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“If you like. I’m not armed.”
He glares at me.
“Okay, Ingram. What the fuck happened to Kate? She’s cut off everyone from her life, acting like a crazy person. She had a lawyer threaten me with a restraining order if I didn’t stay away from her. What the fuck did you do to her?”
“I failed to protect her.”
He scoffs.
“You’re the one she needed protection from.”
“In a way, yes. I should have dealt with Anton Ford when I had the chance. Now he’s hurting Kate to hurt me.”
“Anton Ford?” Brendan asks. “Of Innovative AF? What does he have to do with this?”
“I wronged him many years ago. Two months ago he shot me and he thinks I’m dead. Listen: Kate isn’t crazy. Anton’s punishing her for my crimes, but I can help her. I have a plan, but it’s going to take time. Anton has power you couldn’t even dream of.”
Brendan leans forward in his seat.
“Kate’s still my friend. I want to help her,” he says. “Tell me what I can do.”
My phone chimes, waking me.
I groan. The bedsheet tents at my waist. Kate and I were together in my dreams. I haven’t relieved myself since my last time with her. I could really use a little release… but not yet. I’ll have her back soon, and I’ll be glad I waited.
Assuming she still wants me.
Kissing her back in that van brought joy to my heart — the first I’d felt since she came to my residence wearing Edward Lonergan’s blood. She was happy to see me — that was clear. But she’s also been a prisoner for months, with no one to confide in, no one to comfort her or offer a way out of her torment. Once Anton’s dead and she’s free, she may never want to see me again — and I’ll accept it. This is all my fault. She’s under no obligation to thank me for dousing the fire I set.
If she still loves me, though… if it’s real and she can let go of the past, then… that’s all I’ll ever need.
Sighing, I check my phone — it’s a message from Eyal.
There’s news, come see me.
I throw on some clothes and head into the command center, where Eyal has on LPN. A scarlet Breaking News chyron reads: Karthik Pai found dead
Fuck.
“An apparent suicide,” says Eyal. “They found him in his family home outside Dallas.”
“Have someone investigate. Find out if that’s what really happened.”
“Understood.”
Considering how badly we fucked him over, it wouldn’t be shocking if Karthik took the easy way out. For his sake, I hope he made it easy on himself and ended it quickly. However, I don’t think that’s very likely. Anton probably killed him. I’m sure of it. He would have wanted Karthik to suffer.
Needing to control everything is Anton’s strength, but also his weakness. It gives him an incredible will to plan and plot. He can design contingencies and anticipate moves that will fail or succeed, but his process takes him toward one destination — his ultimate goal. It roots him in place. He can bend in the breeze, but he can also be broken. His branches can be snapped one-by-one, and without them, even the deepest roots won’t save him.
However Karthick died, the difference is somewhat academic at this point. Still, knowing Anton’s mental state could prove useful. I won’t make the mistake of underestimating him or assuming we’ve thrown him off his game, but if we’re disrupting his power, that could be used against him.
I get out my phone, secure a line and call Brendan.
“I take it you’ve heard,” he says. “It feels like my fault. Like I did this to him.”
All he did was help us prepare the evidence of Karthik’s crimes in a media press kit and give us the names of the journalists who could easily confirm its contents. In other words, he did his job.
“Well, it’s not your fault. He did it to himself.”
