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“I hope so.”
He glances at the screen. “That’s her debts cleared.”
“I think we’re done here.” I get to my feet. “Goodbye, Frank.”
“Say hi to your pop for me if you see him. Make sure you tell him I hope he’s feeling better. You know, me and him went to the same school together.” “I know, Frank. You told me before.”
“Did I?”
“Yeah, you did.”
“Shit, maybe my memory is starting to go.” He pours himself a drink as I head outside to my car. A digger rolls past, heading toward a massive hole in the ground over to the left. The perfect place to get rid of a body.
I climb into the back of the car. “You got a girlfriend at the minute?” I ask my driver.
He grunts. “Got a couple of women on the go.”
“You love them?”
“Nope.”
“Ever been in love.”
“Only once.”
“Go on.”
“I was fourteen. She was eighteen and served me liquor without any ID. I sure loved her for that.”
That’s what love is. It’s getting things from people, and being grateful when you get what you want. It’s manipulation, not emotion. Simple as that.
29
Hunter
* * *
“You can’t just buy me like that.”
She looks furious. I’m barely in the door before she’s confronting me. “Calm down,” I tell her. “I thought you were the one telling me to control my temper.”
“What is that?” she asks, spinning the phone around, so the screen faces me.
“Your bank account,” I reply. “Problem?”
“I called them. All my debts have been cleared. Today. You had no right to do that.”
“How do you know it was me?”
“It isn’t likely to be anyone else, is it? Why did you do it? Want me beholden to you? Is that it? So grateful I go along with this charade of a marriage.”
I grab her by the arm and pull her into my study, slamming the door shut with a kick of my foot. “Sit there,” I tell her, pushing her into the chair. “Do not move.”
She scowls at me but remains where she is as I cross to my chair behind the desk. I sit down and fold my arms across my chest. “You seem to be laboring under a misunderstanding, so I intend to rectify that. Until now, I have been lenient with you because you seemed to understand how this works. That has changed.
“I must make things clear. You are not in charge of this situation. I am. I am your boss. You are my employee. You are here to obey me, not the other way around. Your job is to look after my daughter, not to berate me. You ever confront me like that again, and it’ll be the crop I bring out to pepper your ass with blows, not my hand. Are we clear?”
“But—”
