“What?” my father asks after a beat.
“Transfer Seraphine to the new office in Dubai,” he says.
My eyes widen in surprise.
“What? Why the fuck would I do that?” my father practically spits out.
“It’s easier. It won’t raise any questions. It will keep her out of our hair. She’ll gladly go, I know she will.”
“This doesn’t solve our problem of what she’s trying to do.”
“It will. Look, she’s just one woman.”
“Not when Blaise is involved.”
“I’ll talk to Blaise about it. I’ll get him to reason with her. Seraphine is scared, okay, I guarantee that. She shot a man. That’s what someone who thinks they’re going to die will do. You did your job and you scared her. She’s not going to continue to poke around; she’s learned her lesson.”
“And how do you know this?”
“I’ve worked with her long enough to know that she’s human. She will preserve her own life. Let her think what she wants about us, but if she goes to Dubai, she’ll drop it.”
“Her love for her father is extreme.”
Pascal presses his lips together in thought. “I don’t think it’s extreme. I think it’s normal. For a normal family. Not for us.”
“Not for them either. They aren’t normal. They have everyone fucking fooled,” Father says. “You know what my brother did to me, don’t you? Your saintly uncle? You know why he deserved to die?”
I still, not knowing what he’s going to say.
Pascal shakes his head. “Not really.”
“You were there on Mallorca,” he says. “And you didn’t pick up on it.”
“There’s always something going on—”
“Right. Well, anyway. Don’t go ahead thinking that their side is the good side. It’s not. They share the Dumont name too. The same wicked blood pumps through all of our veins, only we’re the ones who aren’t scared of being who we are. We embrace it. They do it in secret and pretend to be good. It’s all a mask, son, all a mask.”
“Seraphine isn’t even related.”
“And that’s why she has to go.”
“She will go. I’ll make sure of it.”
There’s a pause, and I hear my father’s footsteps on the parquet floors, coming closer to the desk. “I’m not talking about Dubai.”
“You should be. I know your emotions are all mixed up right now,” Pascal says, his posture stiffening as my father gets closer and closer to him, to me. “But it’s the smart thing to do. Forget about it being the right thing—it’s the smart thing.”
My father stops in front of the desk, and I hear it creak as he leans on it. I see his shadow fall as he leans toward Pascal, staring him right in the eye.
I freeze. If I move, there’s a chance that my father will pick up on the movement out of the corner of his eye, and I have zero doubt that I’ll be killed. If he’s willing to blackmail his favorite son, he’s willing to kill the one he hates.
But I’m also willing to kill him.
“What a world we live in,” my father says in a low voice. I can see the bottom of his throat move as he talks. “You telling me what decisions to make. Smart ones, no less.”
Pascal doesn’t shrink. He holds his ground, stares right back into our father’s eyes. “There’s a first time for everything,” he says.
“Right,” he says, and the staring contest ensues.
I can’t even breathe, I don’t fucking dare.
If he looks down at all, he’ll see me.
He’ll see me and I’ll have to shoot him and maybe even kill my own brother, and then I’ll have to fight the rest of them, and then I’ll be dead too.
And then Seraphine will be dead.
And our legacy will come to an end.
Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
But then my father reaches forward and patronizingly taps the side of Pascal’s cheek. “Okay.”
He stands up straight, and I don’t dare exhale because he would hear me, but at least I’m hidden by the desk again. “If the men come back empty handed, then we’ll send her to the Middle East.”
What men?
“What men?” Pascal asks.
“We sent some men to find her.”
“I thought . . . I thought you wanted me to kidnap her? Bring her to you?”
My father laughs. “Oh, son. You really thought that I’d have to rely on you? I know you’re soft too. I just wanted to see where you stand on the whole thing. And it’s fine, really, I don’t expect you to be exactly like me. Roughing your cousin up, you didn’t seem to have a problem with that. Kidnapping, maybe. Kidnapping that leads to death? Perhaps that’s where you draw the line.”
“Where is she?” Pascal asks, saying what I wish I could ask, what my heart is lurching around in my chest over. “She wouldn’t be dumb enough to go to her apartment. Or Blaise’s.”
“Jones?” my father asks.
“We had some men check out their apartments,” Jones says coolly. “They weren’t there. So we started going through Seraphine’s contacts. The men are checking them out as we speak. If not a friend, then perhaps her brother’s hotels.”
Marie.
They’re going to know about Marie!
“So we’ll see,” my father says. “If they find her, well, I guess you don’t have to get involved with that, Pascal. You can cover your innocent eyes. But if they don’t, okay. She’s off to Dubai. But you would have to make sure she doesn’t have any contact with us and, more than that, that she doesn’t keep sticking her neck out. She has to drop this. You say she’s scared and she’s learned her lesson—well, I’m taking your word on it. But if you’re wrong . . . well, you know what the consequences will be. And it won’t be just for her. It’ll be for you too.”
“And Blaise? What do we do about him?”
He sighs. “I don’t care. If she’s gone, then it doesn’t really matter. Maybe he’ll go with her. Maybe he’ll stay here. As far as I’m concerned now, he’s not my son and he’s not your brother. You understand that? If he’s going to take Seraphine’s side over ours, then we have no choice but to cut him loose. This is his decision, you see. He can’t matter to us if we don’t matter to him. We’ll take him one day at a time.”
If I get out of here, I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure that I’ll never see these two again.
I have no family, except for Seraphine.
And that suits me just fine.
Only there’s a chance now I won’t have her either.
I wish I could check my phone, that I could call her, text her of the danger, but I can’t risk any movement. Not now.
“Now,” my father goes on, “if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to need to use this room for our meeting.”
Oh fuck.
Pascal seems to freeze. “Oh yeah?” he asks, slowly getting to his feet. “You want him bleeding all over here?”
There’s a shuffle and a gasp.