Page 106 of His Darkest Obsession

“No, I’m not,” he concedes. “But you’re not standing on solid ground either. Taras Volkov came to visit me before your little stunt last night. He?—”

“I know what Taras offered you. You and I both know that it’s not enough. Not if you lose.”

A long, tense silence fills the line, broken only by what sounds like ice clinking in a glass. Bennet is drinking this morning.

Good. Let him drown in his fear.

“Right.” He breaks the silence first. “Like I said, neither of us are standing on solid ground. You’ve put all your trust in that girl, and me… Well, I don’t think I need to tell you what I’ve put my trust in.”

“And your point is?”

“My point.” The bite returns to his voice. “Is that youneedme to win my election if you want to have the original terms of what I offered. But that’s your problem, isn’t it?”

Ice sloshes on the other end, and I can practically hear Bennet grimace over the phone as he drains his glass.

“If I win my election, there’s nothing that’s stopping me from giving what I promisedyouto Taras Volkov instead.”

“No, there’s not.” I nod.

“Which means you have no leverage. Neither you or that little whore of yours.”

Whore.My hand balls into a fist and slams down on the table before I can stop myself.

“And if you lose your election,” I snarl. “There will be nothing to stop me from ripping you apart limb by limb!”

“But that won’t get you what you want, Baryshev.”

“You don’t know what I want, you piece of shit.”

I want you dead at my feet. I want your hands on a fucking plate that I can give my wife.

“I’ve dealt with pricks like you my entire fucking career,” Bennet snaps. “You all want the same thing: money, bitches, and booze. And you all think you can get it by blackmailing men like me.”

I force my anger back down. There will be a time for that later. He’s just trying to get a rise out of me in the hopes that I slip up and show my hand.

“Then in that case, I think we’re done here. I’m sure the New York Post wouldloveto publish an exposé about you right now, especially if it comes with a hefty donation to their office.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Shall we find out?”

“No!” Bennet says quickly, panic lacing back into his voice. “No, there’s no need to do that. I’ll do it. Just send me the list of names. I’ll make it happen. But…”

“But?”

“But it needs to happenafterthe election,” he says. “I need to know that you’re not going to do something fucking stupid in the next four weeks. Once I win, the city is yours. I swear. But I need to win for that to happen.”

I mull over his words.

Four weeks… A part of me wants to tell him to fuck off. But another part of me recognizes that he’s not necessarily wrong.

Because like it or not, Idoneed him to win if I want total control over the city. That’s why I married Indigo, isn’t it? To get control over this city. To put Bennet in my pocket. And once I do that, I’ll put him in the ground anyways.

For her.

The terms of his execution have been set. We’re just quibbling over the exact moment that it’ll happen.

I suspect he knows that as well, and he’s taking every possible action he can to prolong what little time he has left on this earth.