“I’ve seen the prospectus.”
“Do you own any stock?”
“A little.”
She grinned.“That’s great!Buy more, Cutter.He’llcroak.”Then her grin faded and she wanted to cry.“Such small victories.I want a big one.”
“Someday.”
“When?”
“Someday.”
She didn’t like the sound of that.It was too vague, too far off.“What do we do in the meantime?”
He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.“We grow.You make a name for yourself.I make money.”
“I’d rather have you than a name for myself.”
His voice was harder when he said, “You need a name.
It’ll give you power.”
“And the money?Do you need it?”
“Yes.”
“You never used to.”
“It was a pipe dream then.Now it’s real.”
“It’s just money.It buys things.”
“It buys power.”
She felt a chill.She’d grown up knowing people with money and power.Her impression had been that one corrupted the other.John was a perfect example.“Does it mean so much to you, having power?”
“Yes.”
“It didn’t used to.I can remember when you didn’twant to be a supervisor at the mine.You didn’t want the responsibility.”
He turned his head on the pillow.His eyes were dark as the night and hard as his voice.“We’re not talking being supervisor at the mine anymore.The stakes are higher.And they’re within reach.I’m making good money.Good money is self-perpetuating.I’m starting to think that it’d be nice to have as much as I can get.”
“You were never money-hungry.”
“I am now.”
She felt an ache inside.The Cutter she’d known had simple tastes and desires.Most of them had focused on her.“Is making money more important than our being together?”
Angry, he came up on an elbow.“We can’t be together.He won’tletus be together.It’s not safe.”
“What can he do?Couldn’t you and I, between us, counter anything he tried?”
“Not yet.”
“You’ll let him go on directing our lives?”
“No.I’m directing my own life.”
