Page 42 of Bastard

I could picture Sam doing it, too. All raged faced and sexy. But in my version she had on a very low cut blouse so that when she was flipping the table there were a lot of boobs to stare at. “Well, maybe skip the table flipping until we’ve got more evidence about how your family members died.”

She twisted her lips off to the side, then slammed her laptop shut and scooted closer to where I sat in the armchair by the windows. “I’m now one hundred percent convinced all those ‘accidents’ were murders.”

“Why do you say that?” I had a sudden urge to double check all the windows and doors. Maybe add a bomb-sniffing dog to our team.

“Whenever Hiten and Tristram walk into a room I am hit by the creeps. Like the whole room goes cold and my instinct is to grab a knife and run. They’re the kind of people who get what they want by any means necessary. Tell me, what would Todd do if he somehow wound up in their shoes? Would he murder the men who stood in the way of what he wants?”

“That’s easy to answer.” Memories of the hits I carried out in Todd’s name flashed through my mind. Not the faces. I rarely remembered the faces. But the places. The smells. Which weapon I used. “Yes. He would.” I would.

She slipped completely off the bed and came to sit on the floor. The way she pulled her knees up under chin and wrapped them up tight meant Sam was feeling pretty damn vulnerable right now. “Georgia doesn’t know this…” her voice wasn’t much more than a whisper, “but Clancy had some old recordings. Videos, voice notes, things like that, from Bernard's office. After his death, Clancy helped Georgia deal with some of Bernard’s personal effects. He thought these might be useful one day. He gave them to me.”

Holy shit. This was huge. And weird that she was on the floor while I was in a chair, so I crawled down to sit in front of her. The rug was plush so it wasn’t unpleasant at all. “Did you watch them?”

She nodded quickly. “Not everything. There’s actually quite a lot. But Jace?” She rubbed her hands over her face and made gagging noises before shaking it all off. “He was such a narcissist. Always talking about himself, how great he is, how smart he is. He genuinely thought he was better than everyone. Ugh. And he talks about Hiten and Tristram like they’re amazing human beings. Praised their ruthlessness, the way they found loopholes to exploit. He even bragged about all the ways they were starting to screw their employees over because of how much more money it made them.”

That definitely fit with everything we’d learned about Sam’s biological father so far.

“There are these voice recordings,” she went on, “they sound like meetings in his office. Usually one guy he calls Randall. Just the two of them. Anyway, Bernard is much freerer with his words in his office, but especially with this guy.”

Randall. Could he be the same crouched man I saw slip into Hiten’s office? It was worth checking out. “What did he say?”

“So gross. Classic toxic male crudeness.” She gagged again. “All women—even Georgia—are dumb bitches and whores. He had some slurs thrown in there that I won’t repeat. Needless to say, Bernard wasn’t a fan of homosexuality or people of color. Oh, except for Charles Ming. He ‘hired that Asian because they’re smart.’” She air quoted and spit after she repeated the words.

“I know the type, unfortunately.” I scooted closer and rubbed her arms.

“That’s why I told you. I knew you’d understand.” She shuddered. “I can’t imagine being that hateful. To actively hate so many people. Fuck, he probably hated everyone except Hiten, Tristram, and himself. Huh. That’s incredibly sad.”

“But not as sad as all the people they hurt.”

To my surprise, Sam actually smiled a little. “That’s why I’m so determined to fix this company.”

There was a fire in her eyes. I recognized it because it’s what I imagine I look like when I’m talking about taking down Todd. “Is there…is there anything criminal in those recordings? Maybe Hiten or Tristram admitting to something illegal? Something I could possibly make sure got into hands that could do something about it?” They were smart, but maybe with Bernard they had their guards down.

The fire disappeared and a curtain came down. I thought I’d lost her completely thanks to my referencing my ties to the FBI, but then she sighed and her eyes unfocused. “Not yet. They dance around it. If I come across anything though…I’ll let you know. I don’t like to think about what you’re doing, but I want these assholes out of my life more than anything, so yeah, I’ll use your connections if I need to.”

That’s all I could ask for. “I love you, Sam. I’m not going to get hurt. I promise.”

Her glare hit like a punch to the gut. “You can’t promise that.”

“Yes I can. I used to not care what happened to me. As long as Todd and the Chubbies got it, I didn’t care if I went down too.” I couldn’t stop myself from cupping her face and running my thumb along her lower lip. I relaxed when she pressed into my palm. “I have every reason to come out of this alive. As determined as I’ve been to get my revenge, I want you more. I’m coming out of this alive and well. And so are you. I won’t accept any other answer.”

When we returned to our secret mansion by the sea the following week, I expected to spend some quality time in bed showing Sam how much I was looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her.

Instead, everything changed.

17

Sometimes you play pool because you want to play pool. But sometimes you play pool because the power dynamic of the assholes around you demands that you perform a game as a form of chest beating and caveman-level posturing.

Sam was spending the day in Gainesville with Hazel and Yara. She was hoping David would have news. I, on the other hand, spent the day at the table. With the Feyereisen relationship moving forward there was a lot of logistics to work through. My only goal was to keep my guys out of it. Besides, was there a more perfect job for Knife? He could be their literal knife in the field. And then he’d be the problem of the prison system when it all went down.

But the Chubbies didn’t seem to believe I was being entirely truthful since, you know, I wasn’t. To alleviate their concerns I played pool. It gave them a chance to carefully air their concerns while looking me in the eyes. If I missed a few hard shots that somehow set them up with a great shot, then even better. The more their egos inflated the less they cared about me.

“You like wearing all those money suits, don’t you, bastard?”

Ah, my good friend Spades. “I don’t mind. Not as comfortable as jeans and boots.” All casual as you please.

Murder flexed his fists, the word murder tattooed across his six middle fingers when he put them together. Then he grinned. “Probably licked the boots of those fancy fucks to get us the job.”

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