Just like I thought it would, the call came the very next morning. It was maybe a bit sooner than expected, but I knew they were going to get in touch sooner or later. There was just no other move to make.

“Hello, Carter,” Bruce said.

I frowned, leaning back in my office’s chair. It was around eleven in the morning and I was just thinking about lunch when my cell rang. It said the number was unlisted and unknown, and though I don’t normally answer calls from unrecognized numbers, I was in unusual circumstances.

“Calling from a pay phone?” I asked him.

“Something like that. Though I’m not sure those exist anymore.”

“They do. They’re just uncommon.”

“Well. I didn’t call to discuss phones.”

“I bet. Called to blackmail me some more?”

There was a short pause and then Bruce chuckled. He was one smug son of a bitch.

“Yes, something like that,” he said.

So, he was confirming it. He wasn’t even bothering to deny that he was the one behind the letters and the threats. He must have been very, very confident, that piece of shit.

“What do you want?” I asked him.

“Come upstairs,” he said. “Floor twenty-eight. It’s empty right now. We’ll talk.”

“Why—“

But he hung up the phone.

I stared at the line then dropped it on my desk, sighing. I didn’t know what was waiting for me upstairs, but I knew that I couldn’t put it off. I opened a drawer in my desk and took out a small handgun, slipping it into the waistband of my suit. I smiled to myself ruefully. I always wanted to carry my gun for good reason, but now that I had to, I wished I didn’t need it. Life was funny that way.

I wasn’t a fucking gangster. I wasn’t a fucking killer. I was just a man that built a company and knew what he wanted. I wanted to control what I made with my own hands and I wanted to fuck my stepdaughter. I wanted her to no longer be my stepdaughter one day, hopefully soon.

I didn’t want unreasonable things.

I stood, adjusting myself, then left the office. “Hold my calls,” I told Evelyn as I walked past. Briefly, I wondered if I should let her know what I was doing, but I figured it was best to leave her out of it. At the end of the day, Evelyn and Emily were innocent of everything. I was the one that they wanted, and so I was the one that should shoulder all of the burden. I wouldn’t put her in any more danger than was necessary.

I got into the elevator and rode it up, trying to control my nerves.

This was the moment I had been waiting for. I was finally going to speak face to face with Bruce, the bastard that had been harassing me. We were going to hash it out, and I was going to figure out what my final move had to be. After this, I could plan.

But part of me thought he was just going to try and throw me out of a window. Killing me would make all of his problems disappear, though murder investigations could be a real pain in the ass. Still, I knew Cox, and if anyone could get away with murdering me in this building, it was him.

I shook my head, marveling at how easily I could imagine someone trying to kill me. I never thought things could get this low, but they had, and I suspected they could get lower still.

The elevator doors dinged, pulling me from my thoughts. I stepped off and looked around at the empty, half-built office. Plastic sheeting hung from the bare rafters and partially deconstructed cubicles filled the space. There was trash on the ground, mostly papers and files.

“Bruce,” I called out.

“This way,” he answered. I headed toward his voice. It was coming from the north side of the building near the windows.

I saw him standing there, silhouetted by the outside sunlight, Cox by his side. I felt anger flare up inside of me. I couldn’t believe Cox would be here, willing to show his face, that traitorous piece of shit. He had to have some measure of shame left inside of him, but apparently not. Apparently he was okay just standing there, his face flat and normal as always, not showing a single emotion.

I stopped in front of the two men and crossed my arms, waiting for them to speak.

The arrogant bastards watched me for a minute or two, staring me down. Cox had no expression on his face, neither happiness nor embarrassment, just his normal cold blankness. The man had worked for me for years and he should feel like a snake, but he wasn’t showing it. I hoped he was stewing on the inside, that piece of shit rat bastard.

“So, you’re here,” Bruce said finally. “I wasn’t sure you’d show.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“You know what we have on you.”

I shrugged, “One more scandal won’t matter.”

Bruce laughed, shaking his head. “You’re insane, Carter. This isn’t just some small scandal. This is you fucking your stepdaughter. You’ll be destroyed. Nobody will touch you after this.”

