Page 61 of Ravaged
“Handing over the daughter as a holding,” Derek started, “would end any rivalry we’ve had in the past?”
“Of course. Why shoot each other in the back when we could do businesstogether, like civilized people?”
Derek turned to me. Muro gave me a bad vibe, but we didn’t have much choice, other than to take his word for it. It was that, or risk a war.
But I had to find a way to get Teagen out of it.
“Gerard might have a few ideas about collaborating,” Derek said.
“Oh, good. I’d love to meet Daddy Adler myself.”
“Once we’ve discussed it, we’ll deliver one of them soon,” I said. One of them, meaning not Teagen.
“Excellent. I look forward to meeting her,” Muro said. We stood and shook hands again. “I knew I could count on the young Adlers.”
On the way back to the car, Derek and I were silent. It was a long drive ahead of us, and yet my gut rolled, knowing that the sooner we talked about the outcomes, the sooner they would be unavoidable. Someone had to die. Someone was going to die. It had to be that worthless piece of garbage, Oliver.
An hour in, when the mountains began turning a deep green, showing that we were getting closer we got to Sage City, Derek turned to me, then faced the road again.
“Let’s talk about this,” he said. “The merits of giving up Teagen versus Oliver.”
“Give up Oliver,” I said without any hesitation. “He deserves the death that’s coming to him.”
“Or… We hand over Teagen. The best route would be to keep Oliver until we acquire the Pink Diamond. Once that happens, we sell it, circulate the diamond back into the black market, without our names attached to it, and then we deliver Oliver.”
“He’ll rat us out to Muro.”
“Not if he’s dead.”
That was true, but then what was the point of giving Teagen over to Muro?
“What are the chances that Oliver will actually tell us where the diamond is?” I asked.
“With the right motivation from Axe,” Derek shrugged, “Anything is possible.”
And yet Oliver hadn’t spilled anything yet. What would it take to get the location out of him? If he was willing to sell his daughter, what would possibly tempt him into giving up the Pink Diamond?
And how had Muro acquired the Pink Diamond in the first place?
“The Dahlia District,” I said. Derek acknowledged me, showing that he was listening. “What if we gave another server in Teagen’s place? Used a substitute. There are plenty of servers who would work in her place. We could use them as gestures of good faith—”
“Put a bunch of random servers in danger, so you can saveonewoman?” Derek shook his head. “Bad idea. Muro would figure it out, and wouldn’t care for the switch. You saw him.” Derek sneered, his eyes still on the road. “That man is crawling with women.Andhe has a wife. He doesn’t need sex workers from the Dahlia District,” he huffed. “He probably has a membership there anyway.”
I sighed. Derek was right. There was no real point in attempting something like that, but I had to try. There had to be a way to save Teagen. A woman as bright and optimistic as her didn’t deserve to be tortured and killed at the hands of Miles Muro.
“Besides,” Derek started again, “We’re almost positive we’re going to end protection of the Dahlia District. Dahlia is behind on payments, and Dad is sick of giving her lee-way because she’s friends with Mom.” He coughed. “Sorry. Friends with Clara.”
“I get it.”
“Anyway, with no connection there, and a new owner coming to town, we’ve got to wait before we try to do anything like that. The servers are considered capital assets.”
They were considered property? “That is some fucked up shit.”
“No kidding.”
Silence filled the car again. I leaned on the window. How could a woman like Teagen manage to be kind, endlessly giving, when she had been sold as property from the day she was of legal age? Hell, for all I knew, Oliver could have sold her before that.
I couldn’t let Teagen go. I refused.
