Page 52 of Dangerous Silence
“I’ll put Wil on it. And Axe?” I didn’t say a word, which was Derek’s cue to continue. “That woman, Demi?” He paused, waiting for a reaction, but I gave none. He couldn’t see me straightening my curled fingers, one by one. “You realize you don’t have to keep that promise to Shep, right? Gerard would understand.” He sighed as if the arranged marriage would affecthimmore than me. “She doesn’t need to be trapped in a world like this.”
He must have known that it was her idea to call the police, then. It was a hopeful view of the world, but also ridiculous because despite everything that had happened, she still believed in the order of the world. That the police helped victims. As if we, the Adlers, were the victims, and that would make everything we did okay. But we were as culpable as Muro himself. I wanted to shake her until she realized that this,our war, was bigger than the police, bigger than the government, more powerful than anything she had ever encountered. There was no right or wrong. Only dead or alive.
“She’s alive,” I said into the phone. That was all that Shep truly wanted. Derek knew that. He cleared his throat.
“I’ve got a job for you,” Derek said. He took a breath, adjusting the phone. “There’s a banker. One of Muro’s. I tried to reason with him, but…” A few buttons clicked on the other end, then he put his phone back to his ear. “Have him end the accounts with Muro. The rest of it is up to you.”
“Send me the coordinates,” I said. We hung up. I turned around. Demi had been waiting in the hallway, but she wasn’t there anymore. I ran a hand over my face. A few seconds later, my phone pinged through an encrypted app. A set of coordinates and a name. When I checked the location, it looked like the banker was staying in a hotel, which meant that he wasn’t from Brackston. Perhaps Muro’s accounts were all offshore. Another ping; a message from Derek:Wil is bringing the key card now.
I turned off the screen and stowed my phone. When I returned to the main area, Demi was leaning on the counter as she read a light orange takeout pamphlet from one of the drawers. She wasn’t reading; she was trying to appear distracted as if shehadn’tbeen eavesdropping on my conversation. She looked up at me and gave me one of those smiles that made my breath catch in my chest. As if she was trying to communicate her wishes to me. As if I could fulfill them.
But I needed to see if she would run. Whether she could still face me after seeing what I was capable of first hand. My ugliness.
I didn’t return the smile this time.
“Don’t get comfortable,” I said. “We’re going.”
***
The drives to Brackston were beginning to get on my nerves; I would have preferred to stay there indefinitely. But with Demi around, the risk wasn’t worth it. Dressed in a button-up shirt and slacks, a suit jacket hiding my holsters, and Demi in a blazer, a hat hiding her hair, both of us in gloves—we walked through the empty hotel lobby to the elevator. Derek had already assigned one of our men to disable the security system from afar. The lights on the cameras shone red, but the images were full of static on the receiving end. Using the key card from Wil, the elevator cart flew up to the twentieth floor. It was late at night, and because there were few oversized suites on that floor, we had an easy time getting to the banker’s room without being noticed.
I stood beside the door, taking Demi in. She removed the hat, her pale, cool-colored hair astray. She smoothed a few tendrils behind her ears. She looked at me, her gunmetal eyes lost, and she bit her lip. With a quick movement of my brows, I asked if she was ready. She nodded, holding her breath.
I swiped the key card. The pad beeped, then unlocked the door. A hallway, then a large open room, the ceiling fifteen feet high, a few doors off to the sides. The place was dark. A television chattered in one of the rooms, but other than that, there was no evidence of anyone staying there. I motioned behind me, and Demi fell in line, close to me. We inched toward the noise. The television could have been a distraction to keep potential intruders busyifthe banker were smart. Or it could have been like I suspected: an oblivious man who didn’t know the kind of devil he had made a deal with.
Peeking around the open doorway, a bed faced the opposite wall, a fifty-inch screen hanging above a dresser. A man, still fully clothed in his button-up shirt and tie, sat glued to the screen. His jacket rested on top of his laptop. The light from the television flickered on his face.
I put up a hand, telling Demi to stay.
“What?” she whispered. “I—”
I shot a look, narrowing my coal eyes at her, and she stiffened. She took in a breath, and before the man could turn to see what the noise was, I was behind him, putting him in a chokehold. He pulled at my arms frantically. I held him tighter.
“He-help!” the banker gasped. “Help me!”
He locked eyes with Demi, pleading to her. Using my free hand, I shoved the barrel of my gun into his temple. He whimpered, and I let him go, letting him cough himself into a fit. He was too easy. If I were anyone else, I would have felt the pang of guilt in my chest.
But I wasn’t anyone else. I had seen this kind of death, induced it myself, since I was a child.
I swung my gun at his laptop. “Cut the accounts to Muro,” I said.
“W-what?” the man asked, his voice shaking. “C-c-cut the accounts?”
“All of his accounts. Dump the funds. I don’t care where.” He didn’t move, so I pulled the hammer back. “Cut his accounts.”
Shivering, the man pulled the computer into his lap and started jabbing at the buttons, repeatedly stopping to erase, then type again.
“I don’t understand,” the man said, his voice wavering. “I just—” He shook his head, then pressed enter. “I just—”
“Close the accounts,” I repeated.
The man stammered, but did as he was told, his breathing haggard. Demi was in the corner, hugging her blazer around her chest, reminding me of myself” standing in the corner, observing Shep. But I couldn’t pay attention to her right then; I turned back to the man.
“It’ll take a few days,” the man said.
That didn’t concern me. I had a job to do, and part one of that job was now completed.
“We gave you a chance,” I said in a low voice.
