Rulers of Deception (36 page)

A giddy laugh bubbled out of him at the thought. He sat on the bed in his cell, his hands running over the pant legs of the orange jumpsuit he wore. His fingers tightened over the fabric and clenched as he imagined the apology his father would give him after it was all said and done. There was nothing sweeter than a well deserved “I told you so.”

His smile faded when the guard came by and tapped on the bars of the cell. “You got a visitor.”

Daniel scowled, assuming it was his mother again. She’d been beside herself with denial over his guilt and had taken to visiting him nearly every day he’d been inside. It was starting to grate on his nerves.

Without a word, he rose to his feet and let the guard lead him out of the cell and into the large visitor’s hall. White-walled with a colorless linoleum floor, the room seemed as sterile to him as a hospital. The faint scent of Lysol permeated the air, making him wrinkle his nose in disgust as he stepped into the room.

When he spotted Madison sitting alone at one of the many steel tables, his heart began to race furiously. The rest of the room was completely empty, sending up a warning flag in his brain. Heat flushed his neck as the guard walked him over to her.

The guard nodded at Madison and casually accepted a magazine from her, a hundred-dollar bill tucked discreetly inside.

Daniel slowly lowered himself into the hard plastic chair across from her, his eyes fixed resolutely to the table. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her.

“How did you get them to let you in here?” he muttered, a hot mess of emotions raging within him. Fear, anger, lust…it encased him like a cocoon and rendered him helpless.

By contrast, Madison’s face was a hard mask, showing no emotion. She kept her fury in check, knowing the time to unleash it was soon to come. “My grandfather had a knack for convincing the authorities to give him leeway when it came to certain things. Let’s just say I learned from the best.”

Daniel sniffed. “You blackmailed the guards.”

“Blackmail is not my only skill,” she replied, folding her hands in front of her. “Knowing the right people is an invaluable asset. You can be assured I know all the right people.”

“It hasn’t always protected you,” Daniel commented, a hint of a smile twisting his face. He chanced a look at her. “And it won’t save you from what’s coming.”

Madison ignored his statement. “When you met me at the bar and slipped the sedative into my drink, you knew we were being photographed. You planned it that way.”

“All that can be proved is that you can’t handle your liquor,” Daniel scoffed, crossing his arms tight over his chest.

“I know Veronica Diaz took the photographs. You two were working together to slander my family, to turn us against each other.”

He flushed again at the mention of Veronica, his hands tightening over his arms.

When he had nothing to say, she continued. “You wanted to give your father every reason to end our merger so you could take back your family’s company. Veronica had a similar motive, and the two of you bonded over your hatred of us.”

“I was just using her,” Daniel snapped, eager to set the record straight. “She doesn’t matter to me.”

Madison paused, surprised by his words. The look in his eyes told her something she hadn’t even considered before. “You were lovers.”

Daniel rolled his eyes and looked away, clearly uncomfortable. “Like I said, I used her. She was a means to an end.”

“It appears you were only a means to an end for her, as well,” Madison added, revolted by the thought of them together. Then again, perhaps they suited each other.

Daniel only shrugged, not caring to deny the claim. “The end will justify the means.”

“That end will never happen,” Madison said calmly. She awarded herself a satisfied smile when Daniel met her eyes.

“You mean because she’s been kidnapped?” Daniel asked, his voice rising an octave as arrogance swept over him. “Because that’s just the beginning.”

“I mean because she
wasn’t
kidnapped,” Madison corrected. She waited a moment to gauge his reaction.

He didn’t disappoint her. Shock and anger passed over his features in an instant. “What the hell are you saying?”

“I’m saying I know it’s all a lie. She’s holed up in a hotel in Brooklyn, sipping champagne and thinking she’s won.” Madison’s teeth flashed in a hard smile. “But she hasn’t. And you haven’t, either.”

Daniel paled, his earlier anger fading as nerves got the better of him. “What are you going to do to her?”

Madison ignored his question, preferring to leave him hanging on the mystery. “You may not get convicted for what you did to me, but unless you cooperate I will see you put away for aiding and abetting Veronica.”

“What do you want me to do?” he stammered, his chin quivering as he fought to keep calm.

“It’s really quite simple,” she began, thoroughly enjoying the fear and uncertainty in his eyes. This time she was the predator and he was the weak, pathetic prey. “From this day forward I own you. Your life will be committed to serving my best interests. When I tell you to jump, you ask what bridge you should jump off of. When I tell you to get information, you don’t sleep until it’s in my hands. And when I tell you to testify, you reveal everything you know about our friend Veronica.”

A look of disgust and doubt tightened Daniel’s face. “What’s to stop the police from charging me when I tell them what I know?”

“They will give you immunity in exchange for cooperating,” she replied without hesitating. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

Daniel unfolded his arms and leaned over the table, glaring at her. “What if I don’t want to be your
bitch
? I don’t see any benefit in this for me that my lawyer can’t get me out of.”

A hot spark of malice flashed in her eyes. “Then I kill you. Either way, you’re not getting away with what you did to me.”

She could tell he believed her by the look of horror that blanched his face. He swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat and backed away from her. His voice was weak as he spoke. “I knew from the moment we met you weren’t a saint.”

