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Confidence. Certainty. She shouldn’t doubt herself.
At the club, the car door opened, and she didn’t wait for anyone’s permission to go inside. Security moved out of her way at the door and at the stairs to allow her up.
People were beginning to expect her. Or the boss gave orders to let her in. Maybe some of his people were like her, dragooned and coerced against their will… or maybe not.
She went into the office, throwing the door back into the frame before anyone could follow her.
Ire and Niall stood on the rug, whiskey in the glasses they held. She marched on, opening her purse to retrieve the envelope.
She tossed it down on the desk. “I didn’t do it.”
Turning to face him, she expected a fight. He side-nodded at Niall, who put his glass down and departed. Seemed every time she walked in, he was sent out.
And they were alone again.
Their eyes met.
“Good,” Ire said, sipping his drink.
“Good? Did you hear what I said?” she asked, putting her purse on the desk. “I didn’t do it. There’s your envelope, unopened. Babcock didn’t get whatever you wanted me to deliver. How can you say that’s good? You didn’t want me to do it?”
After the emotional and mental turmoil of the day, she couldn’t believe he’d be so glib.
“Means I won the bet with Niall.”
Further taken aback, she retreated a step. “You didn’t think I’d do it?”
Sinister glee narrowed his eyes. “Hoped you wouldn’t.”
Her blood cooled. “Why?”
“An alderman, the Police Superintendent, and one of the city’s finest vice detectives,” he said. “I get to take them out with the click of a button. It’s a gift. Think how much easier my life gets when your family falls apart.”
“You don’t have to do it,” she said, her heart pounding. Was she appealing to his sense of fairness? His decency? Neither had a hope with this guy, he wasn’t capable. “You wanted to humiliate me? To make a point? Point made. I get it.”
“No, but you will when the tape hits the wires.”
He started to turn, but she grabbed his arm. “Please. There has to be another way.”
He considered her. “You can’t care that much. Why didn’t you do it? Because you’re stubborn? That was enough to sacrifice your family. Knew the night we met you had no loyalty. You didn’t surprise me. I expect people to look out for themselves. Number one, that’s what it’s all about.”
Mr. Know-It-All thought he was so smart. “Because it was illegal,” she said, resenting the shit out of him. “I didn’t do it because it was illegal.”
“You didn’t open it; how do you know?”
She didn’t blink. “Am I wrong?”
And his lack of answer was answer enough. His body turned toward hers again. Her hand slid away as his rose to move a tendril of hair from her cheek.
“And if there was a legal option?”
A compromise? “I do something legal, and you give me the recording. Every copy. And don’t hurt my family.”
“You do something legal and I don’t ruin your family.”
“The recording?”
“Stays in my private collection until we reach the end of our agreement.”
