“Don’t run,” I tell him. “Jorge is out back waiting for you. I’m sure you’ll remember him from the first time we did this.”
“Shit,” he mutters and steps aside so we can come in.
I say, “Is your grandfather home?”
“He’s gone to the market,” Paz says.
“Okay. If you cooperate, he doesn’t have to know about any of this. If you don’t, we’re going to be here for a very long time. So long you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do to your entire family.”
“I’ll cooperate,” he says quietly.
“Good decision. This is Renee. He’s going to scrub your computer, phone, and any other devices he finds. Jorge is going to come through the back door in a moment. He will search the house for external hard drives or USBs. You’re going to hand over everything to Renee, then you and I are going to sit right here while I explain what will happen to you if you try to blackmail Kat Cooper or any other woman again, but here’s a preview. You go to jail. Directly to jail. Do not collect two hundred dollars.”
Paz takes his phone out of the pocket of his shorts, and hands it to Renee. “It’s got my only copy, other than what’s stored on the cloud.”
I hear the back door open, and Jorge appears. I look at him. “He says he only has the cloud as backup.”
Jorge glares at him. “You don’t mind if I have a look anyway?”
“No,” Paz says, shrinking.
“Sit down,” I tell him. When he does, I shake my head. “It would be so much easier to just leave Jorge here and go on with my life, knowing you’ll never pop up into it again.”
“Why don’t you?” Paz asks, head hanging.
“I could never do that to your family, but I wouldn’t hesitate to make sure you end up behind bars for a very long time. The first time you did this you were lucky, because The Bahamas didn’t have revenge porn laws yet. But we do now, as does the Benavente Islands. Theirs are much stricter. I spoke with an attorney there and you’d be looking at ten to twelve years. Blackmail is another couple of years on top of that. They have extradition agreements in place with nearly every country on the planet, so unless you want to move to North Korea, I suggest you pay attention.”
He glances at me, afraid. Gone is the swagger he wears everywhere he goes, and in its place is the shame that should be there. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass if you’re sorry, and I’m not going to waste my time trying to get you to think about the people you hurt. I’m not going to ask you what your father would think if he knew the things you’ve done, because it doesn’t matter to me. You don’t matter to me enough to try to redeem you. You’re a snake that preys on vulnerable women. You’re a lazy shit. You’re nothing. And you have to live with that.” I stop to let the words sink in. I’ve never said anything so cruel to anyone in my life, but I’ve also never known anyone more deserving. “I’m going to keep the video, and I’ll be keeping an eye on you. You won’t know how or by who, but you will be watched.”
That’s a lie. I have no way of keeping tabs on him, but having him spend the rest of his life worrying is going to be part of his punishment. “If that video ever,evermakes its way onto the internet, you’re fucked. Do you understand?”
He nods. “I wasn’t planning to post it. I swear. I just needed the mon—”
“Save it. I’m not interested.”
We sit in silence for over an hour while Jorge and Renee do their jobs. I stare at him the entire time, exuding disgust while he squirms in his chair. When the job is finished, Jorge nods and I stand. “Please don’t think that I’m letting you off for your sake. If I had my way, you’d be on your way to prison already. I’m doing this for Kat’s family. This would have ruined their lives if it got out.”
Paz looks like he could burst into tears at any moment.
“I’m serious, Paz. You ruin them, and I will ruin you.”
When we walk out into the sunshine, I’m tempted to high-five the guys for being gangsters, but I won’t. I’m a well-respected businessman.
When we get to the car, Renee says, “That felt sort of badass, didn’t it?”
“Not really,” I say, but I give him a small grin. “Okay, yeah, a little.”
Renee breaks into a huge smile. “Totally badass. We crushed that.”
Jorge nods, managing to look a lot less impressed than I feel.
* * *
As soon as I get home, I go directly to my bedroom so no one on my staff will hear. I pull my phone out of my pocket, intending to call Nora immediately, but I stop, finger hovering over her name. I cross to the French doors that lead to my balcony, open one, and walk out and sit, gazing at the sunset over the sea.
I’m not going to call Nora. Not ever again. If I tell her the good news, she’ll be so grateful she’ll say she didn’t mean any of the harsh things she said and that I’m not the person she thought I was. She’ll say she wants to give us a try, and I’ll agree to it, because I want to be with her so badly, I’d fool myself into believing she’s in love with me when she clearly isn’t.
