The Living End (Daniel Faust #3)(83)

“Guess again,” I told her. “Lauren’s going to win. Once she ascends, there won’t be anywhere on this planet you can hide. There won’t be much of a planet left at all. I hate to say it—believe me, you have no idea how much I hate to say it—but we need your help.”

I walked behind her. Most people would tense up a little, losing sight of their interrogator like that, but she was cool as a cucumber. I uncuffed her. She rubbed the red lines around her wrists, looking dubious.

“A hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars,” I told her.

“Bullshit,” she said.

“A hundred and twenty-five thousand, in the currency of your choice, deposited to the bank of your choice, once Lauren is dead.”

“Bull. Shit. You’re piss broke, Faust. You don’t have that kind of money.”

“No,” Caitlin said, “but I do.”

She strode slowly across the room, stepping out where Meadow could see her. Meadow’s eyes widened. It was the closest thing to fear I’d ever seen on her face.

“You’re that succubus,” Meadow said, “the one Lauren bound. Why are you still here? Faust, why is she still here?”

Caitlin nodded. “Right. Nicky Agnelli told you he found some random bottom-feeder to enslave, didn’t he? Never trust a career criminal, they’re always working an angle of their own. Let me properly introduce myself. I am Caitlleanabruaudi, the Wingtaker. Hound of the Court of Jade Tears.”

“Hey,” Meadow said, “what happened back there, that was all Lauren. Her plan, her magic. I was just along for the ride. Nothing personal.”

“Just along for the ride,” Caitlin mused, looming over her. “Much like Carl Holt and Artie Kaufman. Would you like to know what’s happening to them, in hell, right at this very moment?”

She leaned close and whispered in Meadow’s ear.

Now I knew what Meadow looked like when she was afraid.

Caitlin stepped back and folded her arms. “Almost every single person involved in my abduction has been delivered to their doom, or soon will be. You’re a very lucky woman, Meadow Brand. You’re in the right place at the right time to make history. The one human to ever tempt my wrath and escape.”

Jennifer and I might as well have been invisible now. Meadow only had eyes for Caitlin. She rubbed her hands, trying to hide the way they shook.

“What do you want from me?” Meadow asked.

Caitlin nodded my way. “As Daniel said, we want to hire your services. I will guarantee the sum. You will help facilitate our plan. Once Lauren is dead, I’ll wire the money to the account of your choosing, in the currency of your choosing.”

“Then what?” Meadow said, uncertain.

“Then you’re free to leave. Which you will. Make no mistake, Meadow Brand, your sins are not forgiven. I want you gone. Where you go is up to you, but you will never set foot in my territory again.”

“You lost your Vegas privileges,” I added.

Meadow thought it over. A bit of her old cockiness came back as she shook her head, glancing between us.

“No way,” she said. “Hundred and twenty-five grand? Might as well offer me a million. You won’t pay. I’ve been in this game long enough to know that ‘payment after the job is done’ is just another way of saying, ‘We’ll kill you and keep the money.’ I want the payment up front. All of it.”

“So you can stab us in the back and skip town with the cash,” I said. “Not happening.”

“You gotta admit, we’re a little more trustworthy than you are,” Jennifer said.

Meadow barked out a laugh. “A witch, a sorcerer, and a f*cking demon from hell say I’m not trustworthy.”

“You’re a psychopath,” I said.

She shrugged. “I’ve been told that means that I know the difference between right and wrong, I just don’t care. Hey, that description sound like anybody you know, Faust?”

“You’re not getting the money up front,” I said.

“Then I guess you’re not getting my help. What a predicament.”

I reached into my pocket and took out a USB stick. A black little rectangle, sheathed in transparent plastic tinted the color of smoke.

“How about I put up some collateral?”

“I’m listening,” Meadow said.

“On this stick is a scanned document. That document, handwritten by me, confesses to two outstanding murders. Full details, full disclosure. You give this to the cops, I go to prison, period. Once you walk out of here, take it to your favorite lawyer. Instruct him that if anything happens to you—like you die or disappear for any reason—he should turn it over to Special Agent Harmony Black of the FBI. She’s leading the Agnelli task force, and she’s already got a hard-on for me.”

“Risky.” Meadow eyed the USB stick and licked her chapped lips. “What’s to stop me from just going straight to the feds the second I walk out this door? You ruined my face, Faust. You think I don’t want payback?”

“I’m gambling that you want the cash more than you want revenge. Like you said yourself, eventually a light is going to shine down on all of Lauren Carmichael’s dirty deeds. You won’t get away clean. You need to be thinking about your retirement options, somewhere far away from Uncle Sam’s reach. Hundred and twenty-five Gs will go a long way toward buying your very own tropical cabana.”