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Have I made the right decision or the smart one? I guess I’ll know soon enough.
38
CHLOE
* * *
“Well, howdy,” Blizzard says, his grin widening as his eyes move down my body. “You sure are a ripe-looking one, aren’t you?” He mops the rain from his brow with a silk handkerchief, leaning across to stroke my cheek a moment later.
I pull away, my back digging into the barrel of the gun the Don’s holding. “Don’t go getting ideas,” the Don says. “I thought you’d be grateful. You always wanted to know what happened to your parents, didn’t you?”
I spin around to face him, my teeth chattering in the cold. “If you’re going to shoot me, would you just get on with it?”
“I don’t want to shoot you. On the contrary, I want your help, Chloe.”
“My help?”
“You and Enzo have the negatives of some rather important photographs and I would like them returned to me. Perhaps, if you were good enough to tell me their location, me and you could come to an arrangement. You could be Tom’s new personal secretary. A hundred thousand a year to start with.”
I look back at Blizzard who’s licking his lips like he’s a snake tasting the air. “You’ll like working for me,” he says.
“Go to hell,” I snap at him. “I wouldn’t work for you for a million dollars.”
The Don spits on the ground. “Think it through. You’ve got a simple choice here. Down in that grave is an open coffin, lid wedged beside it. In a couple of minutes, that lid is going to be in place. Your choice is whether or not you’re inside when that happens. Where are the negatives, Chloe?”
“Fuck you.”
He shakes his head. “I’m not sure you’re thinking straight here. I could shoot you. Believe me when I tell you I can shoot you so you’re still alive but you’ll wish you weren’t.”
He reaches into the car with his free hand, bringing out a bottle of water. “This is poisoned with Lily of the Valley,” he says. “Saw it on Breaking Bad and thought I must remember that one. Now, I’ve got a bet going with the good old senator here. Want to know what we’re wagering?”
I say nothing, wondering if I can snatch the gun out of his hand before he shoots me.
“You’re in the coffin whether you like it or not, and I’m sure you don’t, but I’m a generous man. I’ll let you keep the bottle for company. I’m betting that when I dig up the coffin in a week, you’ll have drunk the poison to end your life rather than slowly suffocate. He reckons you’d keep your optimism and pointless hope until the bitter end. He thinks when I dig you up, the bottle will still be full. What do you think, Chloe? Are you still an optimist? Still think someone might come and save you?”
“Enzo will come for me.”
They both laugh, the Don wiping away tears as he does so. “That is amazing,” he says. “You’re so weak and pathetic and easily led. Do you think the man who killed your parents would come back for you? Wise up, girl. He’s a shitty human being looking out for himself, same as the rest of us. He wouldn’t come back even if I hadn’t ordered him killed. I know that man. He didn’t give you a second’s thought while he bled out on that rooftop, believe me. Now I will ask this one last time because I’m growing bored of repeating myself. Where are the negatives?”
“You’re just going to have to kill me. I’m not telling you.”
Tom coughs behind me. “See how she feels in a couple of days,” he says with a snigger like this is turning him on. “Put her under for a few days, Don Umberto. That’ll loosen her tongue.”
“Good plan,” the Don replies. “Chloe, get down there now or I shoot you in the legs and then push you in.”
I look at the gun and then look him in the eyes. “Enzo will come for me.”
“You keep on believing that, sweetheart. If he’s alive, he’s headed for fresh pastures. You can bet your ass on that. I know men like him. He’s fucked you. He’s done with you. You’ll never see him again. He’s dead. You’re delusional. Get over it.”
“He’ll come for me. I know he will.”
He shoves me backward. I lose my balance on the slippery wet mud, falling fast into the grave, landing in the coffin on my back with a sickening thud, slamming my head into the wood and giving myself one hell of a headache. “You keep believing,” the Don says as he nods toward Tom. “Nail her in.”
The Don stands at the edge of the hole with his gun pointing at me. “When I dig you up, I’m betting you’ll admit I’m right, beg me for the deal you just turned down.” He nods toward Blizzard who climbs down into the hole, picking up the coffin lid and holding it over my head.
“Did you kill Enzo’s mom?” I ask him.
He licks his lips, his eyes lighting up with joy at the memory. “Oh, yes,” he says. “One of the best days of my life. Night night,” he adds, passing the bottle of water through the gap. Then he’s sliding the lid into place above me. The last thing I see is him blowing me a kiss. “Sweet dreams.”
