“What the fuck do you want?”
He sighs and places his fingertips together.
“It’s very clear, Mr. Gerard. I want to be reelected. Why else would I work so hard at ridding Paris of its scum?”
I know he’s baiting me, and I refuse to rise to the bait. The irony of calling us scum…
Though I’m familiar with where I am now, I can see that we’re in a different area. Before, deep in the dark recesses of this basement hovel, there was no light, no noise from the outside. I can still see where they held me, the chair and chains still visible in my mind. But now I can hear the rattle and squeak of something overhead and even see a small window that sheds light on the passing feet of passersby. It takes me a minute to identify the bright blue lights and stone monuments outside the window.
We’re in the basement of the Capitol.
Clever, Montague. Very clever. And damning. If I ever got word to the press about what he does in the basement of this place of government business, he’d never survive it.
The nerve that Montague took me here.
“You had to ask questions, didn’t you?” he says with a shake of his head. “You could have just left. When we began the witch hunt, you could’ve packed your bags and gone off with your friends in Tuscany or America, but no. You had to go after mydaughter.”
Go after his daughter?
“It was easy enough, Mr. Gerard. Let me have my way. The citizens of Paris aren’t interested in riffraff like you being in their historic city. All you had to do was give me my way and let me drive you out of the city.”
No.It’s a lie. He was never going to just drive us out of the city. He wanted us annihilated. He may still.
“But you went and had to perpetuate your rubbish by impregnating my daughter.”
“Your daughter,” I repeat through gritted teeth, “hasn’t seen you since she was too young to remember. You don’t even pretend that she exists. And you have the nerve to claim ownership of her in this way? She wasn’t good enough for you before, you rejected her and pretended she never even existed, but now she’s your precious daughter?”
“Silence!” he thunders, as shooting pain cascades through my nerves. I clench my jaw to stifle a scream when pain tears through me. He’s got me connected to chains that emit electric currents.
Motherfucker.
I grit my teeth and glare at him as he continues. I’m panting from the exertion when the pain stops.
“She disgusts me. A prostitute for hire when she worked at La Maison? An employee for your revolting club?” He shakes his head. “I wanted to punish you for having the gall to disrupt the calm of my city. I had one of the officers on our payroll infiltrate one of your businesses, pretending to be a client. He had the nerve to go too far, and Fabien decided to kill him, didn’t he?”
It takes me a minute to realize what he’s talking about. Fabien killed a man who attacked Nicolette. Montague’s hire?
“My daughter will pay for her shameful behavior. Wretched creature. I hoped thatyouwould kill her when you discovered she betrayed you, and things looked like they were going our way. But you didn’t, did you? Foolish man.” He shakes his head. Spittle flies from his mouth as he fumes. “You thwarted my plans. You had no idea she was working for me all along, did you?”
I tear at the chains that have me bound to the floor.
He’s lying. He can’t hate her and consider her despicable and also hire her to work for him.
Can he?
Would she?
“Let me go,” I seethe. “Then we can talk man to man.”
He likely knows that our “talk” would involve my hands around his throat. He only shakes his head.
“If it were that easy, why would I chain you to begin with?”
A door opens and I hear approaching footsteps. I look up to see one of Montague’s henchmen. I recognize the crooked nose, thin lips, and narrowed, beady eyes. I see him in my nightmares.
My torturer.
“Welcome back,” he says with a ruthless smile.