“Maybe,” I said.

“We have more than what we showed you, much more. Clearly, Cox here has been working for me, and you know how efficient he can be.”

My eyes flashed to him, anger boiling up to the surface despite my trying to remain calm. “You’re a piece of shit snake, Cox,” I said. “I thought you were a good man. I paid you well and treated you right. I guess I was wrong.”

“A better offer came along,” he said simply.

“Scumbag. I never pegged you as a rat traitor. How can anyone trust you or work with you now?”

“Enough,” Bruce said, cutting in. “Enough. I don’t need to hear you two squabbling like an old married couple.”

I spit on the ground, staring at Cox. I hoped he understood that he was less than dirt to me now, and he had been diminished in the world. Maybe he was getting a lot of money from this, but that would never replace his lost honor.

I turned my attention back to Bruce and the matter at hand. “What do you want?” I asked him.

“Finally getting down to business.” He smiled at me serenely. “It’s simple, actually. I want you to resign from the company and to leave the country.”

I laughed. “Very simple.”

“I will accept nothing less.”

“Actually, you’ll accept much less. Because I’m not going anywhere.”

“Are you sure about that? You’re not in a position to negotiate.”

“Actually, I think I am. You see, you won’t release that information. As much as you hate it, Valor Tech is attached to my name and my reputation. I founded the company and built the company, and public perception is on my side here. If you come after me, you come after Valor.”

“Ah,” Bruce said, the smile never leaving his face. “I wondered if you’d make that connection.”

“You can’t destroy me without destroying the company.”

“There’s one big mistake you’re making, Carter. You assume that I don’t want to destroy Valor.”

“What? What’s the point of this then? Without the company, you’ll have nothing.”

“There are powers in this world much larger than companies,” he said with a sly smile. “Some men would be very happy to see your company destroyed.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Insider trading,” he said. “I’d tell a few close friends that the stock of Valor was about to drop in exchange for small portions of their profit. I’d also sell off what I had, of course.”

“That would never work. There are too many regulatory agencies watching the market for that exact thing.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Are you willing to gamble your life on it? Because I am.”

I stared at Bruce as I slowly realized something that I had never noticed before: he was insane.

Not actually crazy, of course. Bruce was an intelligent man and clearly still had control of himself. But he was willing to take serious and intense risks, the sort I never would have guessed he was willing to take. That, combined with his willingness to blackmail, suggested that he had some serious instability issues.

This wasn’t a fully rational man standing before me, as I had been assuming. All of my calculations so far had been around the assumed fact that Bruce was a normal, self-regulating human. Instead, he was clearly unstable and verging on madness.

For a second, I felt afraid.

My mind worked through my options. Part of me wanted to pull my gun and kill them both, but I suspected Cox would pull his faster. He knew I kept a weapon in my office and was probably prepared for something like that. No, I had to do something else, probably something equally drastic.

That left me only one option. It was obvious and it was dirty, essentially the last thing I wanted to do, but I had to do it. I couldn’t see any other way out of this mess with my honor and my company intact.

“I’ll think about it,” I said finally.

“Don’t think long. I’ll give you two days to figure it out. If you don’t make your choice then, I’ll release the information and we’ll see who survives.”

I didn’t bother to respond. I turned without another glance at Cox and quickly strode to the elevators. I thought I heard Bruce laughing as I walked away, but I couldn’t be sure.

I was already planning my next moves. I knew I had to finish this soon, much sooner than people expected, otherwise we’d be done for. But I finally had a course of action, and I hoped it would be good enough to get us all through it. Because this wasn’t just about me anymore, it was equally about Emily and Evelyn. I couldn’t just leave them behind and forge ahead with some random plan. Whatever I did had to include them in some way, at least it had to have their best interests at heart.

I couldn’t tell them my plan. Not exactly at least. I knew they’d both try to talk me out of it, but I couldn’t have that. If they tried, I was afraid I’d listen and back down. I needed strength and dedication now, nothing else would do.

But before I did anything, I had one last stop. I had one last thing to do, something that I wanted to do, not something that I needed to do. It was just as important as anything else, and I couldn’t wait another second.