Kyro was having lunch with Gale when he received a notification about a new email. On a normal occasion, he would have ignored it for later, but at that moment Gale was on the phone and their meals were yet to arrive.
Thus, Kyro opened the email, and the sender instantly caught his attention. What was Iris doing sending him emails? It wasn't something usual, and it was even a video.
As he opened it, he skipped the first five minutes as asked. In the steady image, he saw his own room. There was nothing weird about it, and his brow furrowed. What was—
The next moment, there was the sound of the door opening, and Jane entered the picture. She glanced around the room, then went straight for the table and took out a binder. Her face twisted at something she saw there, but the camera's angle didn't allow him to see what it was.
Not that he needed it. Instantly, he closed the video, wanting to call Iris, but then remembered that her phone had been confiscated. Cursing himself for not getting her a new one, he chose to reply to the email.
[Are you okay? Did she do anything?]
Without waiting for a reply, he stood up and told Gale that he was leaving. His friend gave him a look, then said quick goodbyes into the phone. "What is it?" he asked.
"Need to get back home, you can—"
"I'll be coming along if it's important," Gale cut him off and went to pay for the meal they hadn't even touched.
By the time Kyro got down to the underground car park and sat down in his car, Gale was already finished. They were about to drive away, but Kyro's phone made a noise—another email had arrived.
He took it out, and after reading the message breathed a sigh of relief. His tense muscles relaxed.
"Good news?" Gale asked, watching him carefully.
"Yeah, she's gone."
"She?"
"Jane trespassed into my house…" The moment Kyro said those words, he remembered their last conversation. What had he said about it being impossible for Jane to do anything as stupid as try to get rid of Iris?
Gale's eyebrows rose. "Did she? That sounds like some juicy gossip."
Instead of answering, Kyro just found the video again. Iris had told him that Jane had already left, so there was no need for him to rush back. He should just watch the video and see what he thinks about it.
The moment Jane picked up the binder, Gale's eyebrows rose even more. He watched in disbelief as her face twisted with suppressed anger, then changed with fury. She grabbed the page at the top and marched out of the room, her strides mile long.
At that, Gale could only shake his head while leaning back in the seat. "She's beyond idiotic. With this, I could ruin her ten times over." He turned his head to look at Kyro. "You sure you liked her at some point?"
It was a question Kyro didn't want to ponder over. He seemed to not know that woman at all. Back then, he'd believed that he understood all that she was…
There was a sense of betrayal, of profaning what was once nice and good within him. His interest in her had been simple and genuine, obvious to everyone, but now she was using it to justify any kind of abhorrent action on her part?
He looked into the relative darkness of the underground parking area. There was no doubt that it had been Jane that set up Iris. Because of her actions, they had to leave home, and Iris was being hunted by the authorities. Even at the gala she was being targeted to become the enemy on the tabloids.
"Do you know someone?" Kyro asked, turning to face Gale.
His friend had been joking around before, but seeing his expression, he became serious too. "Just the right person. She's known to write only about the juiciest things, but only true ones too. If she makes an article, everyone will know it, and they'll believe it."
"Do it then."
Before, he might have hesitated, not wanting to hurt a person he cared about a lot once, but she had asked for it. If he didn't repay her in kind, he wouldn't be himself.
At that moment, he realized that the video was still going. He skipped a bit more of it and saw a small sandy shape dash under the bed with a paper in its mouth. Right on its heels, Jane barreled into the room.
Her hair was askew, the tight bun almost unmade, with strands of hair falling all over her face. Her eyes were pools of liquid fire as she fell to all fours.
"You stinking critter, give me back the photo. I'll boil you alive along with your mistress, that bitch; she'll know how to go around seducing taken men. Come out, come out, I'll wring that little neck of yours."
Kyro's hand holding the phone shook. He could barely believe what he was seeing and hearing. Or that Jane would dare to not only trespass into his home, but also threaten his pets, one of whom happened to be his girlfriend.
That was the last straw. Any kind of inhibitions he might have felt were gone, unrivaled fury having replaced them. She actually dared to threaten people in his home? His whole body trembled with the need to go and wring HER neck in exchange.
The fact that Iris drew blood first gave him a little satisfaction, but that wasn't enough. He needed to erase the jealous, delusional wench from existence. Anything less than that wasn't going to cut it.
While he was considering the first step in achieving that, Gale took his phone. "I'll talk to that reporter, just let me send that video to myself. The article should be ready by the evening, I'd say."
In absent-mindedness, Kyro nodded, then shook his head. "Wait, that would be going to easy on her. Doesn't Horten have a conference in a week's time?"
"You mean that one about welcoming a giant from India into their mid?"
"If Jane was to be chosen as the spokesperson there…"
Kyro didn't need to say more. Gale's eyes lit up with understanding, and he grinned with malice. "That would be a grand event. I'll have the reporters ready."
"I'll go to Horten right now. If I promise to seriously consider their offer, I'm sure they'll indulge me and grant a request or two."
"Not returning home?"
The idea had flashed through Kyro's mind, but he decided against it. At first, he'd wanted to run and console Iris, but he soon realized something—there were no cameras in his room. Everything that was in the video was actually a set up; his little fox seemed to understand the notion of payback all too well.
He smirked. "The only one in need of consolation is Jane. Iris worked so hard to give us tools to fight back, so how could I waste them?"
"Foxes will always be foxes," Gale concluded with a laugh.