Chapter 54
chapter
fifty-four
SHAY
“Let’s try one more time, darling. Log in to your computer.” Graham waved his gun away from me, gesturing to the computer.
I eyed the steel weapon in his left hand, absently remembering Graham was left-handed. He’d forced me at gunpoint to come to work. Sat in the back seat of the car, the gun pressed against the car seat.
It could shoot through the fabric, he’d assured me.
Now we were here, in my office, empty because it was a Saturday.
And I still had no fucking clue what this was about.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, vaguely recalling something my sister had told me about some of the murderers she worked with, how some of their victims had escaped.
Use their delusion against them.
Ask questions, pretend to be dumb, stall. Stall so you can find a way out. Stall so the police can get there.
“What are you, some kind of corporate spy?” I continued, even though it didn’t make sense. Sure, there were plenty of departments in academia that could easily be targeted by a corporation, or even other countries.
But our work was open source.
There was no reason to steal it, because we gave it away freely.
Graham laughed, a crazed, manic-sounding thing. “Corporate spy? You’re so fucking naive. It’s why you were such an easy target.”
While he talked, I searched for something I could use. A weapon—anything. He’d smashed my phone, so no luck calling the police.
“Why me?” I asked. “Why target me? I’m just an astrophysicist.”
It would have made sense for him to have gone after Lithie. She worked with the world’s worst criminals. She was a constant target.
And she had clearance.
“Your stupid little star shit uses a supercomputer,” he said. “And since you’re all too busy with your heads in the literal fucking clouds, it was the perfect setup to launder money.”
“GCS?” I said. “That was you?”
It hit me all at once. The way Graham and I met, us being locked together in my office. He wasn’t meeting an investor…everything was always about this.
“Graham’s Crypto Scheme,” he said, sounding smug.
“That’s…” I made a face. “That’s such a stupid name.”
His smile dropped, and he jabbed the gun at me. “Open the goddamn thing and stop stalling.”
I rolled my lips and took a step to the computer, running out of ideas. As I bent over the keyboard, I felt his body heat behind me, then his lips at my ear.
“You weren’t supposed to break up with me.” He dragged the gun across my cheek. “I would have given you the best life.”
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” I said, eyeing the steel gun out of the corner of my eye. “I’m getting a real picture here.”
I keyed in my log-in, trying to go as slow as possible, putting the pieces together.
The weird parameters running in the background.
My computer freezing.
He was right—the system already used a ton of computing power. I used it every day and barely noticed anything wrong. It definitely wouldn’t pop up on an audit.
If we’d stayed together, he could have kept this running for…ever, maybe.
“Huh,” I mused, eyes on the keyboard. “So, since we broke up, you haven’t been able to launder any money?”
I felt him tense at my back and stand up. Sensing he was distracted, I stood up, too, not finishing my log-in. Graham rubbed the gun at his temple, messing up his hair, eyes wide and frantic.
“That was months ago,” I continued. “How much money have you lost? Are people mad at you?”
His glare shot to mine.
“You know what, Graham, I’ll give it over. Sign it all away right now. Let you use my credentials indefinitely.”
“Good—”
“If you can tell me what my favorite ice cream is.”
He paused, the gun at his temple frozen.
“What? You were gonna be my husband. I told you a hundred times.”
Graham’s brows caved, and he opened and closed his mouth like a dying fish. I felt something foreign. Power. So many times Graham had fucked with me. I bet he assumed it would be like all the other times. I would just give in and give him what he wanted.
“You should easily be able to answer this—”
Graham backhanded me with the gun.
I gasped, but no air came through. That fucking hurt. I swallowed, trying to clear away the white and black spots dancing in my vision.
“Your fucking brattiness wasn’t cute when we were together,” he said. “It’s less cute when it’s causing major operational damage.”
I laughed through the ringing pain, spitting blood to the floor. “If you wanted to keep using me, you shouldn’t have been such a shitty fiancé.”
He bruised the gun against my gut. “I’m done playing, Shay. Tell me your log-in or I will splatter your guts all across the fucking floor and figure it out myself.”
Fuck. I’d reached the end of any stalling I could accomplish, and still had no plan.
I turned around and quickly signed in. Graham shoved me aside the moment my desktop wallpaper appeared. He set the gun down on the desk, typing furiously.
I eyed it.
Graham didn’t expect me to stand up to him. In the years we were together, I never did. I always caved. I always gave him what he wanted. He assumed I wouldn’t now.
Graham always underestimated me.
Hell, he hadn’t even bothered tying my hands together.
Before I could second-guess myself, I reached for the gun. Graham grappled for it too late, hand slamming against the empty desk.
I pointed it at his temple—
“Shay!”
Calder? My heart leaped at the deep, resonant voice—just as Graham lunged for me, using my distraction to his advantage.
“This guy?” Graham laughed, wrestling with the gun. “This is your new boyfriend? You really have a type, darling. Your knight in shining armor cleans money for the Mafia. He’s just as bad as me.”
I vaguely heard Calder in the background, but adrenaline had focused me on one thing: my asshole ex.
“Why do I have a feeling”—I yanked at the gun, the effort leaving me breathless—“that the way he works for you”—another yank—“is closer to how I apparently work for you?”
Graham’s smile dropped, tearing at the gun with all his force. “I’m going to fucking kill you—”
Bang.
Any noise—a humming computer, cars rushing outside, Calder—came to a sudden, crashing halt. Someone had once said a gunshot sounded like a car backfiring. Up close and personal, it sounded nothing like that. It was felt more than heard.
My ears rang.
Graham’s eyes widened, matching mine.
Then he dropped to the ground.
A few seconds of silence followed. I felt Calder’s presence at my back but didn’t register it. I stared at the gun in my hand.
Did I kill him?
Then Graham grasped between his legs, eyes wide.
“What the fuck?” he screamed. “You shot me in the dick!”