“Wonderful, dear. I was starting to wonder if my man was a little too zealous in his apprehension of you. Although that wouldn’t have been much of a problem for me, now would it? It would have saved me time, effort, and probably a fair deal of money as well.”

Finnley struggled to open her eyes and was sure that she could not. She had no idea what was going on, not a clue. All she knew in those first moments was that she had the worst headache she’d ever had in her life. She thought she recognized the voice coming to her in the dark, but she couldn’t place it. Or else she didn’t want to place it. Not knowing exactly who the man was didn’t stop her from having a rather visceral reaction to the sound of his voice. It was bad enough that she wanted to fade back into the blackness.

“No, no, no, that won’t do. You can’t just sleep through the whole thing. I’m going to need you to recuperate enough to converse with me, and I’d like it to happen sooner rather than later.”

“What is this?” She groaned, opening her eyes against her better judgement. “What the hell are you doing, Mr. Wallace?”

“I must say, I’m surprised to hear you address me with that kind of respect. Nothing else you’ve done has indicated that you were ever taught respect for your superiors.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. It’s got nothing to do with respect. I’m just not so anxious to be on a first name basis with you. I don’t tend to get friendly with creepy mafia men.”

“There it is,” Mr. Wallace replied with a humorless smile. “There’s the sass my son seems to like so much. I don’t see how he tolerates it, personally. The first thing I would do with a girl like you is whip you into shape. And I do mean whip.”

“Great, good to know. Also, super-gross.”

“People like you should know their place, that’s all I’m saying. It’s up to your betters to teach you.”

“Do you think you could just get to the point? Unless you kidnapped me for no reason, but something tells me that’s not really your style. Your ruthless, but from everything I’ve learned it’s usually with a purpose.”

It had all come back to her, as much as she didn’t want it to. She had been on her way to Garrett, ready to tell him exactly who his father was, when everything had gone black. She was good with computers, always had been, but she’d never been involved in something like this. It hadn’t occurred to her to check for a tail. She’d never considered the fact that she might be followed, but now it made perfect sense. All of this time she’d thought she was being clever and Mr. Wallace had been onto her the whole time. And speaking of Mr. Wallace, his expression had darkened to an outright scowl.

“You’re a very rude little girl, dear. You’re also very lucky that I’m trying not to get my hands to dirty while I’m here, otherwise I would have just had you shot and been done with it. I’m not accustomed to being spoken to this way.”

“And you shoot the people who you find rude? You know that’s not, like, normal, right?”

“I don’t have to be normal. Who wants to be a normal man when you can be powerful?”

“If powerful means shooting people, I’m out.”

“Ha! You can’t honestly think you’ve ever been in a position of power, can you? You’re here because I’ve decided to negotiate. As I said, I’m trying to avoid any unnecessary deaths and distractions.”

“What exactly are we negotiating?”

“You. Or your silence, to be more specific.”

“My silence, huh? Sounds to me like you’re a little worried about what I might be able to do.”

“I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting you to find as much information as you did. I wasn’t expecting you to care enough to do the digging you and your little friends did. I failed to take into account my randy son and the possibility that he might jump into bed with one of our computer geniuses.”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is that you surprised me. You’ve discovered information that nobody else has been able to. Either that or not cared enough about to look into. It’s impressive, and I’m sorry to have to see you leave us.”

“Right. You already basically told me all of this.”

“What I didn’t do was ask you your price.”

“My price? Are you freaking kidding me? I know you’ve got your mafia ties, but this isn’t the latest installment of the Godfather franchise. You know that, right?”

“Again, I’ll warn you to be careful. I’m only willing to tolerate so much of your insolence before I put an end to the whole thing. I can make your body disappear, my dear. I’ve done it plenty of times before.”

“Fine. What are you asking me my price for?”

“For your cooperation. And before you give me your answer, let me be clear on what I mean by that. When I say cooperation, I mean your total cooperation. That means whatever I tell you to do, you do it. If I want you to stay at Cubed and work on each and every job I give you, you do it. If I want you to tell my son to go to hell and never attempt to approach you again, you do it. I want your price for your total and complete cooperation.”

“Thanks for clearing that up. And fortunately for us both, that’s easy enough to answer.”

“Wonderful. What’s your price?”

“Nothing.”

“I don’t understand,” he frowned, the decorum he’d managed to keep finally beginning to crack. “What do you mean, nothing?”

“I mean you can’t buy me. There is no amount of money I would take to do what you told me to. I won’t ever be one of your ‘people,’ Mr. Wallace. Not for anything.”

“Everyone has a price, dear.”

“Well, I don’t. Maybe you just haven’t met somebody with principles in a while. I don’t really care because I’m not doing it. I would rather die than be on your payroll.”

“And you realize that’s exactly what’s going to happen to you, don’t you? You’ve learned far too much about me and my business for me to let you go, especially now that we’ve gone through this charade.”

“Do what you have to do, Mr. Wallace. But if you think people won’t come looking for me, you’re crazy. I have friends, and they won’t just shrug their shoulders and say ‘oh well’ if I up and vanish.”

“I took care of that. As far as any of your people are concerned, you got sick of not only Cubed but of all of them as well. You left a letter asking them not to contact you.”

“It doesn’t matter. It won’t work. There’s no way any of them would ever fall for it.”

“They will though. They’ll fall for it because it’s the easiest way to do things, the path of least resistance, so to speak. People typically take that when it’s available to them. I’m sure they’ll spend a week or so spinning their wheels and trying to track you down, but your friends are smart, aren’t they? They’re smart, just like you.”

