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“You care a great deal for your fiancé.”
“I do.” To my surprise, it’s true.
“Young love is sweetest when it’s fresh. Do you?—
“I have known Anderson since we were teenagers, Mr. Moeller. This isn’t just young love or puppy love or some other diminutive thing you want to call it. This is real. It’s solid. It’s not going anywhere. I need him to be okay after all of this is said and done. So, you tell me what I need to do to make this right for you, and I’ll do it. But let’s be done with the cat-and-mouse crap and get down to business. Tell me about the debt, and we can settle this one way or another.”
Again, he sits back, looking me over. “Big promises from a woman with less than four grand in her checking account.”
“There are other ways to pay a debt.”
“Are you offering to seduce me?”
I laugh at the thought and hope he isn’t offended. “I was thinking more of favors from important people. My financials aren’t great, but my clients’ financials are, and if you’ve looked into me as much as I think you have, then you know that and you know who my clients are. They like me, Mr. Moeller. I save them from big bad Uncle Sam. So, if I ask for a favor, they are inclined to give it to me. That’s how I’ve vacationed in some of the best villas in Tuscany and a few islands in the Caribbean. I’d be happy to extend those favors to you.”
He smiles condescendingly. “Oh, that’s precious. You think a vacation in Tuscany can balance what Elliot West has done? You truly do not know how deep this goes, do you?”
“I don’t think a vacation in Tuscany would do much for you, but maybe some sweetheart business deals would, and there are other favors my clients would do for me as well. Government contracts I can make appear, things of that nature. But why don’t you spell it out for me? What did Elliot West do that put such a bee in your bonnet?”
At that, he stares off out the windows, looking wistful. “It’s a pity. Truly it is. You don’t deserve to be here. I had considered taking Kitty instead of you—it’s likely she knows what he’s up to, so it seems more appropriate to take her instead of you. But she is a dear woman who I have known a long time, and I don’t wish to trigger her heart condition any more than this situation might already. That said, the blame for all of this sits squarely on Elliot’s shoulders, so perhaps taking her would have been better … you see, he has done a terrible thing, Ms. Devlin. Very bad. Something I hesitate to mention because the more you know, the more you’re likely to suffer for his sins. Do yourself a favor and try not to get involved any deeper than you already are.”
“You kidnapped me, Mr. Moeller. I’m as involved as it gets, I’d say.”
He chortles. “Oh. No. You’re not. This could be far worse than what you’ve already experienced. But I do not wish that for you. Not at all. Remain an innocent bystander?—"
“No! I deserve to know why the fuck you took me!”
His eyes darken as he returns his gaze to me. It’s strange—he looks like a completely different person when he’s pissed off. “You’re right. You deserve to know. But I will not be the one to tell you. I will not taint you with that knowledge. As I said, the more you know, the more risk you are at. Do yourself a favor when you leave here and break up with Anderson West. You’ll stay safer that way.”
“I don’t remember asking you for relationship advice.”
“I’m not offering you relationship advice. I’m telling you how to stay alive. This will only get worse before it gets better. If it gets better. You’re a bright woman. Unless you have a death wish for you or your possible future children, you’ll leave Anderson.”
That takes the wind out of my sails. I rasp, “You would threaten the children I don’t even have yet?”
“Have you ever built anything, Ms. Devlin?”
I blink at him. “What?”
He gets up and paces in front of the city. “These windows are bulletproof. It’s why I can stand here and watch the world in front of them without worry. When you build something, you must consider things from every angle. How fortified can you make it? How safe for those you love? Can you guarantee—except that you cannot guarantee a thing in this life. The glass is bulletproof, but what about a bomb? What about poison fed into the water pipes from several buildings away? Or a toxic gas? So on, and so on.”
“What is your point? What does this have to do with Anderson?”
“I had another building before this one. Beautiful. Tall. Elegant. Bulletproof glass and filters on the water system to prevent toxins from coming in, all the latest in security. And do you know what toppled it?”
“Your ego?”
He laughs. “Termites. Billions of them. I have no proof that it was sabotage, but the infestation came from the inside and they ate their way out, so it’s hard to think it could be anything else. When you build something, Ms. Devlin, you must consider every possible angle. Every threat.” He turns to me. “If you build a family with Anderson West, the threat will come from inside the house. He will be the downfall of all you hold dear. Every West man is exactly the same. None of them are to be trusted. Mark my words.”
My voice shakes, but I don’t care. “You’re the one who threatened my non-existent children, Mr. Moeller. Not Anderson.”
“I build things. If your future children are a threat to what I build, I will end them just as easily as anyone else. Leave him and keep those future children safe from people like me. And people like Elliot West. That’s the only way to keep what you build safe.”
My skin crawls. I don’t know what the hell kind of business this guy is in, but it’s obviously much worse than I ever thought. That he’d lay a finger on children I don’t even have is too much for me. I’m all for doing business dirty. We do what we have to, and I don’t pretend I’m above doing things that are unseemly or pushing the law to its full extent to save my clients some money on their taxes. But there are limits. A lot of them.
Kidnapping is a big one. But hurting kids is a far bigger limit.
“I’ll take your recommendation under advisement.”
