Page 235 of Merciless Daddy

“You don’t know anyone reasonable.”

His mouth tightened.

I looked toward the terminal camera.

“You need more than my face. The hardware token isn’t installed.”

Something moved in his eyes.

Good.

They couldn’t do any of this without a hardware token. And Angela was the only person on the planet with one of those.

One of the guards shifted behind me. Gianni lifted a finger. The man went still.

No violence on my face. No bruises where the camera could see them. Gianni had built himself a stage and needed the leading woman pretty.

That gave me room. Not much, but enough to be difficult.

“We have people working on the hardware token,” Gianni said. “It will take some time, but there will be a workaround.”

I snorted. “Some time? It’ll take days.”

“It’ll take as long as it takes.”

“No. Because with all that time, Sal will find me,” I said. “You know he will.”

Gianni laughed softly.

The sound scraped across my skin.

“Salvatore is likely tearing Chicago apart. He will hit Mill Basin. He may hit every Halberd office from Boston to Miami. He will make a great deal of noise.”

The machines hummed beyond the glass.

“But not here,” he said. “Nobody knows this facility exists.”

I looked at the archive shelves through the suite windows. Endless grey rows. Boxes buried behind shell companies and old records.

“You know,” Gianni continued, “this could have been comfortable.”

I faced him again.

“If you had married me without the drama, you could have kept your houses. Your clothes. Your little foundations. I would have let you sit in meetings and say intelligent things.”

“Well if only I’d known how generous you are! I would have done it.” The sarcasm was biting.

“You might even have believed you had authority.”

My nails pressed into my palms.

He leaned forward.

“But you embarrassed me. You made me look weak. You ran to Salvatore and opened your legs while my ring was still intended for your hand.”

The words hit. I did not let him see where.

“You should be careful,” I said. “Jealousy makes your face soft.”