“What are you talking about?” I ask, incredulous. “I’ve already paid you.” And I have. I wired him five hundred thousand when he took the job last year and another five-hundred thousand just yesterday after we conned Reed. That, and he still has more coming. Alotmore. Forty percent of Reed’s fortune or one point six million to be exact. Which is what I tell him.
“It’s not enough. I needallof the money, Bailey,” he says, without blinking.
My mouth goes dry. I don’t know what to say. “Why?” I finally mutter.
He closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose. When he looks up again, he seems older, the lines in his forehead deeper—like he’s aged ten years in the last ten seconds. “There’s an experimental gene-therapy drug in Europe with incredible results. But insurance cut me off a year ago. Everything Maria and I have, we’ve put into Cora. I took out a loan on my business to pay for her last therapy. I’ve completely leveraged our house. We’re close to bankruptcy. I’ve even gone to the casino a few times, chasing a miracle. That’s how desperate I am at this point. I’m chasing miracles.”
He went to a casino? His words from the airport flash through my head:I had a bit of a gambling problem …
Is that it? Does hestillhave a problem? Is he the reason they’re in debt? Is this partially because of him? I have no idea, but this is exactly the kind of unforeseen circumstance I’d initially worried about when I hired him. And it’s exactly why I’d retained full control over all things financial, including access to the account now holding Reed’s funds—even when Zane had insisted otherwise.You’ll get your money,I’d told him when he said we should have a redundancy plan in case something went wrong. And he will.
“I’ve already paid you a million dollars, Zane,” I say. “And you still have the rest of your cut coming. You’re nowhere close to bankrupt.”
“You have no idea what I’m up against!” he replies angrily. “No idea. MLD costs more to treat than any other disease in the world. What you’ve paid me isn’t enough. It hasn’t even helped me crawl out of the hole I’m in after what I’ve spent to keep Cora alive.”
I gawk at him, stupefied. “How is that possible?”
“Because the system is broken. Because my daughter has a disease that’s incredibly rare and insanely expensive to treat. Because life isn’t fair. It doesn’t matter how it’s possible. It just is, and I’ll do whatever I have to do to give Cora a fighting chance.”
I stiffen. “You know what’s left is for Reed’s victims. I was clear on that.”
He slams his fist onto the arm of his chair. “I don’t give a fuck who it’s for! This is my daughter we’re talking about here! Mydaughter.She’s almost ten years old and she’s back in diapers! This gene therapy costs more than two and a half million per infusion. Two and a half million! And that doesn’t even include the hospital and all the recovery costs. The long-term care. But it works. It actually fucking works. And Cora is going to get that drug.”
My mouth falls open. I can’t help it. The number is staggering. “I … didn’t know it was that much.”
“Why would you? You don’t pay me to make my problems yours.” He falls silent for a moment, a muscle in his jaw twitching. His eyes remain locked with mine. I look away and he leans back in his chair and crosses his legs. “So, tell me, now that it’s done, how does it feel?”
I grit my teeth. “You know I never wanted to kill him.”
“Never? Don’t lie to me, Bailey. We know each other too well for that.”
He’s right. I wanted to kill Reed the moment Zane first said his name. I’ve dreamed about it more times than I can count. I’ve woken with visions of tearing his face to shreds so real I expect to see strips of his skin wedged beneath my fingernails. But even more, I wanted to punish Reed. I wanted him to spend the best years of his life alone, rotting behind bars like his father.
Then I met him—and there were moments when all of that stopped. These brief flickers of hesitation when I’d catch Reed looking at me with such genuine affection, I’d question what I was doing—until I remembered why.
Noah and Ethan were my real life. Mytruelife.
What I had with Reed was nothing but a lie.
“You knew the plan,” I say.
Zane appraises me and sighs. “I didn’t have a choice. He’s toodangerous.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make.”
“Maybe not, but it’s done.” With that he stands, goes into the kitchen, and returns with a laptop and sets it in my lap. He raises the screen, and the cryptocurrency exchange flashes to life.
“Log in to your account.”
I don’t move, and he sets his palms flat on both arms of the chair and leans forward. He’s so much bigger than me it gives me chills. His bulk is a literal weapon I’ve seen him use against Reed in frightening ways when he posed as my abductor. His entire body is coiled in a threat, from his slightly tilted head to his massive shoulders and muscular arms. Something about him in this moment reminds me of a grizzly bear rising to full height, about to charge.
A question rises up my throat—one I’m not sure I want to ask. “What happens if I don’t?”
“You don’t want to find out.” His expression flattens, but I don’t miss the heat in his eyes. The promise there.
“Why now?” I ask, attempting to stall. “Why didn’t you take the money when Reed first transferred it?”
He doesn’t reply, but his jaw tightens.
