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IDON’T KNOW WHAT TO TELLyou,” Rhett said to Victoria Steers. He was on a specially encrypted phone with the woman. “I’m no longer the CEO of Sybaritic. They took my security key, my ID card. I have no way to get into the building or access records, and I no longer get to ride on the company jet.”

Steers said, “This is most unfortunate, all of it.”

“Well, blame my dead father, not me. But if you had told me before this phone call that Nash was working with the FBI, I could have helped you plan this better. When you set him up and he ran for it, it might have actually prompted my dad to do what he did.”

“I see no connection there.”

“I spoke with my father shortly before his death. He didn’t believe that Nash was a child molester,” Rhett lied. “My father believed that you had set Nash up, and he was terrified that Nash would somehow bring the house of cards tumbling down. So he left you and me to hold the bag and took the easy way out by jumping off that balcony.”

“On the contrary, the plan with Walter Nash has worked to perfection.”

“And me no longer being in control at Sybaritic? And my father having left me nothing? How is that perfection?”

“The latter is your problem. Not mine.”

“Well, you still have a problem, because I’m out. You’ll have to find someone else.”

This was actually the exit that Rhett had been praying for. He could spend the rest of his life having fun with the substantial money he still had.

“You do not ever leave these sorts of partnerships, Mr. Temple.”

“But what can I do for you? I have no more position in the firm.”

“I will find things for you to do. Beginning with you locating Walter Nash.”

A shocked Rhett exclaimed, “What? Why?”

“I need to discern what he has told the FBI.”

“I thought you had alreadydiscernedthat.”

“I need details, Mr. Temple, not generalities.”

“I have no idea where he is.”

“But you will locate him and bring him to me,” said Steers.

“When you pulled the thing with his daughter, why didn’t you take him then?”

Part of Rhett couldn’t believe he was challenging her like this. If they had been in the same room, her men would have already hacked him to pieces. But it wasn’t only him not being physically close to the woman that had provided this newfound courage.

I killed somebody. That changes you. It makes you stronger, or at least less afraid of people who kill other people routinely. Because now I’m part of that group. I’m a killer. I could kill her one day.

“He moved a bit too fast for us, unfortunately. He must have had help. You can find out what that help was and then use that intelligence to find him.”

“After you framed him with his daughter, the FBI won’t touch him. I assumed that was your plan?”

“Depending on what he already disclosed to them, they may not need him anymore in order to get to me. Andyou.”

“Okay, what’s in it for me, other than the FBI staying off my back?”

“You will get to live.”

“Frankly, Ms. Steers, with the shitstorm I’m in, I need more than that.”

“There will be money—a lot of it.”