“I never claimed to be one,” she declared. “But you’ll find that being my ally is much safer than being my enemy.”

A look of defeat came over him. “All right. You win.”

Hearing the words sealed up the last edges of the wound he’d dug into her dignity. Seeing him cowering like a wounded animal before her, cut open and bleeding, gave her a brilliant rush of satisfaction. She waited until he dared look her in the eye again, and took the final, vengeful stab at him. “How does it feel to be on your knees where you belong, darling?”

He grimaced. “I see you heard what your brother tricked me into saying.”

She nodded. “Though I can’t help but wonder why you didn’t go through with it.”

A dozen emotions passed over his face as he stared into her eyes. Weakness became the last. “I’d spent weeks thinking of nothing but you. As much as I hate you, I needed to have you even more. Fucking you would be like breaking you, the way a cowboy breaks a wild stallion. You’d belong to me then, broken at my feet where you belong.”

Though she didn’t show it, Madison was horrified. She felt more than disgust, more than revulsion. She felt the true nature of the monster before her and realized how close she’d been to playing a part in his sick, twisted fantasy.

“So then why didn’t you
break
me.” Her voice was low, emotionless, even as her nails dug into the palms of her hands, fighting back the urge to shred him to pieces.

“I couldn’t do it,” he admitted, lowering his head in shame. “I had you there but the pressure was too great. I couldn’t perform. So I left you sleeping and went and fucked Veronica instead. Your brother’s moronic friend walked in on us, but Veronica didn’t care. She preferred being with me.”

Before Madison could reply, he looked up at her with a sick gleam in his eyes. “But every time I was with her I pictured your face, your body. The fantasy was easier for me than the reality of being near you.”

For a long moment Madison said nothing. She absorbed his obsession as best as she could without letting it boil over and consume her. The last thing she wanted to do was give him the pleasure of knowing he’d gotten to her.

She rose to her feet, eyeing him coldly. “Get used to being on your knees, Daniel.”

As she turned her back on him and walked out of the jail, she silently vowed to make the rest of his life a living hell.

When her coworkers
found her in the office that morning, Veronica was subjected to nonstop questions disguised as concern and sympathy. She’d spent the hours leading up till dawn preparing for it, though her focus was elsewhere. She looked every bit the terrified escapee she claimed to be, since it turned out the cartel really was after her. But while the police arrived to question her and her coworkers scrambled about excitedly to report that she was safe and sound, Veronica kept reaching for the thumb drive tucked safely in her pocket, knowing the second she could escape the office she would.

The moment came when one of the officers offered to take her to her apartment to gather up a change of clothes for the hotel room they’d secured for her protection. He’d then take her to the “safe house” and watch over her until they tracked down the cartel thugs who’d kidnapped her.

Once they reached her apartment, the officer did a quick sweep to make sure it was all clear, then gave her the go-ahead to gather up her things. She requested he wait outside so she could have some privacy, and the second he closed the door she bolted for the kitchen.

She unearthed a coffee can she kept hidden in her pantry filled with wads of cash, and withdrew a hundred dollars in twenties. She also reached for the empty box of cereal where she stored the illegal and untraceable Smith & Wesson 1911 handgun she’d gotten through her cousin. She did a quick check to verify it was loaded. In case things got heated, she needed protection.

Tucking the gun into a canvas tote bag she kept in the kitchen, she went to the window that opened to the fire escape. Sliding it open, she bowed out of the window and stepped onto the metal landing. Within minutes she’d raced down the stairs and reached the alley below, where she took off at a run for the street. Hailing a cab that nearly passed by her, she gratefully hopped in and instructed the driver to take her to the Vasser Hotel.

The twenty-minute drive through traffic seemed to take forever, her tension building like a powder keg in her chest. She tapped her hands on her knees, unable to stop shaking from nerves.

At last they pulled into the valet area of the hotel. Veronica paid the driver and climbed out, tote bag slung over her shoulder as she focused on her breathing. She had to act as normal as possible to not draw attention to herself. If anyone noticed her before she had the chance to get to the second floor, she was screwed.

Keeping her head down, she made her way through the lobby and to the stairwell, not wanting to wait for the elevator. She took the stairs two at a time and pushed through the door that opened to the second floor and Madison and Grant’s offices.

She walked calmly down the hall and took a left into the area outside Madison’s office. The secretary was nowhere to be found, leaving the entire floor quiet as a tomb. Taking a deep, measured breath, she opened the door of Madison’s office and walked into the lion’s den.

Inside, Madison sat at her desk with Grant and Linc behind her. They all stared at Veronica as if they’d expected her arrival, catching her completely off guard.

“I was wondering when you would come by,” Madison mused, running her pen along her lower lip as she studied Veronica. “You look worse for wear, darling.”

Veronica’s eyes shot from Linc to Grant and back to Madison, her resolve faltering. “What is this? An ambush?”

Linc grinned coldly. “You could say that.”

With a shaky breath, Veronica dug the thumb drive out of her pocket and tossed it on the desk. “It’s all there. The pictures I took, the research I did on Wyatt and Marshall. Everything I had on your family is erased from my computer. That’s the last copy.” She lifted her chin, trying to salvage her dignity. “Now call off the cartel.”

Madison regarded the thumb drive with amusement before returning her gaze to Veronica. “Is that all?”