“Give it up,” Thomas said. “I’ve all but won as it is. It’s all just a matter of time now—a very short time. Save me the trouble of having the will set aside, and you’ll walk away from the closing a very rich woman. You keep fighting me and you wind up with nothing—no house, no money. I call that a no-brainer, Alicia. Why are you being so damn stubborn?”

You of all people should know, she thought. But she said: “Why? Why do you want the place so badly?”

“I have my reasons. Nothing that concerns you.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “I can hurt you in other ways, Alicia. I can ruin you professionally. I can make that medical degree of yours completely worthless.”

Alicia froze, afraid to move, afraid to hear.

Thomas’s voice sank to a whisper. “I found his stash… the master collection. It’s mine now. And I can release parts of it to the state board, to select magazines and newspapers.”

Alicia knew that if her hands were free now, she’d turn and go for his throat, try to rip it out to silence that smug voice. But the cold sick dread flowing through her stole her voice.

And then she felt his hand grab her left breast and squeeze.

“Remember the good old days?”

What Alicia remembered was the seventeen-year-old Thomas sneaking into her room at night to cop a feel while she was sleeping. Something he quit after she slashed his palm with the knife she’d begun keeping under her pillow.

Her fury broke free. She flexed her neck, then rammed the back of her head into Thomas’s face.

She heard him cry out in pain, and then heard a horn blare as the truck screeched to a crashing halt.

From the other side of the front partition she faintly heard the driver say something about a “Goddam cab” as he got out.

Behind her, Thomas was whimpering. “I think you broke a tooth!”

“Shut the fuck up,” said the man beside her—the first words he’d spoken since he pushed her in here. “This could be trouble.”

She heard shouting outside, then something slammed against the side of the van.

“That does it,” the man said. “I’m going out to see what’s up. You just stay put.”

Alicia didn’t have a choice, so he must have been talking to Thomas. She’d thought Thomas was in charge, but this thug showed him no respect. Who was in charge here?

She got a glimpse of the man’s blocky build and thick features as he pulled the side door open, then it closed behind him.

5.

5.

Yoshio was amazed at the sudden, bizarre turns of events.