Disappear and work where you’re told, or Marin becomes the next conversation.
Asa believed him.
For fourteen months he had been moved between storage properties and garages, doing whatever work kept Prosser’s operation running.
Every time he considered escaping, someone mentioned Marin’s diner address.
Galt knew enough to know Asa had been silenced.
He never asked where.
That was the bargain he made with himself.
Then his debt grew.
When Prosser demanded payment Galt could not make, Galt invented the $20,000 deposit.
He gave them Marin’s closing schedule.
The same woman Asa had disappeared to protect became the person Galt offered up to buy himself another night.
Asa’s hands curled into fists.
“I should have come back.”
Marin shook her head.
“They threatened me.”
“And they got to you anyway.”
“That was Galt.”
“No.” Asa looked toward Rune.
“That was all of them.”
Rune nodded once.
“Yes.”
The next call went to Galt.
This time Rune did not warn him that Marin was listening.
Galt answered quickly, his earlier arrogance gone.
“Rune, listen, I can explain.”
“Tell me about Asa Solis.”
Silence.
Marin watched Asa close his eyes.
Galt finally whispered, “I didn’t take him.”
Rune leaned back in his chair.
“I didn’t ask if you did.”
Another silence.
Then Galt started bargaining.
He said Prosser had terrified him.
He said the diner was failing.
He said he had employees depending on him.
He said he had only given Prosser Asa’s name because he thought they would scare him into keeping quiet.
Marin felt something inside her go still.
Galt had spent fourteen months building excuses around the wreckage of two lives.
Rune let him finish.
Then Marin reached for the phone.
Rune slid it across the table.
“Galt.”
He stopped talking.
“Marin?”
“You watched me search for him.”
“I didn’t know where he was.”
“You knew why he was gone.”
“I was scared.”
“So was I.”
Her voice shook, but she kept going.
“I was scared every night for fourteen months.
Then you scheduled me alone and sent men looking for money you knew wasn’t there.”
“I didn’t send them.”
“You gave them my shift.”
Galt breathed heavily into the phone.
