Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,25

searching too deeply into our agent.”

Once again, Dav laughed. “I don’t pay you nearly enough. Are you still determined to say no to a raise?”

Gates shook his head, a definite negative, before he said, “Yes, I’m going to refuse. Your idea of a raise is equal to the GDP of a small independent country, Dav.”

“How about I fire you and you finally go build that information research and security company idea you’ve toyed with for so long?”

“Your unemployment insurance would go through the roof. I’d just live like a bum for a few years and draw food stamps on your dime.”

Dav chuckled. “Can’t have that. I guess it’ll have to be the raise.”

“No. No budgetary increase necessary.”

“It isn’t like the gross domestic product, Gates,” he said, impatient now. “You regularly save me more trouble than it would be to run such a country, so you deserve it,” Dav reasoned slyly, hands spread to show how obvious it was that he should accept. “So, fifteen percent increase this year, I think.”

Gates rolled his eyes and let his head drop onto the soft leather headrest. He hadn’t realized how tired he was, how much he’d been on alert, until he was in the safety of the bulletproof limo with their usual escorts, front and back. The banter was easy and familiar. They’d had the same sort of discussion every year for the past three years, up to and including the offer to fire him so he could go start his own company.

If he ever did, Dav would be the first in line to buy his services. It was pretty much a sure thing. Every now and then, when Dav’s wandering lifestyle palled, he considered it. Then they would stay put for a while and he would realize that a so-called stable life would be too painful. It would mean relationships, and connections. Those connections required emotion, and he wasn’t sure he had it to spare. He had it for Dav, but so far, he’d been able to keep Dav safe. Gates’s work for him was a penance for all he hadn’t done for his own family.

“No,” he said, realizing Dav was waiting for a reply. He kept his voice firm. He didn’t let on any of the weariness. One whiff that he was capitulating would have Dav drawing up the papers for fifteen percent in a wink. “It’s not about the money, Dav. You know that.”

Dav hissed out a breath. “Of course I know it, Gates. However, it is in my power to give generously because I am alive to pursue my business interests. I am alive because of you, my friend,” he argued. “Ergo, you have increased my business holdings geometrically. In fact, given your computer prowess, you’ve done more than that just with what you improve in communications savings.”

“Three percent,” Gates muttered, knowing he’d have to let Dav do something or the man would never drop the subject.

“Fifteen,” Dav insisted. “Think of it as profit sharing.”

Gates snorted out a laugh. “Profit sharing, my ass. No one else gets profit sharing.”

“That’s because there is no stock, no centralized holdings. Your idea,” he reminded Gates, referring to the business model Gates had set up that kept the multitude of small connected businesses, each earning vast amounts of money individually, but never taxed collectively, reducing the financial burden operating under multiple international governments usually caused. “An idea for which you should be compensated.”

“You paid me well for the idea when I initiated it five years ago. That money’s quadrupled in the last four years. No need to pay me twice.”

“Ah,” Dav argued, “but it still pays me dividends, so why should I not pass them on?” Sighing dramatically, he added, “Thirteen percent.”

“Four.”

“Twelve.”

“Four,” Gates insisted, his voice firm.

“I’ll wear you down in the end,” Dav said on a laugh as they rolled through the gates of the vast estate just north of the city. They had climbed into the hills as they wrangled, neither of them paying much attention to the route, although Gates would have noticed any deviation instantly.

“No,” he said firmly, “you won’t.”

Dav had one last comment about Carrie McCray as he got out of the car. “I know she grieved her husband deeply.” He stared off into the night, turned back to Gates, and winked. “Now, however, she appears to be past it.”

“Perkins, if you contact me again, without authorization, I will have you terminated.”

Dead silence greeted the pronouncement, and the caller wondered if Perkins had died of fright on the