. “Elaborate, then.”
“This is about more than destroying the Circle of Ten.”
If they only knew. By taking down the Circle of Ten, I could accomplish my main objective.
The Circle was an underground network of men going back over thirty-five years. This group of men had met in England during their university years and decided to join forces. They used their connections to assist each other in various ways to further their agendas, everything from money laundering to their most lucrative endeavor, human trafficking.
We’d managed to identify nine out of the ten members. Somewhere at the top of the hierarchy stood Joshi and Shah, followed by three European aristocrats from old families. What their true roles were, we hadn’t quite narrowed down yet. Then there were my fucking uncles. In my opinion, they couldn’t be more than errand boys at most, but who knew?
The last seat had belonged to Neil’s brother, Lukesh Joshi. The supposed heir apparent to the Circle. We learned Joshi had made room for Luke by disposing of an original member whom he no longer found useful.
Too bad Luke would never lead the Circle or occupy his seat ever again. Well, unless someone wanted to scuba dive in the international waters off the coast of Florida, collect any remains the sea life hadn’t consumed, and pile them in a chair at their next meeting.
With Lukesh Joshi out of the picture, the count for the demise of the Circle was one down and nine more to go.
“Since you know so much, tell me. What else is it about?”
