Page 234 of Merciless Daddy

“It is practical. The terminal records everything. Voice. Face. Eye movement. Speech pattern.” He tapped the camera. “You need to appear alert.”

“I am alert enough to tell it I was kidnapped.”

“You could.”

His lack of concern tightened something in my stomach.

I sat because standing gained me nothing. The chair rolled half an inch beneath my weight. I noted that too.

Gianni lowered himself into the chair across from me.

“The employee trust you created contains an emergency provision,” he said. “If the trust is challenged before final certification, your shares become inaccessible for ninety days.”

“I know what I wrote.”

“Then you understand the problem.”

“For you.”

“Darling, we’re to be married. My problems are your problems, too.” He folded one leg over the other. “At noon, the challenge period closes. Your suspension of my administrator access becomes permanent pending litigation. The trust takes control of the protected accounts. Nobody can use the shares. Not you. Not me. Not your little worker council.”

“You kidnapped me because Angela wrote good bylaws.”

“I kidnapped you because you belong to me.”

“I belong to nobody.”

“Fiction.”

He turned the monitor toward me. A transaction window waited on-screen. My name appeared at the top.

YELENA LVOVNA SOKOLOVA.

Below it sat two pending instruments.

Cancellation of the emergency trust.

Grant of full voting proxy to Gianni Scordato.

The deadline clock in the corner read 10:41.

“You will cancel the trust,” he said. “Then you will grant me your proxy. The recording will show that you acted voluntarily, with full understanding of the consequences.”

“No.”

“You have seventy-nine minutes.”

“I could have seventy-nine thousand years. The answer would remain no.”

Gianni studied me.

I returned the stare. My heart beat too quickly, but my face belonged to the pakhan’s daughter. Lev had taught me stillness before he taught me arithmetic.

“Without your authorization,” Gianni said, “the shares disappear behind the freeze for three months. Payroll stalls. Vendor accounts fail. The court appoints interim management.”

“You.”

“Someone reasonable.”