Unseen

Chapter 17

Back in the conference room again. Only this time, almost all the chairs were empty. It was just Yvette plus three of her father's subordinates—her subordinates, she tried to correct herself, but that thought seemed ridiculous under the circumstances.

Donnellan still had that smile on his face. It would have looked kind if Yvette hadn't looked at his eyes. Richard Petric, who hadn't said a word during the previous meeting, radiated a reptilian coldness as he studied her from across the room. She barely remembered him from the meeting, or from any of her father's meetings she had sat in on. Now she wondered if that was intentional. She could see now, too late, that he was the kind of man who kept to the shadows until it was time to strike.

She had missed that. How much else had she missed? She had caught all the inefficiencies in her father's business dealings. How had she thought that was enough?

The third man, Tehrani, leaned back in his chair with a sigh. He was the one who had tried to convince her the errors in the numbers were down to his stolen shipment. Now she wondered if there had even been a stolen shipment at all.

Yvette was sitting in her father's chair, just like she had for the previous meeting. But this time, her hands were cuffed behind her, her arms threaded painfully through the wide slats of the wooden chair.

She met each of their gazes in turn, her eyes as cold and withering as she could make them. "So," she said. "It was the three of you who stole my money. And the three of you who got Reynold killed."

Donnellan shook his head. His insincere smile stretched wider with false sympathy. "Oh, Yvette," he said. "You still don't understand."

"There is no conspiracy here," said Tehrani. "Or there wasn't until the three of us came together because we all knew something had to be done. Yes, I admit, I had my own dealings behind your back. I would be surprised if there was anyone who didn't. You came into that meeting full of self-righteousness, like you were trying to root out a villain. But the only one endangering the Couvillion Syndicate is you."

"We're going to put a stop to that," said Donnellan. "We're going to preserve your father's legacy. If you weren't blinded by grief, I'm sure even you would understand that's what he would want."

"And Reynold?" Her voice vibrated with cold rage. Her shoulders, twisted unnaturally behind her back, sent sharp stabs of pain down her arms. "Which of you gave that order?"

"None of us," said Tehrani. "Unless..." He raised his eyebrows questioningly at Petric.

Petric gave his head a slight shake. "If the assassin had been mine," he said expressionlessly, "he wouldn't have hit the wrong target."

"There you have it," said Donnellan. "There is no evil mastermind for you to defeat. The entire Couvillion Syndicate is eating itself alive. An effect of poor leadership."

"But we'll put an end to that," said Petric. He regarded Yvette across the table like he was a snake and he planned to swallow her whole.

Where was Violet? Yvette listened for the faint sound of suppressed footsteps, watched for a subtle shift in the air that might tell her someone invisible was nearby. But the house was silent, the air utterly still.

The last time she had seen Violet, she had been fighting off four of those armed men at once. The remaining two had trussed Yvette up and dragged her down here while Violet had her hands full. Yvette had assumed Violet would make it out. She had PERI training, after all. She was more than a match for whatever goons these guys had brought along.

Only maybe she wasn't.

Otherwise, wouldn't Yvette have seen her by now?

Yvette tried not to imagine the alternatives. But it was too late. Her head was full of images of Violet with a bullet through her head. Violet with a slit throat. Violet tossed out a window to break on the hard ground below.