He turns his head.
“And what if it turns on you? What you’re doing is illegal, too. You created a literal killing machine. At what point doyoumeet the criteria?”
He inhales deeply and turns back to me, stone-faced. “What’s your game plan, Madison? What’s your move? You either have to let me go, or you kill me.” Another bloody smile flashes, and I can tell how convinced he is that he knows how this is going to play out. “Are you going to try to make me think you’re going to kill me? After all that—your little bleeding-heart display? Yeah, I’m thinking no.”
Suddenly, the door to the meeting room creaks open. We all turn with similar expressions of curiosity—there’s no way it’s Wes or Dimitri returning, they’re still in the other building—andToddsteps into the room.
He lifts a gun, pointing it right at me.
“Oh my god!” Eleanor screeches in alarm. Nicole gasps, stepping in front of her protectively.
With a terrified noise, I throw my hands up automatically.
“What? What’s happening? What just happened?”Wesley demands in my ear, responding to the sounds in the room.
My heart pounds in my ears. Fuck, it’s scary being on the wrong end of a gun. I can barely think. “Todd,” I say softly, informing Wesley and willing my voice to remain calm and even. “What are you doing here?”
“Todd! Shoot her! The bitch kidnapped me!” Fred urges, sensing his chance.
“No, wait!” I cry. “Wait!”
He levels the gun at my chest with a maniacal smile—he looks truly deranged and ridiculously pleased with himself. “I got suspicious when Fred collapsed. I knew you gave me that SSD for a reason. I always knew you were a cunt, but I had no idea just how big of a cunt you really were.”
“Todd, help me!” Fred renews his request.
“Don’t help him,” I plead. “Fred isn’t on your side, Todd. After you gave him the SSD, he put out a hit on you!”
“A hit? Like… a hit to kill me?” At my urgent nod, Todd’s brows come down, and his eyes flick briefly to Fred. “Is that true?”
Before Fred can get in there with a lie, I keep going, “Safe-T Keeper is a program that SmarTech created that contracts hitmen to take out criminals or anyone who gets in their way. Remember how Fred told you I was dead? I got in their way. And you know too much! They won’t let you live,” I promise.
“Is that true?” he repeats to Fred.
“Of course not; she’s lying. Todd, don’t listen to her! I’ll make you a senior manager! Untie me, son.”
Todd approaches Fred, keeping one eye on me and the gun pointed firmly in my direction. “She’s a crazy bitch. She tied me up, too. What, you have some kind of fetish for men way out of your league, Crunch Wrap Supreme?”
I wince. “He’s the one lying. You were never going to get that promotion,” I say, my voice dropping in urgency. “I have proof. I can show you!”
I can see it then. The spark of a waver in his resolve. “Proof?”
“Lower the gun, I’ll show you the software and the list. I’m plugged into their network, and we just got into the project framework. I can show you that your name is on their kill list.”
Looking incredibly suspicious, he glances between the two of us a few times. With a slow nod of agreement, he approaches and leans over my shoulder. He pokes the gun into my back, between my shoulder blades. “Don’t get any ideas,” he growls.
But my only idea is to show him the proof. So I do. I scroll through, find his name, and point to it with one shaking finger. With an angry noise, Todd turns to Fred. “She’s not lying. My name is in there.”
Fred pales as Todd turns on him. He starts shaking, trying to back away in the rolling chair with small, ineffectual movements of his taped feet. “I… It… It’s not what it looks like.”
“I think it is what it looks like,” he returns.
“Todd, stop! I can still help you!” Fred screams. “You can still come out on top! You can have everything! Your revenge against the cuntandthe promotion!”
“Oh yeah? How?”
“I can tell the program not to kill you. I have an override code. I can take you off the list with my phone.”
“Fuck,” I whisper, glancing down at Fred’s phone on the edge of the conference table. The key is in there?
