Page 51 of Vicarious

“Within reason,” she adds.

I didn’t expect her to admit that.

“And exactly what’s reasonable?”

“Why don’t you try to figure that out?”

I sit up to take off my shirt and do just that… only to pause when I see a shadow in the corner of my eye. I look up in time to see Phae round the corner.

“Oh,” she says. “I… I wondered where you two disappeared to.”

With practiced ease, neither Dele or I move from our position. To try to jump apart would just be incriminating.

Instead, Dele turns her head to Phae and says, “We were just finishing up a spar. Obviously, I lost.”

With that, Dele very calmly pushes me away from her, stands to her feet and then offers me a hand. How she can be so composed in this situation, I’ll never know. But I grab her offered hand and stand to my feet.

She heads out to leave the gym, but stops next to Phae.

“I know you told me you were going to go over that file with Viper, but maybe the three of us should do it. I know a lot about the logistics of Pray’s business. Maybe I’ll see something the two of you don’t.”

Then, without waiting for an answer, Dele sashays out the room.

“Adrian,” Phae says.

I blink out my stare to look at Phae and ask, “What?”

Phae shakes her head and says, “Nothing,” before too leaving the room.

24

Dele

“Fuck,” I mutter.

“Right?” Phae says excitedly, which is a vastly different emotion than the one I have right now.

Viper told me he and Phae had put some things together, but Phae must have gone back after and put even more things together. Because Viper mentioned that we might have a problem using that evidence to take down Pray while keeping his criminal empire intact. But the digital diagram that Phae’s put together with all the dots she’s connected is more than just a fucking problem. It’s damning. For Pray, his businesses, and more important than all that, our plans.

“This could destroy my uncle and everything he’s built permanently.”

“If it’s all true.”

“Adrian told me he’ll get his people to verify it when I showed him last night.”

He’s stalling her. At least, that’s what I hope he’s doing. Phae’s not going to sit on this for long. She was never one to sit on a story when she had the full picture for long. Who needs verification when she could publish the story, send this to the feds and have all Pray’s assets and operations frozen along with his arrest as soon as they have it.

“This could end everything,” Phae mutters.

“End it,” I repeat as I scroll through what Phae’s pieced together, “And leave a huge fucking power vacuum big enough to start a bloodier turf war than the one Pray caused to amass this power.”

“That’s the great thing about what my uncle did, though. He was so focused on obliterating all his competition and forcing everyone else to comply that there will be no one left to try to pick up the pieces. It’ll all come tumbling down.”

I wish I could say she was wrong. But as I continue to look through all her information, it’s clear that the domino effect would be massive for every player in the criminal underworld across all sects and parties. The Italians. The French. The Russians. The Irish. The Mexicans. This is more than just a smoking gun. It’s a fucking ticking time bomb. And the scope of its radius is beyond imagination.

“You’d win the Pulitzer Prize for it,” I say. “That’s for sure.”

“That would be nice. But that’s not what I’m doing it for.”

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