“I have my ways,” Nadia answered, feeling a hint of satisfaction at having resources Gerri didn’t know about and couldn’t expect her to have. “I can’t tell you what they are, and you’d better not let anybody know that I’ve already heard.”
Gerri cocked her head, regarding Nadia with unbridled curiosity—and maybe a hint of respect, as well. “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?”
Nadia summoned a smile she didn’t really feel. “You have no idea.” Even the fake smile was almost impossible to maintain, so she quickly let it fade away. “Mom sent you in to be the bearer of bad tidings, didn’t she?”
It wasn’t like Esmeralda had a problem with confrontation. Nor did she have a problem with detailing Nadia’s inadequacies to her face. But perhaps sending Gerri had been something of an act of compassion. Maybe their mother thought the blow would be softer coming from her. Which was almost certainly true. No matter how unfair her mother thought Nadia’s disgrace might be, she would still consider it to be Nadia’s fault. Nadia had had one job in life: to be perfect, at least until her engagement to Nate was finalized. She had failed, and her mother would never be able to hide her disappointment and anger.
Gerri sighed and patted Nadia’s shoulder gently. “Actually, it was my idea. Mom is…” She shook her head. “I was going to say she isn’t herself, but that’s not true. It’s like she’s herself times two million.”
Nadia knew exactly what her sister meant.
“I figured getting the news would be bad enough without having to deal with the critique that would come with it if she told you,” Gerri continued.
Nadia nodded, certain that Gerri had made the right decision. Nadia knew exactly how her mother felt about her right now, but at least she didn’t have to have that disappointment shoved in her face. And she wouldn’t have to fight her desire to express her own feelings in return. Her relationship with her mom might never recover from such a confrontation. It might not even now, but as long as Nadia didn’t have the opportunity to say the ugly things she was thinking, there was a chance.
“And Dad…?” Nadia inquired.
Gerri made a face. “Had some kind of important meeting he just couldn’t miss.”
It was not impossible for a man of their father’s rank to have important, can’t-miss meetings on a Sunday afternoon, but Nadia could easily read between the lines. “In other words, he’s had it up to here”—she held her hand over her head—“with confrontation and he can’t face one more.”
Gerri nodded. “That’s the gist of it, I’m afraid. I think he and Mom are just short of meeting at dawn with pistols.”
Nadia would have laughed at the image of her parents dueling if the whole thing hadn’t been so depressing. And if she hadn’t felt so sure her mother would win the duel. She looked into Gerri’s eyes.
“I can’t live the rest of my live in a retreat, Gerri. I just can’t.” A hint of panic tinged her voice, and she made no attempt to hide it.
Gerri reached out and squeezed her hand. “It seems to me there’s an obvious solution to all your problems.”
Of course it seemed that way to Gerri. She knew Nadia had powerful blackmail material against the Chairman, and not knowing what that material was, it would seem to her that using it to force the Chairman to reinstate the agreement between their families was a no-brainer.
“Please tell me you kept your promise,” Nadia begged, sidestepping the issue for the moment.
Gerri frowned. “I haven’t retrieved the recordings,” she said. “Yet. You promised you would explain. Now might be a good time.”
Too bad Nadia had never quite figured out how she was going to explain. She would love to unburden herself, tell Gerri everything. But the fact was she didn’t dare. Knowing the truth about Thea was like having a death warrant with your name on it, which was why neither Nadia nor Nate could tell anyone, even—or maybe especially—the people they loved the most. If the Chairman ever caught the slightest hint that they weren’t upholding their end of the bargain, he would stop upholding his.
The problem was that if Nadia didn’t tell Gerri what was on those recordings, Gerri could just go listen to them herself—which ran the risk of leading the Chairman’s spies to their location, which would be even worse.
“You can’t listen to those recordings,” Nadia said, glancing around the room to make one hundred percent certain no one could hear what they were saying. “Having them safely hidden is the only thing that’s keeping me alive, and the Chairman would do anything to find them and destroy them—including putting you under surveillance and bugging your phones and computers. If you go anywhere near the recordings, either physically or electronically, he’ll find them.”
Gerri’s eyes widened. “What the hell is on those recordings that’s worth all that?”
“Nothing,” Nadia said, the lie falling glibly from her tongue. It was the perfect solution to her problem, making it seem not worth the risk for Gerri to listen to the recordings. “He thinks I have something, but I don’t. When he found the transmitter, he assumed I’d been sending the whole time and had caught everything he said. But I didn’t. As long as he doesn’t know that and doesn’t find the recordings, I’m safe.”
Of course, thinking the blackmail was a bluff did nothing to stifle Gerri’s curiosity. “So what did he say that he’s willing to kill to keep quiet?”
Nadia wished she had come up with this solution earlier so she’d have had time to think all the possibilities through. Making up an elaborate lie on the fly was fraught with danger, especially when she was faced with a sharp mind like Gerri’s. Which meant that keeping the lies to a minimum was her safest strategy.
“I can’t tell you,” Nadia said, looking her sister straight in the eye. “The information is useless without proof, but if the Chairman ever so much as suspected I told anyone…”
“How would he find out? It’s not like I’m going to say anything to him.”
Nadia shook her head. “Maybe all it would take is having you look at him the wrong way.” Gerri opened her mouth to protest, but Nadia kept talking. “As long as you can’t do anything with the information, there’s no reason for you to know. Except curiosity, and that’s not good enough.”
It was obvious Gerri wanted to argue, and Nadia couldn’t blame her. In her sister’s shoes, she’d be dying to know what the big secret was, too.
“Please trust me, Gerri,” she said. “It’s better for everyone if you don’t know what I heard.”
Gerri’s narrowed eyes said she still didn’t like it. “Well, I don’t suppose I can beat it out of you. But I still wish you’d tell me. If I know what the Chairman’s hiding, then maybe I can persuade him to—”
“No!” Nadia said, too fast and too sharply. She forced herself to lower her voice. “Don’t even think about trying to blackmail him. I mean it, Gerri.”
“Why not?” Gerri challenged. “Don’t you think it’s worth getting our hands a little dirty to save our family from complete ruin?”
“Of course. But do you think for one moment the Chairman didn’t consider the possibility when he decided to break the marriage agreement?” Gerri’s shrug was as close to an agreement as Nadia was likely to get. “He wouldn’t have done it if he weren’t fully prepared to call my bluff. And if he calls my bluff and finds out it really is a bluff, I won’t just be ruined, I’ll be dead—and probably you, too.”
Gerri leaned back in the love seat, her nails tapping restlessly against the padded arm as her face furrowed in thought. “He’s a devious bastard,” she said under her breath. “Maybe he guessed you’d be too afraid to try to blackmail him again. Maybe you’re playing right into his hands.”