“Billy,” she said breathlessly, panicked. “You were supposed to be overseas, out of reach of the US authorities.”
“No one’s ever out of reach of the Committee, and I have you to thank for that, don’t I?” he said in a sour voice. “If you’d given me back the smartphone when I asked for it then all this would have been avoided.”
Her heart sank. “I couldn’t,” she said miserably. “Don’t you realize what you did? You sold women and children into slavery. Most of those people won’t live that long, and yet you’re sitting on a profit made off them.”
“And a very nice profit it is,” he said with a shrug. “It’s their choice. They could have stayed in the pigsty villages and died young, or they can enjoy civilization for a few years. I know which one I’d pick,” he said with supreme indifference.
“You’re a monster,” she breathed, shocked.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m a businessman, like my father and brothers before me.”
“Not like me,” Tonino spoke up. “It’s dirty money.”
“You’re a pussy,” Billy said maliciously. “You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, you can’t make a profit without stepping on some toes. My partner and I know what we’re doing.”
“Your partner?”
“Soledad. You had no idea she was working for me, now did you? It took her too damned long to find the telephone after you refused to hand it over, but in the end she got it.”
“I smashed it,” Jenny said.
The momentary darkening of Billy’s eyes was terrifying. And then he smiled affably. “That’s all right. Most of the information is outdated by now. In fact, you’ve probably saved my life. No one will be able to prove anything even if they had the records I’d stored on that phone.”
“The Committee does.”
“Does what?” Billy demanded irritably.
“Has all the records on the smartphone. They dumped the information while I was staying in the house, and they’ll use it to hang you. You need to get out of here before you’re arrested.”
Billy laughed. “No one’s arresting me. You forget—Father’s paid for half the New Orleans police force. I’m not going anywhere until I feel like it. In fact, I’m safer from the Committee right here.”
Jenny looked at him as she saw the last vestige of her family crumble in front of her eyes. “How could you do this, Billy?” she demanded brokenly.
“Give me a break, Sissy! You always were such a bleeding heart. I told you, I’m ambitious. Father’s always discounted me, and I decided it was time he was taught a little lesson. No one should ever underestimate me.”
“You’ve betrayed all of us with this shit,” Tonino exploded, taking a step toward him.
“Never.” He turned a winning smile on Jenny. “I love my family, and you, sister mine, most of all. I could never hurt you.”
Relief swamped her. Thank God. Someone else had to have been behind the murder attempts . . .
“That’s why I hired someone else to kill you,” Billy continued blithely, as if it made perfect sense. “After all, you were the only one who knew I’d been part of the trafficking, and you wouldn’t give me back my cell phone. I don’t know why you were so selfish about it, Sissy. I wouldn’t have had to hire someone if you’d just been reasonable.”
Jenny swallowed, as something inside of her died. “I’m . . . I’m sorry.”
“Jesus, Billy,” Tonino said.
“No need to be sorry, Sissy. Everything’s taken care of. Even the Committee can’t touch me here, and I have the money to go anywhere I want. The only problem that remains is you.”
“Why me?” This all had a strange, Alice-Through-the-Looking-Glass kind of feel about it, her brother acting as if he were making perfect sense when every word out of his mouth was insane.
“Because you know the truth. Sooner or later you’re going to tell the wrong person and I’ll get caught, and I really can’t let that happen.”
“You’re my brother. Why would I want you to get caught?”
“Oh, you wouldn’t want me to,” he said sweetly. “You just can’t keep your fucking mouth closed.”
They were alone now in the giant foyer of her father’s garish house. Tonino had disappeared; it was just the two of them, and she felt sick inside.