Page 102 of Scream
His mouth flaps open and closed and the longer he sits in front of me, the more I want to watch Sasha use his icepick on this motherfucker. “I’ve introduced you to-”
“Low level.” I cut him off again, keeping my eyes on his, not breaking. “You introduced me toyourlevel Syndicate members. I need to go... Higher. I need… to be in negotiations with PresCorp. I need to sit in front of the man who sexually assaultedyourdaughter after drugging her and give him no reason to ever come back to the Northeastern Coast. I need to be able to look that sick fuck in the eyes and let him know I’m coming for him.”
David’s jaw drops, eyes wide. He looks aghast. I smell a fucking rat. “Raped… my daughter?Who?”
Not a rat. An owl.
I slam my fist down, bile rising. And the slimy fucker jumps in his seat. I know I just said it, but I hate hearing it. It makes me fucking sick to know someone took something so great and tried to diminish her light. “That’s for me to kill, and for you to never know. Now, I need in that meeting, David. I’m not fucking around. Get me in.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know if I can.”
“Pull all the strings you need to. All the favors. Otherwise you’re expendable to me, David. It’s not a good thing to be expendable here.”
He looks shocked. Appalled. How could I have the gall? The audacity? He doesn’t say it. But the way those slate gray-blue eyes widen in shock; I may as well have shoved my thumb up my ass and did a little dance on my desk. “I’m your father-in-law. You-you can’t kill me!”
“And your daughter is the only thing that’s of significant importance to me,” I snarl. “ You think I don’t have eyes everywhere? Huh? You think I don’t see how she treats you? You’renothingto her. You made me everything to her. You sold her to me for your life, and I’ll do whatever the fuck I please with your soul.”
“Y-you really are a soulless devil,” he murmurs with that shocked expression still on his face.
I tilt my head back and rise to my feet, his beady eyes following me. Niko and Sasha’s lips tilt up in cruel smiles. “I’m so muchworse, David. I’mthedevil obsessed with your daughter… whom you are still indebted to.”
He stands to his feet quickly, leaving a sweaty assprint on the chair. “I don’t have to take this! I’ll… I’ll tell Sabrina!””
The guys work quickly, grabbing him by the shoulders and shove him back down and Niko has his gun to his temple and shushes him. He won’t shoot. Not here. Not in my office, at least. “You have seventy-two hours to secure me a place in that shareholder’s meeting. Or we’re just going to show up together instead. Make no mistake, David. If I find out you somehow had any hand in my wife being hurt for some Syndicate bullshit – I’ll kill you and serve her your fucking heart in a glass box. You will simply disappear. Not one person will mourn you, and I’ll still have your heart in a glass box.”I smile.
My red-faced father-in-lawwhimpers.Like a little bitch.
“It was nice seeing you, David.” the guys let him stand. He turns to shuffle away, but before he leaves I say, “I would be proud, you know, if I too were a useless sack of shit, and my daughter’s husband was doing what he could to take out the man who hurt her. I’d give him a firm handshake and offer whatever services I could. Loyalties and devilsbe damned.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Damon.
It’s late in the evening when my last client leaves, and my receptionist, Rebekah, swings by the door to my office to let me know her husband is here, and she's leaving for the day. I wave her off and go to the bookshelf in the corner by the stained glass window my clients love. I grab the few notebooks I need and my recorder so I can update what I've written down, along with my recorded sessions.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are my longest days, with my office being closed early Friday afternoon through Sunday – unless Sabrina decides to have a flare up. She’ll never know she’s the only client I have that I’ll see when she needs me, as a favor to Raven.Besides, I’ve learned I also like to be rewarded for good behavior.
I hear the door to the office open and shut, then footsteps coming down the hallway. I would ask Rebekah if she forgot something, but the measured strides are too long to be hers. I look up to see none other than Maksim Giordano standing there, hands in the pockets of his tailored midnight-blue Tom Ford slacks.
"Can't say I'm surprised, although I am a bit bothered it took you so long to darken my door."
"Can I... have a seat?" He asks, pointing with his chin to the sofa.
"Of course,” I reply, making a motion for him to sit.
He takes a seat on the sectional, placing his hands on his knees, patiently waiting for me.
I set the notebooks I have in my hands down on my desk, grab an empty one along with a pen, take a seat in my wing-backed chair, sit back, place an ankle on my knee, and open up the new journal.
Icouldtell him to leave,shouldtell him to come back after he's made an appointment with Rebekah, but he looks weary, as though he’s traveled very far before reaching his final destination. The tiredness in his gaze reminds me of Maverick, circa eight months ago.
"You said I should have come sooner?"
"Preferably with your wife, but yes."
The seconds tick by silently while he considers me. "Is this something you're going to talk to her about?"
"No. Unless you're a danger to her, she does not need to know of this... session. So, Maksim, what brings you by?"
