Page 340 of Double or Nothing

A treasured gift from William Parker. Another chance to prove I deserve the seat he’s spent two weeks pulling out from under my ass.

“I don’t want to save it,” I tell him.

Bill glares at me.

Christopher uncrosses his arms.

“What?” Bill asks. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I open my top drawer.

There’s no resignation letter waiting inside. No plan. No carefully prepared exit.

Only this one present moment.

I take a blank sheet of paper from a notebook and lay it out on my desk.

Bill watches me.

“You’re emotional,” he says. “Just take a few minutes, will you?”

“No.”

“You aren’t thinking clearly.”

I have no qualms in looking up at him. No humiliation in my stare.

“Actually, for the first time in years, I think I am.”

I pick up a pen, surprised that my hand isn’t shaking.

“You told me I was part of your family,” I say.

“You were.”

Past tense, but he doesn’t even hear it.

“You said you respected me.”

“I did, until you gave me reason not to.”

“Exactly.”

Bill’s brow tightens.

“Your respect only existed while I was useful and obedient, and now I’m not, I might as well be dead to you.”

Bill scoffs at me, folding his arms.

“That is an extraordinary distortion of everything I’ve done for you. Unbelievable. Have you lost your goddamn mind?”

I hold back a laugh.

“What you’ve done for me?! I strove for every opportunity. I worked myself to the bone. You didn’t rescue me. You employed me, Bill.”

“I made you, Bryce.”

The words fall between us. The vileness in his eyes is impossible to ignore. Power at the cost of everything.