“Am I?” I ask.
Eric narrows his eyes, cocking his head.
“You see, I think I have something worth more than this city is to you.”
Eric pales, “Is that so, Mr Silver?”
I hold a hand out and a simple brown envelope is placed there. Before I can even bring it to me a gun is drawn and aimed at my head.
“I wouldn’t do that,” I warn.
As if my words are a signal, the gun is aimed at Wren. She doesn’t even flinch, if anything she stands taller and puffs out her chest, a cruel smile curling her lips.
It’s the completely wrong time to get turned on but my dick twinges anyway.
Fuck, she’s feisty.
“That’ll end in much the same way.” I tell him. “Should we see what we have here?”
The gun is not withdrawn but no shots are fired so I proceed. My heart pounds inside my chest. I don’t care for my safety but Wren’s. The barrel pointed at her makes me sweat though I keep it collected, cooling my expression as if the threat on her life is nothing more than an inconvenience.
I turn and head to the nearest surface, opening the envelope and spilling the contents onto the side, revealing a number of compromising images.
“This is you, is it not?” I ask, fanning the photographs so each one can be seen.
Eric looks down at them, “This is nothing.” He snaps.
I laugh, “No, but this,” I pull my flash drive from my pocket, “this is enough.”
“And what?” Eric laughs, “You’ll go to the police?”
With everything backed up to my server I place the drive on the counter next to the images, keeping my hand over it, “No, but I will release it. I won’t have to go to the police, I won’t have to do anything at all. You’ve pissed off a lot of people over the years, before the police can even get to you or any of your associates you’ll be ripped apart by the people and the families you’ve destroyed. They don’t know who you are, they’ve never been able to figure it out, but this information will give them everything they could ever need.”
With my hand still covering the drive I feel the cold metal of the gun press into my temple, “There is nothing stopping me.” Eric warns.
I can’t see Wren but I can feel her panic. I sense it down to my bones, feel her presence drawing closer.
“Do it. See what happens when I die.” I laugh, “You’re done, Eric. This city is gone.”
“I don’t think so. Shoot him!”
“No!” Wren screams.
“I die, it’s released anyway.” I rush.
I hear the safety catch, the movement of his clothes as he prepares to fire. The seconds that stretch between feel like hours but then Eric yells, “Wait!”
A long minute of silence stretches between us.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” I turn into the gun, staring at Eric, “you shoot me, you shoot Wren, you hurt any one of us, then the world sees this. I have a clause in place, you see. I die, you do too.”
“You’re bluffing.”
I wasn’t, “Try me.”
“So that’s it?” Eric asks.