“Smarter.”

“Fine. So after what I’m guessing will be a relatively short amount of time during which they won’t be able to track you, they’ll realize you’ve covered your steps because you don’t want to be found. They’ll forget about you, Finnley. They will pick up their lives and go on with them, and pretty soon they won’t think about you at all. And neither will my son. I know he’s made you feel like you’re special, but nobody stays special indefinitely. You have no idea how easy it will be to make you disappear.”

As he spoke Mr. Wallace pulled out a long, evil looking knife. He contemplated it with an expression Finnley was sure was meant to think was sad, but he wasn’t fooling her. This was the outcome he had been hoping for, this pinnacle of violence. He didn’t want to pay her off. He wanted to break her down, and he wanted to make her bleed.

“What’s the matter, dear? Have I frightened you? Maybe even enough to make you reconsider?”

“No, not enough for that. Nothing will do that.”

“Even though you know I’m right?”

She wanted to tell him to go jump off a bridge or something, but the trouble was, she couldn’t help but wonder if he was right. It was certainly easy to believe that Garrett would find her easy to forget. The last time she had seen him, he had told her he didn’t know where they stood. He was furious with her, probably furious enough to cut her loose. How much easier would it be if she just vanished and he didn’t have to make the final break? It was a more difficult pill to swallow to think that Clara and Elsie would take that letter at its word and move on without her in their lives, but it wasn’t impossible. She had been struggling to figure out her place in their lives ever since the discovery that they were actually sisters, and on more than one occasion, she had wondered if she should just bow out of the friendship gracefully. Maybe Mr. Wallace was right. Maybe they would believe she had moved on because it would be easier to do so. They wouldn’t have to deal with a third wheel anymore.

“Enough, Wallace! Drop the knife! Put your hands in the air, nice and slow!”

Mr. Wallace’s eyes had been trained exclusively on her and her struggle, but at the sound of this new and unwelcome voice they flew up and behind her. Finnley could tell by the look on his face that he was furious, which was her first glimmer of hope since being snatched up.

“Who the hell are you? What are you doing in my warehouse? This is private property, young man. I suggest you be on your way before I have you removed.”

“I’ll tell you one more time. Drop the knife and step away from her! Put both of your hands in the air and get on your knees. Do it now, or I’ll make you do it.”

“I’ve got a better idea.”

Mr. Wallace, his face looking more like an animal than a man at this point, snarled and lunged forward, grabbing her by the hair and yanking her up out of the chair he’d had her loosely bound to. The hand with the knife moved up to her throat, digging into her skin and eliciting a frightened cry. He whipped the two of them around so that they were facing the intruder, and Finnley let out another cry, this time one of hope.

“Weston!”

“Quiet, you bitch,” Mr. Wallace snarled, holding the knife tighter so that she could feel the first beads of blood pop up and begin to trickle down her throat. “Let the men talk.”

“It’s okay, Finnley,” Weston said calmly, one hand held out towards her in a gesture of goodwill while the other kept a steady grip on his expertly pointed gun. “Everything is going to be okay.”

“You think so?” Garrett’s father laughed cruelly. “Do you really? Because I can tell you right now, she’s not leaving with you. You can either walk out of here, or you can suffer the same fate.”

“Dad.”

When Finnley saw Garrett step out of the shadows, she began to cry. All of her fears that she would be killed on never missed flooded out of her. If Mr. Wallace hadn’t been holding her up, she would have slumped down to the floor, utterly exhausted and spent. The appearance of his son seemed to have done a number on his father, too, because she could feel the knife hesitate ever so slightly.

“Garrett! Garrett, you shouldn’t be here. You don’t need to get your hands dirty on this. I’ve got it.”

“No, Dad, you don’t. What you’re doing is crazy. It’s crazy, and it’s enough. Let her go, okay? We’ll figure it out from there. Just let her go.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, son. She was given her options. She chose poorly.”

Because Mr. Wallace looked down at Finnley’s face, he never saw his son pull out his own gun. As Finnley watched, Garrett made the sign of the cross, then fired. Mr. Wallace let out a shriek of pain and let her go, sending her sprawling forward as he hit the ground. She began to crawl forward blindly, only stopping when Garrett appeared before her and swept her up into his arms.

“Garrett! You shot him! You shot your father!”

“Only in the knee. I wasn’t trying to kill him, I just wanted him to let you go. I’ve been taking shooting lessons all of my life. Just one of many things my dad doesn’t know about me.”

“But what happens now?”

“Now Weston will take him into the precinct, I guess. I think they’ll have a hard time making anything stick without proof of what he’s done, but we can hope.”

“I might be able to help you there, actually.”

“What are you talking about?”

“This,” Finnley said as she pulled a tiny recorder out of her pocket, “it’s been on the whole time. Since your grandparents’ house, actually. I’m no expert, but I think there’s more than enough on this tape to get him into some pretty serious legal trouble. Like, prison trouble.”

“Are you serious? That’s amazing! You’re amazing, Finnley.”

“Are you sure about that?” she asked hesitantly, their last conversation still burning brightly in her mind. “Because the last time we talked you weren’t so sure.”

“The last time we talked I was an idiot. I can tell you exactly where we stand, at least from my standpoint. I want to start again. I want to take you out on a date, and then I want to take you on a bunch more. Because I like you, Finnley. I like you in a way I think could turn into love pretty quickly. What do you say to that?”

“I say yes.”

Despite everything going on around them, Garrett grinned and kissed her. For the first time in months, Finnley felt like everything was just about perfect.