Page 20 of Monstrous Urges

Gabriel

?!?!

Alistair

I’m all fucking ears

Me

Roger’s in love with that vintage Jaguar convertible he’s always fawning over, right? We find out his usual weekend drive route and string high tension wire across the road at neck height. Boom. Instant decapitation.

Alistair

Savage. I love it.

Gabriel

You two do understand the concept of premeditated murder and admissible digital evidence, right?

Alistair

Reach behind yourself, Gabriel. That long pointy stick you feel? Grab it and give it a good tug, see if it’ll come out of your ass.

Me

lol

Gabriel

Yeah, you’re totally right. I see no reason I should be concerned at all about being Governor and on a thread discussing decapitating a business rival. You should absolutely consider politics, Alistair

Alistair

I’d fucking kill it and we both know it

Me

Dictatorships are slightly out of vogue, Alistair

Alistair

What about absolute monarchies?

Gabriel

I touched base with Hartman, Li, Pritchard, and Fanelli from the board. Pretty sure we can count on all of them not to cave to that fucker’s demands. But we need to start talking to the other members as fast as possible. Higher numbers of voting shares, incentive packages. Whatever. Literally anything to make sure no one starts siding with Roger to push for this.

Me

Agreed. I’ll reach out to Elaine Iverson and Carl Bouchard first thing tomorrow.

The three of us chat a little longer about nailing down the loyalties of the Crown and Black board of directors while I feign conversation with the squad.

I ignore the little icon for the Venom app. At least, I try to. But after another glass of wine, I set my jaw and tap on it.

I hate how disappointed I am still to have no reply from him to my last messages.

I slug back another mouthful of wine, pretending to rejoin the conversation around me. Inside, I’m still fixating on the man in the mask from the woods.

---