Chapter 23 · The Buyback Clause

Chapter 23: The Buyback Clause

"Fifty million dollars," the envoy said, sliding a check across the marble table, "to disappear."

He wasn't supposed to be in this room. Forty minutes ago we'd been boxed on the harbor bridge by federal SUVs, Luca's convoy stripped down to three cars and two marshals with badges held up like they meant something. The marshals had walked us into this bank — glass walls, river view, a table built for men who sign other men's lives away — and left us standing in it with my father's lawyer and a man I'd never seen.

"Who are you," I said.

"Warren Diaz. I represent your father's office." He didn't look at Luca. He looked at my mouth, like he expected it to stay shut the way it had for a year. "June, dissolve the marriage. Testify to what you saw at the port facility. The escrow releases the moment the ink's dry."

Luca's hand found the small of my back. Not gentle. A hook, keeping me in place like I might bolt for the door or for the money, he couldn't tell which yet.

"She doesn't testify," he said.

"She's not asking you.