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Back When Villains Rise Save as PDF
Chapters (52)
  1. Copyright
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. Read More from the Market of Monsters Series
  50. More Books from HMH Teen
  51. About the Author
  52. Connect with HMH on Social Media

Fabricio’s hateful eyes went to Martin Ricci. “Power. Isn’t it always power with people like these?” Fabricio’s laugh was brittle and broken. “He saw what my father had, and he wanted it. So he murdered him, hid the body, made the fact that the crime ever happened disappear, and then tried to take my father’s place.”

“But . . .” Nita trailed off. “People would know. People who’d met your father . . .”

“Were few and far between,” Fabricio said bitterly. “My father liked his privacy. He was always a behind-the-scenes kind of person, and he enjoyed his anonymity. Sure, there were some people who knew him by face. But they were easily dealt with through bribes and a few ‘accidents.’”

Ricci interjected. “He’s lying. His father died in a car accident. I raised this ungrateful little brat after his father died. I took care of the company. I kept it from collapsing from his father’s loss. I made sure that the investors and the clients didn’t annihilate us when he died.”

Fabricio’s voice was cold, and his voice so full of derision and revulsion that it felt like it should be toxic to hear. “You had power over me, and you fed me and kept me alive, but that doesn’t mean you raised me.”

Nita nearly flinched, not just at the tone, but at the cold truth of those words when she thought about her own life.

Fabricio turned to Nita. “My father was very smart. He knew that if anything happened to him, I’d be in trouble. A man like him, with a lot of money and a lot of power? Everyone wanted a piece of what I’d inherit. So he set things up so that the company couldn’t run without me. The mainframe needs my fingerprint to be activated. I’m the only one alive now with the admin passwords. If I die, or if I don’t check in often enough, all security goes down, and everything goes online.”

Nita’s eyes widened. “What?”

“It was a security measure to ensure no one would get rid of me to take over the company. I’m necessary for this damn company to function. And only I can change the settings to make myself not necessary.” Fabricio smiled bitterly. “Of course, my father wasn’t a fool. He knew that pressure could be applied to make me tell people the passwords. Which is why I don’t have the passwords to change any of the settings. Even if I spill passwords that I do know, the machine still needs a fingerprint from me. All the information on how to reset the fingerprint password and such was sealed away in a vault I couldn’t access until I turned eighteen.”