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“Done,” I growl. “It’s already fucking done. Of course I had to pay a little extra to get Leonard out of my seat so fast but when you have money like I do, what’s an extra million or two between friends?”
He looks like he’s going to be sick.
“If you’re about to throw up, aim for the window,” I order. “This office smells bad enough as it is.”
“Y-you can’t do this.”
I shrug. “I already have. I am the official owner ofThe Brooklyn Gazette. That name’s going the same way Leonard went, by the way. As a matter of fact—everything is going.”
Remmy’s eyes are a fraction away from popping out of their sockets entirely. “Y-you did this to stop my article from circulating. My exposé on you. You did this to stop it.”
I shake my head calmly. “I did this to protect my family.”
“You did this to salvage yourreputation.”
“My reputation was never in danger. Yours, on the other hand… Well, it’s precarious, to say the least.”
“You’re going to fire me?”
“Once the paper has printed retractions of your articles, I’m going to be ordering an exposé of my own. Your name will look good in a headline, I think.Reporter Caught Fabricating Lies, Harassing Witnesses.‘Phlegmy Remmy,’ they’ll call you. Leonard suggested that himself. Has a nice ring to it.”
He shakes his head and stumbles backwards. His hands paw at the air in search of something to hold onto, but he comes up empty. “No… you’re gonna ruin me. No one will hire me ever again…”
I smirk. “Trust me, Mr. Jefferson: that is the least of your concerns.”
His eyes dart around the office again, probably looking for the red sniper dot he thinks is aimed at his forehead. “W-what do you want from me?”
“It’s a little late to be asking that question, don’t you think?”
He reverses course and stumbles forward, fear winning out over every other emotion as he collapses to his knees in front of my desk. “Are you g-going to k-kill me?”
“It does seem like the cleanest way to end this.”
He sucks his breath and teeters from side to side like a puppet on clipped strings. “Please. Please, I’ll do anything.Anything. Just let me live.”
I lean forward and regard him. If anything, he’s even more pitiful than I pictured he would be. I suppose he’s taught me two things today.
You can always sink lower.
“Alright then. Let’s start with an honest conversation, shall we?”
He gulps. “W-what do you want to know?”
“Start from the beginning. Start from the moment you approached Emma for the first time.”
He’s shivering violently. His hands grip the head of the chair as he struggles to breathe, to think, to talk. “If I tell you everything, will you let me live?”
I tilt my head to the side and consider it. “That depends on how honest you are.”
Words start pouring out of his mouth in a repulsive, stuttering torrent. “I f-followed her, okay? Even after she said no. Even after she told me to take a hike. That’s what you want to hear, right? I figured I just needed to wear her down. Figured that, if I waited around long enough, you’d kick her to the curb, treat her like shit. All you rich men, you treat women the same, like they’re dispensable—” He eyes me warily but when I don’t say anything, he continues. “I figured she’d get her feelings hurt and then she’d come running to me.”
“And when that didn’t happen, you decided to continue stalking her?”
His tongue flicks out to moisten his thin, chapped lips. “I was following astory; I’m a reporter. It’s my job to do anything for a story.”
“Does that include pushing a defenseless woman down a flight of stairs?”
He stops short. His gaze drops. He’s sweating now. Beads of perspiration roll down the sides of his forehead despite the fact that it’s actually quite cool in here. It’ll be even cooler in just a moment, when I throw this poor bastard’s body through the window.
