Page 159 of Boardroom Ties
A lot of things could be said here, in the gap that follows. I don’t know how many of them would ever matter. It’s clear to me that DeMaris has made up his mind and nothing I tell him will change it. He knows what he wants and where he intends to shuffle me next. I’m just one more item in a ledgerbook.
And if that’s the case, well, fuck it. Why bother making it easy for him?
No, I won’t go quietly. I’ll fight until the end. I’ll scratch and claw at his throat.
And yes, I’m sure the prison guards will come tear me off of him and beat me senseless.
And yes, I’m sure he’ll still get his way—my baby gone, me locked up for good.
And yes, it will be a pointless fight, a forgotten one, because no one will ever see or hear of me again.
But if I die here and now, I want it to be said aloud one more timewhyI did it.
“Did you know I had a sister?”
His eyebrows lift with mild interest. “I don’t believe I did.”
“Giana.” Her name in this room, in this air, with him sitting in it, is almost more than I can stand. “Giana Madden. She died five years ago.”
He nods, polite, bored. “My condolences.”
“She paid for my life,” I tell him. “Because she loved me and I loved her so, so much. She had one of those laughs that could fill a room. I know that’s a cheesy thing to say, but she really did. I’d do some really terrible things just to hear that laugh one more time.” Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I press on. “She worked some hard jobs. She did it to keep us whole and safe, a roof over my head, all those good things, and she never, ever complained. Until five years ago. She had an appointment with a rough regular at a hotel uptown. He was drunk and demanding things he had no right to demand, and when she said no, he hit her. She fell and cracked her skull on the corner of the bathtub, and—to skip to the end here—he left her there to die. That man’s name was Raymond Snyder.”
I watch DeMaris for that. For the flicker. For theoh.
And I get it, just for a second. The smallest tilt of his head, the briefest narrowing of his eyes. He’s recalibrating something.
A piece of the puzzle has just clicked, and he doesn’t like that it was set in place by me.
“Ah,” he says finally. “So that’s why.” He whistles, impressed. “That is a long con, Cassandra. You poor thing. I hate to see you stumble at the finish line. Breaks my heart, truly.”
He says it like a compliment. Like he’s seeing me for the first time, and what he sees, he respects.
If only the feeling were mutual.
“I don’t want your respect,” I retort. “I want you dead in a ditch.”
DeMaris chuckles again. “Now, now. That’s no way to talk to a man who’s offering you a future.”
He settles back in his seat like we have all the time in the world.
Maybehedoes.
But I don’t.
I narrow my eyes. “I’m not losing my child,” I inform him. “So you can take your deal, Senator, fold it until it’s all corners, and then shove it up your ass.”
He sighs. “That is disappointing,” he concludes, “but not entirely unexpected.” He reaches inside his suit jacket. “I had a feeling we might end up here.”
What he draws out is small and neatly packaged. A syringe with a glistening metal tip. Inside, I can see a clear liquid. So innocent-looking. I have a sick and almost certainly accurate feeling about what will happen if that liquid goes inside my veins.
“It’s already written,” he says apologetically as he rips open the package and uncaps the syringe. “The story, I mean. Inmate Snyder, eight weeks pregnant, distraught after her arraignment, somehow acquires a controlled substance from a fellow inmate.Sucha tragedy. The warden’s office will issue a statement. There’ll be a small piece in the Metro section. Your cousin Daniela will give a tearful quote, I imagine. Pretty girl, your cousin. I had my people pull her file.”
I keep my expression steady. I will not give him the satisfaction of widening my eyes in horror.
“It’s a fast one,” he explains, lifting the syringe a little and sloshing its contents around inside so I can see. “I’m not a cruel man, Cassandra. I want you to know that. I had them choose something fast. You won’t suffer.”
“How kind.”
