He looked across the cell at Barry. He was on his knees, vomiting.
Bam! Another razor blade. What the…? His back went into spasms, arching so violently it felt as if his neck would snap. Soon his entire body was jumping, contorting in a grotesque dance of death conducted by an invisible cattle prod that delivered shock after shock after shock.
They’ve poisoned us! The bastards have poisoned us!
He opened his mouth to call for help and a volcano of blood and vomit poured out of it. He heard shouts. The little Thai guards came running toward the cell, their short legs pounding the concrete in panicked stampede. Then a red mist came down and everything was quiet.
In the prison kitchen, the new pot scrubber waited till all the cooks had gone.
Something terrible’s happening in the cells. Do you hear that? Let’s go take a look.
Then he slipped out of the back door, as quiet and unnoticed as a cockroach, and climbed into the rear of a delivery truck.
Two minutes later the truck bumped through the prison gates, out onto the bustling streets of Bangkok. At the first intersection, the pot scrubber opened the doors and jumped out, disappearing into the maze of alleys and courtyards that he had known from boyhood.
When he was sure he was alone, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone.
Lexi stared at August Sandford in disbelief.
“I don’t understand it. How did this happen?”
August bit his tongue. Which part? The Internet division getting its budget tripled overnight? Or me being kicked off the team?
Out loud he said: “I don’t know. Harry Wilder got the budget changes past the board. Then he quit, appointed Jim Bruton to head up the team with Tabitha as VP. Next thing I know, I’m booted into the real-estate division.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense. You were the best-qualified person in that division.”
Tell me about it.
“Doesn’t it? I think it makes perfect sense to your cousin. Max is not my number one fan. He’s been guaranteed a place in the Internet division when you guys graduate. Did you know that?”
Lexi didn’t know. There was only one associate-level job available in the Internet division. Her job.
“Apparently you’re scheduled to start in real estate. With me.”
It took Lexi less than forty-five seconds to reach her father’s office. Bursting in, too angry to speak, she began signing at Peter at a hundred miles an hour.
“What the hell are you playing at, cooking up a deal with Max behind my back?”
Peter played dumb. “Slow down, darling. No one’s cooked up anything.”
“You signed off on the Internet budget increase!”
Peter shrugged. “Harry Wilder made a strong case.”
“It wasn’t Harry’s case, it was Max’s. He wants to make a whole bunch of acquisitions, companies that he knows nothing about. It’s madness. Wilder and the others are only backing him because they think he’s going to be chairman.”
Peter was silent. He’d made no secret of the fact that he did not want Lexi to take over Kruger-Brent. Had things been different with Robert, maybe he could have assumed the mantle one day. That was what Kate Blackwell had wanted. But Robert had chosen his own path. The idea of Lexi taking his place filled Peter with horror. She’d already been through so much. She had no idea what Kruger-Brent really was: a monster, a curse that swallowed people whole. Kate Blackwell had been consumed by it. Her son, Tony, was driven mad. Peter’s own hopes and dreams had been sacrificed to the monster, for Alex’s sake. But he wanted something better for Lexi. A normal life, a husband, children.
Lexi, however, had other ideas.
“August Sandford told me you’ve guaranteed Max a job in Internet. Is that true?”
Peter looked uncomfortable. “It was Jim Bruton’s decision.”
“You’re the chairman, Dad. You knew that’s where I wanted to work. They’ve dumped me in real estate, a total dead end.”
“Listen, darling-”
“No, Dad. You listen. Just because you don’t want me to become chairman, you think you and Max can bury me in real estate. Well, screw you and your little boys’ club. It’s because I’m a woman, isn’t it?” Lexi was furious. “This is such bullshit. Kate Blackwell was a woman and she was the best chairman Kruger-Brent ever had.”
“She was,” Peter murmured. It couldn’t be denied. “Master of the game. That’s what people used to call her.”
“Mistress,” Lexi shot back. “Mistress of the game. Which is exactly what I’m going to be, whatever you or Max or any of the other sexist pigs around here think.”
Peter watched her go, a whirlwind of righteous indignation, slamming his office door behind her.
She’s so like Kate, he thought.
His heart was filled with foreboding.
Outside in the corridor, Lexi forced herself to take deep, calming breaths.
Real estate? Why not accounting? Why not the goddamn mail room?
The real-estate division was known to be one of Kruger-Brent’s sleepier businesses. If there was a fiery center to the company, real estate was as far removed from it as it was possible to be.
Max thinks he can bury me alive in there with August. Out of sight, out of mind.
We’ll see about that.
Lexi’s cell vibrated in her pocket. New message, sender unknown. She read the four words on the screen. Suddenly nothing else mattered. Not Max, not Kruger-Brent, not anything.
She bolted into the ladies’ room, walking straight into a cubicle and locking the door. Only when she knew she was alone did she read the text again, allowing her eyes to linger on the most beautiful sentence she had ever read: