“No,” Cat said. “I don’t.” She expected him to rot in prison.
In a show of nonchalance, Tesh removed his heavy winter coat, folded it and placed it on the floor behind him. As if there’d been no interruption, he picked up his story again. “I also got an itinerary that told me about the party tonight. Once I verified that it hadn’t changed, I assumed Platt would show. He’s a twisted fuck who enjoys flaunting his power.”
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Cat just stared at him, encouraging him without words to continue talking—giving her time to think.
“I knew he’d want to rub your nose in it. And if you weren’t there, then of course Platt would have enjoyed tweaking Ms. Silver with what she couldn’t do to him.” He tipped his head. “I assume you confided in her? In your fighter friend?”
“No,” she immediately denied. If Tesh thought she had, it’d put them at added risk.
He glanced down at his shoes, a frown in place, then back up to meet her eyes with icy disappointment. “Just this once, I’ll let you slide on lying to me. But you will quickly learn there are consequences to that type of behavior. For your own sake, don’t let it happen again.”
Cat rolled back her shoulders, doing her best to hide her dread. “Platt wanted me. He’ll kill you when he finds out that you’ve—”
“Both Platt and Webb are dead.”
Her knees buckled and she slumped against the wall with sudden, debilitating remorse. “You killed Webb?”
“Ah, so you do care.” He seemed overjoyed by that, then said, “Not yet, no, but I plan to. Before another day passes, they’ll both be gone.”
Relief made her limbs even weaker. “I don’t understand. Why?”
“You see, Platt was too stupid to realize it, but I’m more powerful than he could ever be, because I know things he doesn’t know.”
Was that possible? She knew Tesh didn’t have Platt’s obscene wealth, but he might exceed him in insanity. “You said his guards work for you?”
“Some of them. Enough of them.” He gloated. “It took very little persuasion on my part to get the info I needed from the guards there tonight.”
Cat tried to look impressed. “You’ve covered all your bases.” She took another look around the van, searching for any weapon she might be able to use. “But why hurt Webb?”
“The backstabbing bastard worked against Platt. Against me.” Tesh ran a hand over his shaved head, rubbed the back of his neck and growled, “Webb was trying to find a way to bury us both.”
Wait... Webb had worked against them? “But I thought—”
“I know what you thought.” Indulgent, he shared his cruelest smile. “Poor little Cat. It’s possible Webb would have tried to protect you. But you ran from him.” He took a step closer. “For a while now, I’ve been suspicious of him, and of course, after Platt bragged about the girl he raped—”
“Georgia Bell.” She had a name, damn it.
“Yes, whatever.” Tesh softened. “She died quickly, if that makes it easier for you to accept.”
No, nothing would ever make it easy to accept. “You personally killed her?”
Confirming that, Tesh inclined his head. “In her sleep. I promise you, Kitten, she never saw it coming.”
Cat struggled for composure and lost. “You’re a monster.”
The insult made him laugh. “She came to the island willingly enough, but then fought the senator’s...appetites. She demanded that he change his plans, and when things didn’t go her way the spoiled twit stupidly threatened to report him. No one would have believed her, of course, but the senator always preferred the easiest route.”
Cat pretended to listen while she thought about Tesh’s revelations. Webb hadn’t been a part of that mess? She’d spent so long condemning him in her head that the sudden switch threw her. “I heard Webb say—”
“That he’d help, yes. What else could he say? Open defiance would have gotten him murdered on the spot.”
“By you?”
Tesh smiled his answer. “In a way, I almost hoped Webb would balk. You would have been mine for the taking, without all this fuss.”
She absolutely couldn’t think about that, not yet. She’d never be able to keep her head if she did.
“Unlike Platt,” Tesh continued, “I cover all the bases. I’d had extra eyes on Webb for a while, and bugs in all the rooms of his house.”
“You had a bug in my house as well.”
He smiled. “Yes.”
Going stiff to contain her shudder of revulsion, Cat waited.
Finally, Tesh continued, “I knew the bastard was searching for a way out. Your father wasn’t above making unseemly connections to better his social standing, but he certainly balked at a little harmless, sexual fun.”
Harmless? God, how she detested him. At the same time, she worried for Webb. For once, she didn’t object to having him called her father. “I can believe you’ll get to him.” In some ways, Webb had never fit the role of obscene criminal, so he likely wasn’t practiced in the ways of eluding the real cretins. “But Platt? That’s a very different matter.”
“I have my ways.”
“Odds are,” she continued, as if he hadn’t spoken with such confidence, “Platt is already planning your demise. There’s nowhere you can hide. Nowhere you can run. He’ll still get you.”
Brows flattening, Tesh said, “Now you’re just showing your ignorance. Soon you will learn to never underestimate me.” He removed a flash drive from his pocket, holding it between his finger and thumb to show her. “I own every detail of Platt’s life. He can’t do anything to me without exposing himself and he knows it.”
Trying for a look of awe rather than excitement, Cat widened her eyes. “You have info on the senator? Incriminating stuff?”
“I have him by the balls, and I have decided to destroy him.” He tucked the small drive back into his pocket.
Cat refused to believe it could be that easy—not that getting the drive from Tesh and then escaping alive would be anywhere near easy.
But at least now she saw an opportunity.
“You have enough information to expose the senator, and you’re carrying it around as if it’s nothing? I’m not stupid, Tesh. No sane man would do that.” A psychotic monster, yes, but Tesh was still cagey.
His mouth flattened at the insult. “I have another copy.”
“Saved on your PC?” She snorted. “Seriously, Platt would have already hacked that—”
Surging toward her, Tesh snarled, “No, damn you. I am not incompetent. I have a safe-deposit box with everything. Photos, details, dates, names, everything.”
His sudden nearness alarmed her. With every second that they talked, the van took her farther away—from safety, from escape.
From Leese.
But at the moment, she couldn’t think of anything else to do. “If you have it in your name, trust me, the senator has already secured it.”
His control snapped and he grabbed her hair, dragging her against him. “It’s in my mother’s name, goddamn you!” After that outburst, Tesh stood there heaving, his face florid, his body coiled.