“Now,” Jade demanded.
I was a little worried about her. She looked tired, desperate—coming apart at the seams. No matter their collusion, she hated Henri. Working for him must be wearing on her.
“Come eat,” she said, pleading now. “You look sick.”
Hmm, maybe that would keep the clients away, if my threats and my vehemence weren’t enough.
Thump, thump, thump.
Staring out the window, I spoke softly. “Why, Jade?”
Agitation rolled off her in waves. “You understand this. Business.”
“You were the one who sent me after him.”
“And you failed,” she cried. “You were supposed to save us.”
A throaty groan came from the other side of the wall, then fell silent.
“No.” My whole life I had been saving people. I didn’t expect gratitude—they were my sins as much as my accomplishments. But I was done with that. “I can’t save anyone.”
“You change mind.”
Jade frowned at me one last time, the wrinkles in her face crowding out her eyes.
“Henri come today. Don’t give him more reasons to punish you.”
She turned and left.
So he was finally coming to deal with the problem child. I continued to stare outside as a car rolled by. A flash of green eyes caught my eye in the window. I started in my seat before realizing they were the eyes of a kid, his nose pressed to the glass.
A black Escalade pulled into the parking lot across the street. Two men in suits emerged from the front seats, then one, slightly shorter, from the back, his gold-scrolled vest glinting off the sun. Henri.
I remained in my seat by the window, though I could no longer pretend to be unaffected. My heart raced; my teeth clenched. It was facing down an army, naked and bound. Not a question of pain but how much. No doubt of failure but how far.
As usual, two men preceded him. They pulled me up from the chair, flanking me on either side. Their fingers were like iron bands cutting into my arms.
Without looking at me, Henri strolled to the window. He looked out at the pitiful display and snorted.
“This would never have happened if you had stayed put, you realize.”
If he blamed me for his turn in fortune, he was delusional…and giving me far more credit than I deserved. Still, it wouldn’t save me. Nothing could, in the face of his wrath.
He pulled a gun out. With a handkerchief, he wiped the barrel of the weapon. He was a showman, and so was I.
“Why are you doing this?” My voice shook.
He looked over at me, his mouth a flat line. “You can do better than that, Shelly.”
“Please,” I whispered, not knowing whether the plea was real or fake, finally realizing it didn’t matter at all. When I said the words, they became real. When I lived the lie, it became me.
He pointed the gun at my chest.
This was it. I swallowed hard. There was no escape, no one to distract him. Nothing at all to barter with. He knew I’d never work for him again. My body was useless to him, my mind hardened against him. My life, forfeit.
The metal was cold. His eyes were cold. What a mess it would make.
“Why her?” I whispered.
“Why you?” he said. “Eat or get eaten. That is the choice we all face. Look at Jade. She was one of you before. The prey. Now she is like me. Predator.”
But Jade didn’t look like a predator. She looked hunted. There was another way out. Marguerite had done it. She was neither predator nor prey but her own person, one of pride and mercy, and she didn’t conform to Henri’s animal kingdom. She operated outside of it, tearing down its structures with her very presence.
“You’re wrong,” I said, a little stronger. Because I could be like her, even here, facing death. Circumstances would batter me, but they wouldn’t break me.
As if to prove me right, he told the men, “Let her go.”
I was sure I hadn’t heard him right, until they did. Both men released me, and I wobbled on my feet.
Henri held the gun out in the flat of his palm. “Take it.”
My gaze slid to the guys beside me. They looked as confused as I felt, but they knew better than to question him. Unlike me.
“Why?” I challenged. “So you’ll have an excuse to kill me? So you can say it was in self-defense?”
“I don’t need an excuse to kill you,” he said gently, as if explaining it to a child. “I’m giving you the chance to become the predator. Take it,” he repeated.
Gingerly, I picked up the gun. Though I was hardly well practiced, my hands fell into the proper arrangement. Right fist around the base. Left hand pointed down. Only put your finger on the trigger when you’re ready to shoot.
I aimed it at Henri’s heart, finger on the trigger. The men beside me tensed. If I killed Henri, they would kill me. For some insane reason, he had put his life in my hands, but he had second-strike capabilities here. If he went down, so did I, and in that way, our fortunes were still tied together.