Page 3 of The Silent Note

“Bring in Marvba,” I murmur.

When I turn, Slavno is standing. He looks nervous. Dirty fingers keep scratching at his arm.

I notice and purse my lips in mock sympathy. “Did dad forget to send your care package?”

Slavno grunts.

“He never was the type to keep his promises.” I pause. “Always kept his threats though.”

He twitches. That must have touched a nerve.

“It must suck…” I walk straight toward him with no fear. With the kind of bravery—or stupidity—of tourists on a safari approaching lions for a photoshoot. Calmly, I lean one hip against the table and stare into his junkie eyes. “… knowing those powerful people could spring you out of prison at any time, but they keep you in here. Stringing you along. Lying to you.”

His nostrils flare. “What do you think happens if he knows you were here, huh?”

“It’d be worse for you than for me.”

“No,” he snarls. “It would be worse for you. Much,muchworse.”

I laugh at his poor attempt at intimidation. Does he think I’m afraid of my father? Dad is predictable because the only person he cares about is himself.

Honestly, I used to hold out hope for his humanity, for his love for us. But that hope is dead now. A cymbal crash fading into silence. Dad’s already gone after my weaknesses, after the people most precious to me.

Now it’s my turn to inflict some damage.

“Either way…” I lift my fingers and stare at my uneven nails. Clipping fingernails with one hand in a cast is hell on earth, and I don’t look forward to another grooming session, “I’m here. And so are you.” I tap my index finger on the desk. “And even if you tell him that we never spoke, that you never leaked information, he won’t believe you. You’re forever tainted. A liability.”

Slavno’s eyes get so wide, I can see the veins swimming through them. Like a cornered rat, he leaps up. The chair behindhim crashes into the wall, teetering on its hind legs before slamming to the ground.

Desperately, he lunges across the table and grabs me by the collar. “If you think you can drag me into this mess, you’ve lost your f?—”

He stops mid-curse when the door behind me opens. Something blocks the light, almost like a tree suddenly sprung out of concrete and is towering behind me.

Slavno releases my shirt and stumbles back. His lips tremble in fear as if he’s staring at a ruthless animal. And I guess, in a sense, he is.

“M-Marvba.”

The shadow moves closer to us. A scraping sound, like chair legs dragging across the floor, fills the air.

Marvba grunts and I turn, tipping my chin up to meet his beady eyes. He grunts again, gesturing to the chair.

I shake my head. “Mr. Slavno and I were just about to come to an agreement.”

“P-please.” Slavno swallows so hard, his Adam’s apple bobs visibly. “You have no idea what they’ll do to me.”

Sweat beads on his upper lip and his eyes are crazed. Interesting. Dad must be a real piece of work if someone like Slavno is more afraid of him than a king pin like Marvba.

“I guess he’ll need some convincing,” I admit to Marvba, a pleasant smile still on my face. To Slavno, I say, “I really didn’t want it to come to this, but…” I shrug. “What can we do?”

Marvba takes one step forward.

Slavno breaks. “Wait.Wait!I don’t know anything about anything. I swear. Even if I did, six years is a long time.”

Marvba cracks his knuckles.

Slavno flinches. “But… I remember this much. The way they reached out to me.”

“How?”

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