Silver Tears(52)

We climbed aboard the sailboat and Tomas started the engine. He gestured for me to go over to him. I got up and slowly went to him, wrapped in a blanket I had found.

I waited patiently with my arms around my body.

There was a cold wind.

“You don’t tell anyone about this. Ever. Got it?”

I didn’t answer.

Tomas let go of the wheel, grabbed my arm, and looked me in the eye.

“Got it? You’re just a stupid whore. If you tell anyone I’ll throttle you.”

Then he smiled and the sparkle was back.

“And why would you tell? You liked it—I could see that.”

Tomas put his arm around me and I let him. Even though his touch disgusted me. It seemed like an eternity since I’d felt his eyes on me while I’d been in the bow. An eternity since I’d allowed myself to feel any kind of hope.

“She won’t squeal,” said Sebastian. “I promise to make sure she doesn’t squeal. After all, it was me who trained her up.”

I stared toward the horizon and put my hand to my breast, but stiffened as I stood there with Tomas’s arm around me. The necklace that Mom had given me was gone. The beautiful charm with its silver tears was back in the cabin. I turned my head. Yx?n was no longer visible.

The necklace was gone forever.



“Can I come by sometimes?” Tomas said. “You’ll share with me, right, Sebastian?”

Tomas squeezed my shoulder. Then he licked my cheek. Slowly. Wetly.

“Of course I can come around, can’t I, Matilda? After all, you like me.”

I nodded slowly. I felt his beery breath and the pain in my upper arm, which he was still squeezing with his hand, and something happened inside me. For the first time in my life, I realized that sometimes it was necessary to kill.





“I heard that you’ve made a new acquisition in Rome…”

“Good news travels fast,” said Faye, flashing a broad grin at Jaime da Rosa, the owner and CEO of a Spanish beauty company.

They weren’t the biggest in Spain, but just like Giovanni’s company in Italy, they were a key to several of the manufacturing, distribution, and logistics gaps that Revenge needed to fill before they could take the American market by storm. They had indulged in a bit of small talk and dined on some divinely delicious tapas, but now—over a cup of espresso—it was time to get down to business.

“Bad news travels fast too.”

Jaime had a heavy Spanish accent, but his English syntax was perfect and his vocabulary extensive, so they had no difficulties understanding each other. Faye had learned Italian to a high level, so she could understand most of the conversation if it was in Spanish, but she would struggle to make herself understood as well as she needed to. Hence they were speaking English.

“What do you mean?” she said, waiting while she took a piece of chocolate from the plate in front of her.

“I have good friends in Sweden. There are rumors about Revenge. About a buyout.”

The square of chocolate seemed to grow in her mouth. Faye had been worrying about this moment. So far, she had managed to keep the press from writing anything, and she guessed that Henrik didn’t want a leak as of yet either—preferring to drop the bomb in grandiose style in the media once it was a fait accompli. But Stockholm was a small city, and the business world in Stockholm was even smaller—she wasn’t surprised that the rumors had begun to reach other shores.



How she dealt with this conversation would be decisive. If she didn’t continue working toward the American expansion in which she had invested so much time, energy, and hope, she might as well throw in the towel. If she did that, she didn’t even deserve Revenge.

“There are always rumors, Jaime. You know that as well as I do. I’m guessing it’s the same here in Spain. In Madrid. If I started asking around, how many rumors do you think I’d hear about you and your company? A handsome man like you…There must have been stories about you over the years? How many lovers have the gossip rags pinned on you, Jaime?”

She smiled at him, straightened her neck, and let her eyes flash as brightly as her diamond rings. He laughed loudly, flattered.

“Yes, you’re right. There have been a lot of claims that haven’t been true.”

He leaned in and winked at her.

“But I’m afraid a great deal of it has been true…”

“I’d already figured as much. You’re a bad boy, Jaime,” Faye said with a giggle, while inwardly sighing.

Men. Sometimes she wondered how they had ever managed to preserve the patriarchy throughout human history.

“It’s good to hear that it’s just evil tongues wagging,” said Jaime. “We’re looking forward to completing our deal. From what I understand, there are just a handful of minor details left to iron out. My lawyers say we can sign the contract within a week.”

“That’s what I’ve heard from my lawyers too.”

Jaime drained his espresso, propped his elbows on the table, and eyed Faye from beneath his mop of hair. She knew what was coming. There were so many meetings with so many men where she danced this dance. They all wanted the same thing. First business. Then pussy. As if it were part of the deal.



Faye smiled broadly. Over the last few years she had mastered the art of dealing with situations like this.