Chapter Seventeen: Get Out.
1153 Words
The private lounge was empty at that hour.
That was why I went there.
I pulled a bottle of whiskey from the bar Frank kept stocked for guests who never came and poured into a glass.
The glass was halfway to my mouth when the door opened.
"You're drinking at 8AM," Frank said. He crossed the room. Didn't sit. Just stood on the other side of the coffee table and looked at me.
"When were you going to tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
"That Magnus Vance is alive, and he called you yesterday at eleven AM.”
The glass stopped halfway to my mouth.
Whiskey sloshed against the rim, and a drop ran over my knuckle. I didn’t feel it at first.
I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off.
"Don't. Don't tell me you were about to. Don't tell me you were waiting for the right moment. Just answer the question.”
"I was going to.”
“When.”
The single word landed hard in the room.
“When were you going to tell me, Jane?”
“This morning. It's just eight a.m. I'm telling you right now.”
"Darius flagged the call yesterday morning. It is 8 now." He looked at me. "That's twenty-one hours."
I set the glass down before my hand started shaking.
"I needed time to think."
“Think about what?”
"About what he said."
“What the hell is wrong with you? How can you be thinking about what he said? He's a lunatic Jane. He wants you dead.”
“What did Magnus tell you?”
I looked up at him. "He said the finger wasn't him. He said someone is playing a game that has nothing to do with me and everything to do with you.” I paused. "And he wants a meeting.”
"He wants a meeting," Frank repeated.
“Yes. He said he wants to meet in person. Somewhere neutral.”
“Magnus Vance just signed his own death warrant.”
"Frank.”
"You are not meeting Magnus. That is not a discussion."
"He has information—”
Frank dragged a hand down his face like he was trying to wipe the whole conversation away.
"He has a trap set!” His voice rose for the first time. "You think he called you to help you? You think he suddenly developed a conscience?”
The words cracked out of him.
I actually felt it in my shoulders the way you feel thunder before you hear it.
"I think he wants something, and information is how he's buying access."
"He wants you dead. Don't you get it."
"He had two years to kill me, and he didn't.”
"He spent two years trying to find you, and when he found you, he faked his death. You think that's a coincidence?
"You're not hearing me."
"I'm hearing everything. I'm telling you you're wrong."
"You don't get to tell me I'm wrong. Not about him." My voice hardened. "You don't know what he did to me. You don't know what two years of looking over your shoulder does to a person.”
"Then tell me." He spread his hands. "Tell me instead of sitting on a phone call for hours making unilateral decisions.”
"I make my own decisions."
"Not in here, you don't.”
Something in my stomach dropped hard, like missing a step in the dark.
I stared at him.
"Say that again."
He didn't flinch. "Every decision made inside these walls affects every person inside these walls. That is not a preference. That is how people stay alive."
"I am not one of your boys, Frank."
"No." His voice dropped. "You're supposed to be something more than that."
"Don't." My chest tightened. "Don't use what's between us to win a security argument."
"Is that what you think I'm doing?”
"I think you're furious because I didn't report to you immediately, and you're dressing it up as something nobler."
"Yes, I'm furious. But it's because Magnus told you I can't be trusted and you spent hours deciding if he was right."
The room went very still.
"That's not what happened.”
"Isn't it?" He looked at me. Really looked.
"What did you decide?"
"I decided to tell you this morning."
"That's not what I asked."
I looked away.
"Jane, answer me. What is your decision?”
"I don't know Frank. He said things I couldn't just dismiss. That I'm standing in the middle of something without knowing the rules.”
"Maybe it's manipulation. Maybe every word was designed to make me doubt you. But I couldn't just—" I stopped.
"What."
"I couldn't just choose you without thinking about it." My voice cracked. "Not after Sofia. Not after finding out why you really brought me here. I couldn't just hand you my trust again like nothing happened.”
"So you felt Magnus was the best option."
"That isn't what I said.”
“You came here this morning without telling me.
You're sitting in my lounge drinking my whiskey at eight in the morning.
And you're telling me that isn't what you said?
Come on, Jane.
I'm not a fool.”
I stood up.
"Stop it! Stop it, Frank. I'm sick of you watching me. I want to leave."
My hands were cold suddenly.
"Jane. It's not safe. "
"I don't care.”
"I'm not letting you walk out of here alone."
"You don't let me do anything, Frank." I looked at him. "That's the whole problem."
He said nothing.
I walked to the door.
"If you walk out of that door alone—”
I turned around. "What. What happens if I walk out?”
He looked at me. Something moved in his jaw.
"Then go." His voice was flat. "If this compound suffocates you that much. If I suffocate you that much." He turned away. "Go."
"Frank—”
"I pulled you out of a life you were barely surviving. I told you things I have never said out loud to anyone.”
"And the first time someone offers you a reason to doubt me, you spend time thinking about it."
"So go. If that's what this is. Get the f**k out.”
I held his gaze for a long moment.
For a second I thought he might take it back.
He didn’t.
Then I walked out of Frank Costello's house with nowhere to go and no plan.
The air outside felt colder than it should have.
My hands were still cold.
And somewhere behind me Frank was standing in his private lounge next to an untouched glass of whiskey watching me leave and not stopping me.
Which meant he was either giving me what I needed.
Or he was letting me go.
And I didn't know which one it was.
And that terrified me more than Magnus ever had.
- Writer
