Page 19 of Creeping Beautiful

“The reason I bring it up isn’t to brag. It’s to make you an offer.”

“What kind of offer?”

He leans in. “A mutually beneficial one.”

I pause here. Because maybe I don’t know Donovan all that well. I wouldn’t even really call us friends. But I know his type. I know his bloodlines. The Couture family is involved in some deep-ops shit. For sure, all of the Untouchable families are in the deep-ops shit. But this goes further than that.

They are the shadows behind the secrets. The reason behind the lies.

My father was a cleaner and that certainly qualifies as deep-ops. The Coutures were cleaners too. At times. But they were assassins, and zookeepers—obviously—and heads-of-state in several powerful governments. They have been breeders too. It’s like that family has its baby toes in all the little Company pools.

So when a Couture sidles up to you hinting at a mutually beneficial deal, you never really know what that means.

“OK.” I look Donovan in the eyes. “You gonna explain that?”

“I have to… perform. Ya know? For the powers that be. And they want another addition to the PSYOPS project.”

The PSYOPS project is all about mind control and fucking with people’s heads. That’s how you raise up a psycho assassin like James Fenici and make him kill people for you for the better part of fifteen years before he loses his shit and goes off the rails. “Hmm. That surprises me after what happened in Santa Barbara.”

“I know. Me too. I’m not really into it, to be honest. I want things, Adam. In LA. Plastic surgery, specifically. I want a house on Mulholland Drive, and an office in Beverly Hills, and a weekend home in Malibu.”

I almost find this funny. And I’d tell him that to his face if I thought it would help me. But letting secret-keepers in on the fact that you know their secrets? That’s not wise or productive. So I say, “Well, go buy that shit, then. You have enough money.”

“Doesn’t work like that. Not with me. The next step in my trust fund states I need an MD/PhD, and I have to practice.”

“Sucks to be you, I guess.”

“But here’s my idea. You let me do a case study on little Indie to impress the higher-ups in the Company and I’ll keep her on the straight and narrow.”

“How’s that gonna work?”

“Therapy sessions.”

I think about that for a moment and shake away a chill clawing its way up my spine. “What do I get?”

“You get a well-behaved little psychopath who will do everything you tell her to.”

“I thought you liked this kid?”

“I do.” He says it a little too loud and a few men nearby turn to look at us. Donovan and I both hold our drinks up to cheers them. “But nothing’s for free, right? I give her you. A good home—heard about the reno, by the way. Sounds fantastic. And she gives me her mind.”

So that’s his angle. He wants to practice PSYOPS techniques on her. For a minute there I thought good old Donovan here had an altruistic side. “I’ll think about it.”

“What’s there to think about? You need her to work, I need a research paper, she needs a friend.”

“I don’t even know if I’m gonna buy her now. You’ve done a pretty good job convincing me she’s a bad idea.”

“Well… think on it then. I’ll be here. Watching.” Then he fuckin’ winks at me, points to his head and says, “I see everything, Adam Boucher. I know more than you think.”

He walks off, already calling out someone else’s name, and leaves me to ponder what he sees.

Or rather… what he’s seen.

I think he knows.

I think he knows my secrets the way I know his. And even though his father died with mine when that shit show in Santa Barbara went down five years ago, he still wants to be on my team.

I buy her.