Page 56 of Gorgeous Misery

“So you’re gonna let her go?”

I laugh. “No.”

“Where the fuck is she?”

“Don’t you worry about that. She’s safe.”

“I want to talk to her. Now.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible. She’s… indisposed at the moment.”

He pauses. I am a precise person. An intentional person. If Nick remembers anything about me, he remembers that much. And that word, indisposed? Yeah, that’s gonna trigger him bad.

“You’d better explain that.”

“Let me tell you how this is gonna go, Nick. So we don’t waste any more of Wendy Gale’s precious moments. You’re gonna stay right the fuck where you are and I’m gonna come to you. OK?”

“No. Either I talk to Wendy or this negotiation is over and what happens next is I hunt you down and take you out.”

I laugh again. “We both know you’re not up for that.”

“Here’s what we both know, Merc. I dropped three little girls off with you ten years ago and you’ve spent that entire time building pools, and fake beaches, and investing in things like strollers, and pony lessons, and family vacations. That’s not how my life went. So I’ll take my fucking chances.”

“This isn’t hardball. Not even close. I’m not quaking in my boots, boy. In fact, I find you rather amusing.”

“You’ve got ten seconds. One.”

“She cannot come to the phone.”

“Take the phone to her.”

“I do not stutter, Nick. When I said she was indisposed, I meant it.”

“If she has one fucking scratch—”

“You think I’m torturing her? Well…” I laugh for a third time. It’s bad form and it’s a wholly inappropriate moment, but I can’t seem to stop it. “She’s pretty fucked right now. But not the way you think. So this little I’m-OK-you’re-OK chat you wanna have won’t be possible. And if you argue with me, I’ll just hang up and proceed without your input, how’s that?”

“What. The fuck. Have you done?”

“I need information. I need to know if you truly are a special kind of scumbag liar. I mean, I’ve seen the clues. You’re on the board, right? You post on there? You and Wendy have a little code going, maybe? Yeah. I’ve seen it. So while I am fucking astonished that you would put Sasha through the kind of pain most people don’t ever recover from, I am not entirely surprised that you really are that special kind of scumbag liar.”

He stays quiet. Which means he’s plotting something.

“Nothing to say to that?”

A loooong sigh from Nick Tate.

“So.” I sigh too. “Wendy has been very helpful in figuring out what the actual fuck is going on here. And here’s something that might surprise you, or perhaps make you a little sick—do you know who gave me her name?” Again, I laugh. Stop it, Merc. It’s just wrong at this point.

“I’m gonna ask one more time. Where is she and what have you done to her?”

“Sasha,” I whisper, ignoring his question. “Sasha gave me her name, Nick. Kinda karmic, right? I mean… you trick her into killing—who the fuck was that guy, anyway?”

“My brother.”

“Your—wait, wait, wait. Hold the fuck up. You have a twin brother as well as a twin sister? You guys were triplets? Oh, fuck. You Company people are so… gross.”

He pauses. Three whole seconds of pause from the legendary Nick Tate. Then he says, “You remember Vincent, right?”