Page 101 of Collateral Claim

I point at my neck. “Look at what you did.”

Endo buckles his belt. “So?”

“So I’m having lunch with my dad. You’re my kidnapper. He’ll know we slept together.”

“That’s the point.”

I rear back. “You didn’t have sex with me just to mess with my dad, did you?”

Endo disappears into the bedroom.

I follow him. “Hey, I asked you a question.”

“I heard you. You can ask, but I don’t have to answer.”

He’s hurting me. Distancing himself. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Do what?”

“Raise your walls again.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I know that you don’t want to hear the truth.” He points at my red blouse and black slacks. “Is this your outfit for lunch?”

When I don’t answer, he lays it on the bed. “I’ll meet you outside.”

I exchange the red shirt for one with a high collar. It covers some of the marks but not all of them. I’m sure my father will notice, though I hope he refrains from commenting on it.

Once dressed, I step outside, where Slada fits the vest back onto me. After that, she hands me a cup of coffee and sits on the opposite end of the long couch. At the desk by the window, Connor types on his laptop.

If she notices the hickeys, she doesn’t seem to care that Endo and I slept together. Maybe I’m the only one who does. I’ve never slept with a man I cared this much about, and my feelings for Endo confuse me. I hate him for overturning my life and keeping me captive, trapped with him. But I also can’t stop myself from wanting to bang him.

Who knew my thirties would be this hard? I thought I would know everything by now. I was certain my life was planned, and it would play out the way I designed it. Endo thwarted all my plans. I admit to having a hard time adjusting to this new trajectory. Even when I get home, now that I’ve slept with him, I don’t know how I’ll get over him.

I should’ve joined Slada earlier, when I had a chance.

Now I’m going to lunch with my father wearing my kidnapper’s bite marks. At least I’m well fucked.

“Endo said I can brief you on what’s going on.”

“Ah, well, if putting out for him meant I’d get to hear what’s happening, I would have put out earlier.”

Slada blinks but doesn’t comment. She just executes her orders. The meeting with my dad was scheduled for two o’clock today. Massio invited us for lunch at that time, which couldn’t be a coincidence.

“We think your father set up the lunch at Massio’s house and not where we agreed.”

My fears are coming true. My father is corrupt. I hang on to the last shred of denial and say, “Lots of people eat lunch at two o’clock. It could be a coincidence.”

“It’s not,” Connor says, turning his laptop toward me.

I stand to get a better look at the screen. It’s a picture of Massio and my father, sitting by the pool while a pair of topless women massage their shoulders. I sit back down.

“That was yesterday,” Connor says. “I’m reviewing their surveillance. Should be much harder to hack, but it hasn’t been, which tells me they want us to see this footage.”

“What’s this mean for the exchange?” I ask.

Slada shrugs. “If Massio is involved, Cass might be dead, so the likelihood of an exchange is low. Endo came to die.”

I reached the same conclusion in the tub. My hands start shaking, and I put my cup of coffee on the side table before it spills.