Chapter 5 5

The car moved like a shark through the water-smooth, silent, predatory.

She sat on the edge of the seat, her body coiled tight. She was still wearing the stolen maintenance jacket over her hospital gown. She smelled like the dumpster she had fallen into.

Cedric opened a compartment in the armrest. He pulled out a steaming white towel and handed it to her.

"Wipe your face," he said. "You look like a raccoon."

She took the towel. It was hot. She buried her face in it, scrubbing away the mascara, the dirt, the blood. When she pulled it away, the white terry cloth was stained gray and red.

"Why?" she asked again. "Why did you get me out?"

He opened a bottle of Fiji water and handed it to her. "Because if you go to jail, or the loony bin, my grandfather's trust clause activates a morality provision. Our marriage is invalidated. I lose my voting rights."

She drank the water in one gulp. She crushed the plastic bottle in her hand. The sharp crinkle of plastic was the only sound. Her dislocated thumb ached with a dull, throbbing rhythm. "The marriage clause."

He looked at her then. Really looked at her. His eyes were the color of cold brew coffee. "You know about it."

"I know Arthur was desperate to get my kidney into Archer so the 'union' could proceed. I assume he planned to marry me off to your family, whether I was conscious or not."

"The lawyers handled the paperwork while I was... indisposed," Cedric said dryly. "Wives in comas tend to complicate tax returns."

He tapped a tablet on his lap. He slid it across the leather seat toward her.

"Sign it."

She looked at the screen. It was a contract. An ironclad Non-Disclosure Agreement. And a petition for annulment, post-dated for one year from now.

"We stay married, in public," Cedric said. "For one year. You play the part of the devoted wife. You help me secure the board's vote. I give you protection from Arthur."

"And after a year?"

"We divorce. You walk away with ten million dollars."

She looked at the number. Seven zeros. It was enough to disappear. Enough to live on an island and never look back.

"I don't want your money," she said.

Cedric raised an eyebrow. "Everyone wants money."

"I want Arthur Bailey destroyed," she said, her voice low and shaking with a fury she could no longer contain. "I want his company. I want his reputation. I want him to feel what it's like to be cut open and left for dead."

Cedric stared at her. A slow smile touched his lips. It wasn't a nice smile. It was a shark recognizing another shark.

"You're greedier than I thought," he said.

"Is that a yes?"

"I can give you the resources," he said. "But you pull the trigger. And in exchange... you behave. You play the role of the silent, supportive wife. You don't embarrass me or Chantelle."

"Deal."

She signed the screen with her finger.

The car pulled into an underground garage on the Upper East Side. They took a private elevator to the penthouse.

The doors opened into a living room that was bigger than the entire house she grew up in. It was all glass, steel, and modern art. It was cold. Impersonal.

An older man in a suit was waiting. Wenfield. The butler.

"Sir. The guest room is prepared."

Cedric pointed down a long hallway. "That's your wing. Stay out of my master suite. Don't touch my work."

"I'm not a thief," she said.

"You stole a scalpel and a bottle of Dom Pérignon tonight," he noted. "Go clean up."

She walked into the guest room. It was luxurious, gray, and sterile.

She opened the closet. It was full. Rows of dresses, coats, shoes.

She pulled out a silk blouse. It was a size 2. Her size.

He hadn't just decided to save her tonight. He had been planning this. He had been tracking his unwanted wife.

She shivered. She had traded a butcher for a jailer.

She went into the bathroom. She stripped off the ruined clothes. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her body was a map of violence. Bruises on her wrists. Scratches on her legs.

She found a first aid kit under the sink.

She sat on the edge of the tub. She threaded a needle. She didn't use anesthetic.

She stitched the cut on her foot where she had stepped on the glass. In, out, tie. The familiar, precise movements calmed the tremor in her hands. This, she could control.

In the study, Cedric watched the security feed of the hallway. He saw her enter the room.

"Harrison," he said into his phone. "Find out where she was for the last three years. The file says 'private retreat.' I don't buy it."

"Why, sir?"

"Because she doesn't flinch from pain," Cedric said. "And she negotiates like a terrorist."