My sense of restraint? Burned out, in the white-hot rage I feel right now.
I get up and grab the laptop, yanking it from its spot, the cords popping loose from it, clattering against the desk, and his eyes go wide as I throw the computer against the file cabinets, hurling it so hard it breaks. I pick it up and slam it against the metal corners of the cabinets, shattering plastic and glass, again and again until the computer comes apart in pieces. Then I drop the pieces and look down at him.
He’s scared…but he’s smiling.
As though I’ve just given him a gift.
“Oh, Mr. Raines. Colby. Can I call you Colby? I feel like we’re close friends. We must be, the way you open up with your true feelings here. Are we friends?”
“I’ll have you fucking killed,” I say. “I’ll have you run out of town. They’ll find your body in pieces down in Mexico somewhere.”
It’s a bluff, just me being infuriated, and he knows it.
We understand one another, and before he even speaks, I feel like I know what he’s going to say.
“I respect you,” he says, “enough to know that’s an idle threat. You don’t get your hands dirty like that. You’re an honest businessman. Like me, really. We don’t need to exaggerate things, do we? Now, as you calm down, I think you know, it’s not like that video is only stored on that poor dead laptop, right? You could tear this place apart, you could burn it down, and I’d still have copies. It’s on the cloud, Mr. Raines. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but my security boys tell me that I can always find a copy, no matter what. And you want to know something funny? This conversation is also on the cloud. Your little outburst about Mexico? Sure would be funny if all this got out, wouldn’t it? I wonder what your friends would think. What your brother would think. Your investors. You fucked a little boy-whore, and when things got rough, you started making illegal threats. What’ll they think, do you suppose?”
I slump back into the chair.
Part of me understands that this is what happens when I open up.
The minute I have a feeling, I have to be shut down.
It’s natural. Cause and effect. I should have known there would be a punishment. Payback for telling Finn how I felt. Payback for being honest about my feelings here, with Jimi, with the laptop in black plastic shards on the floor.
I should close down.
I can’t feel anything right now. I mean, I do, but I shouldn’t.
“Let’s talk business,” I say with a sigh. “What’s it going to take to get you off Finn’s back? Those videos need to be erased, and you need to leave him alone. What’s your customer offering you? I assure you, I can go higher.”
There’s that sick grin, the look that turns my stomach.
“Now that’s what I like,” he says. “We’re talking all reasonable. Nice, ain’t it? Now, my job is to make men happy, and one of the men who has to be happy is me. That’s important. You have to look out for your own happiness in life, don’t you? Otherwise it’s nothing but bittersweet disappointments all the way. It’s zero-sum. Somebody’s gonna win, somebody’s gonna lose. My client…he isn’t going to be happy when I tell him there’s a competitor.”
“I’m not competing. This isn’t an auction. I’m not paying for Finn. I’m paying you to leave him alone. What’s he offering?”
He rubs his hands together. “A hundred and twenty thousand.”
I start. I lean forward in my chair. My eyes wide. “What?”
Laughing at my surprise, Jimi nods. “I talked him up, of course.”
“What…” I can barely catch my breath to ask. “What…exactly…is he paying you for?”
His lower lip pooches out. “Oh, that’s not for me to say. I don’t ask that question. You know billionaires, Mr. Raines. You are one yourself. Their tastes can be a little…rough. Any man can be rough, of course. We all like to slap around a boy once in a while, don’t we? Shove him, remind him his place in the world. But you billionaires—oof! God only knows where he’ll stop. Now, I don’t think he’ll commit any crimes on the poor boy. I never would’ve agreed if I thought it would go that far—”
“This is the darkest fucking thing I have ever heard.”
Jimi shrugs. “Finn would get his portion. And again, we’re not talking hospitalization or anything. Maybe a few