“What about all of the future Shaes? Our only alternative was to let the guy walk out with enough gain to save face. That creates incentive for others to do what he just did. The predators in this world can sense that weakness from across an ocean.”
“So you don’t negotiate, and then the guy triggers his bomb before you can kill him and a couple hundred people die? That’s what we want?”
“Yes, because it saves lives in the long run. From that point on, everybody knows not to take hostages, because we’ve sent the message loud and clear that hostages are not valuable to us. If you care about the lives of innocent people, really care, you take away the financial incentive to hurt them. Otherwise you’re just creating a bill that somebody else will have to pay.”
“Enough with that, you’re upsetting Stench Machine. As punishment for that dismal performance, you must eat the entire rest of the cat cake, all at once, with your hands tied behind your back. The entire time, the rest of the team will take turns explaining in detail at least one thing they don’t like about you. If you try to refuse, Wu will be allowed to chop off one limb of his choosing.”
Will finished his drink and set the empty glass on a nearby table. “I’m going home. I’ll talk to the manager of the Night Inn in the morning, see what it’ll take for the staff to come back to work. I’m guessing it won’t be cheap.”
“Ugh. Fine.”
He turned to go.
Zoey said, “Hey.”
Will stopped and turned.
“How did I do? Tonight, I mean?”
“We’re all still here, aren’t we?”
That was all she would get from him.
As he left, Zoey let out a long sigh that devolved into a raspberry. “Well, I’m going to go soak in my bathtub until I fall apart like a corned beef.”
“There is one last thing,” said Budd, “unless you don’t want to deal with one last thing in which case I can take care of it, but Shae is in the foyer. She wanted to have a word with you.”
“Shae?”
Andre said, “You know, the hostage? From the hostage situation? That happened an hour ago?”
“Why does she want to talk to me?”
“Didn’t feel right to interrogate her on the subject,” said Budd. “Want me to send her away?”
“No, it’s fine.” It actually wasn’t fine, Zoey wasn’t in the mood to have this woman tearfully thank her and call her a hero, she’d find that just as draining as the standoff. Still, if Zoey could be said to have a job at all, this was it.
Zoey found Shae standing just inside the huge etched bronze doors of the main entrance, bundled in a long jacket that was too warm for the weather and definitely too warm for the foyer. Her arms were folded like she was hugging herself and her posture suggested that she thought the marble tiles around her were trapdoors. She clearly wasn’t used to being in places like this and seemed afraid that one wrong move would result in getting mauled by guard dogs. Zoey remembered the feeling.
“Hey,” said Zoey as she descended the stairs. “You holding up okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“You wanted to talk to me?”
“I’m really sorry. I just mentioned it offhand and your guy told me to wait here, it’s fine if you don’t have time, I didn’t mean it like—”
“Oh, no, it’s fine. I’m in for the night.”
“It’s just … your people are offering me all sorts of money and stuff and I don’t want it. That’s all. I don’t want to go back to the inn but I’ll find a different job. It’s okay. I’m okay.”
“Hey, I get it,” said Zoey as she stepped off the bottom stair. “I don’t like accepting help from people, either. But one thing I’ve learned is that sometimes the best thing you can do is say yes and then try to make the most of it. In terms of cost, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing compared to some of the other stupid junk we spend money on.”
“It’s not that. I don’t … please don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t want to be a part of this.” She waved her hand around the room. “This … thing, what you guys do. I can’t get wrapped up in anything like this. If I’d known you guys owned that place, I wouldn’t have taken the job. And please, please don’t get mad at me for saying that, I don’t have any problem with you, I really don’t, but I can’t get pulled into … I just…”
Shae was near tears.
“Oh,” said Zoey, letting out a nervous chuckle that was completely inappropriate in the moment. “You’re talking about all the crime. You think if you take the money then you’re on our payroll and somebody is going to show up at your house a month from now and say, ‘Hey, we paid you, now you gotta pay us back by whacking this union organizer we got beef with.’”
Shae did not crack even the hint of a smile. “I just want to go home.”
“Shae, you’ve got us all wrong. Or, well, you’ve got me all wrong. Can I tell you the story? It’ll take like thirty seconds.”
Shae didn’t answer but made a face like she was bracing herself to listen to a sales pitch while simultaneously rehearsing how to say no to it.
“I want you to imagine,” said Zoey, “that I gave you a piece of paper signing over everything I own—this huge mansion, all the businesses, everything—to you, right now. That’s exactly what happened to me a little over a year ago. I’m not a crime person at all. I was a regular girl, just like you. So, what happened was a famous crime boss got a random stripper pregnant and never gave her the time of day after that. Twenty-two years later, he dies and leaves everything he owned to the stripper’s baby that he had no relationship with whatsoever. That’s me, I’m the stripper baby! And when I say everything, I mean everything. Hotels, casinos, apartment buildings, sex workers. That scary guy I showed up with? Will? He was my father’s right-hand man. Same with the guy who brought you over here, his name is Budd. This is a team my father put together years and years ago, I inherited them along with all the rest. But I didn’t know about any of this until last Christmas.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you. And I get that you can’t get out, but I can’t get sucked into all of this. I can’t wind up like you.”
“What? No. I can get out. We could leave together, right now. Those people all work for me, they all have to do what I say. It’s fine! It’s all fine.”
Shae was truly thrown for a loop by this.
“They’re not … making you do it?”
“Ah, well, yeah, I see why you’re asking that. Not to get into my whole sad history or anything, but if you could see what I had waiting for me back home you’d understand. We had nothing, I lived in a trailer and it had an ant problem so every once in a while you’d go to pour a bowl of cereal and you’d put the milk in and look down at your spoon and see a dozen ants floating in it. So I didn’t have much of a life to go back to, is what I’m trying to say.”
“Yeah, but … you couldn’t just take the money and leave? You just, took over the Mob instead?”