Her Vengeful Rebirth novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Rival

Instead of signing, Thalia drives to Lund Therapeutics and offers the man her family ruined a deal; he agrees too fast and names the freezer room before she does.

At eight-forty the next morning I left a sticky note on my desk that said, "Dentist! Sign Monday? Hugs, T."

I drew a smiley face on it, because that was the sort of fiancee Cameron believed he had.

Then I took the stairs down to the garage and drove across the river to Watertown.

Lund Therapeutics lived in an old brick mill on the Charles, with a broken sign and a new roof.

Sixty people worked there, and not one of them looked up when I walked in.

"I'm here to see Mr. Lund," I told the girl at the front desk.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No," I said. "I'm Thalia Markham."

Her mouth fell open.

My father's lawyers had sent this company eleven letters that year, and every one of them had my last name on it.

Three minutes later I was in a glass office above the water, and Jericho Lund was standing with his back to me.

He was bigger than he had looked across the lobby.

He filled the window, a wall of grey wool and shaved scalp, and he did not turn around.

"You have ten minutes," he said, "and I'd like to know which of your father's lawyers wrote your speech."

"None of them."

I sat down in his visitor chair without being asked.

"I came to make a deal."

He turned.

His eyes were dark brown and very steady, and for half a second they went over my face.

Then the look was gone and he sat down across the desk.

"A deal," he said. "From a Markham."

"From a Markham who invented the stabilizer, and who owns it, and who doesn't intend to lose it."

"Interesting," he said. "I heard your fiance was filing it under Markham Holdings."

"Cameron hears a lot of things."

I put my hands on his desk.

"I want your lawyer to take a sealed photographic copy of my notebook and date it."

"I want it in a vault with your name on the key."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because in return, I'll license you the stabilizer for one dollar."

His face did not change.

"Nobody gives away a license for a dollar."

"I'm not giving it. I'm buying you."

That finally got a reaction.

One black eyebrow went up, slowly, and he leaned back in his chair.

"What does that cost, exactly?"

I had thought about the answer all night.

"When I call," I said, "you show up."

He was quiet for a long time.

Outside, a rowing shell slid under the window like a long white needle.

"That's all?"

"That's all."

"Done," he said.

I blinked.

"You haven't asked to read the license."

"I'll read it later."

"You haven't asked about my father, or the lawsuit, or what Cameron might do to you if he finds out."

"I assume he'll try to ruin me."

He said it mildly.

"He'll have to get in line behind the bank."

I stared at him.

I had spent the whole drive rehearsing my arguments, and he had accepted before I could use any of them.

"You agreed too fast," I said. "Why?"

"Because it's a good deal, Ms. Markham."

"It's a terrible deal. You get a dollar's worth of formula and I get a stranger who works for me."

"I'm not a stranger," he said, and then his jaw closed on whatever came next.

We both let that sit.

He pushed back from the desk and walked to the window again.

"My counsel will meet you with a camera tomorrow," he said.

"Not at your lab. Somewhere safe, and nowhere near Room 4C."

I stopped breathing.

"Say that again."

"I said bring the notebook somewhere safe."

"You said Room 4C."

"Did I?"

"I never told you the number of my freezer room."

He did not turn around.

The line of his shoulders went hard, his posture defensive.

"It's on the door," he said. "I read it at your ribbon-cutting. I was standing right there."

"That door is twelve feet from the podium, and you were by the coat check."

"I have good eyes."

I stood up and put my palms on his desk, and when he finally faced me I was so close I could smell his soap.

"Why me?" he asked, very quietly, before I could speak. "Of all the people in Cambridge, why walk in here?"

"Because you're the one who came," I said.

His whole face went still.

"Came where, Ms. Markham?"

I had said too much, and he knew it, and so did I.

Neither of us moved.

Somewhere down on the floor a phone rang, and nobody answered it.

"Sit down," he said at last, in a voice that had gone rough. "I think you owe me an answer."

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