In Rei's limited business experience, she had never known negotiations to involve forcibly binding anyone.
What if she strangled Cheng right then and there? The daydream, imagining her fingers wrapped around his throat until he turned blue, kept Rei from crumbling. There was plenty of good reason to have a proper breakdown, but she couldn't afford that. Not right now.
"You've taken up some interesting business practices while I wasn't paying attention," Rei said.
"If I waited for your attention, I'd never get anything done," Cheng replied.
"Plenty of time to conduct illegal activity, then," Rei shot back.
No one in the car was comfortable, between Sébastien's restraints and Rei and Cheng's bickering.
"Do we have to suffer through this sibling rivalry bullshit or can we get down to business," Gwen asked. Her diligence to upkeep her makeup failed to disguise her exhaustion. Thin patience and a worn expression gave her away, a more volatile version of herself.
It all came down to money and power and ego and pride. Rei somehow hurt others by not being invested in those things they way they were. She insulted them by being a recipient. They couldn't lash out against the giver, so they took out their discontent on the receiver.
"What do you want?" Rei asked. Her eyes flicked to Sébastien. Up close, when she payed attention, it was obvious that he saw, that he listened and understood everyone said around him while appearing distracted, his eyes flicking to smaller details. The nervous tap of Gwen's fingers. Cheng's compulsive jacket straightening. Rei suspected Sébastien was that way all the time, tuned into the world around him, utterly opposite of the way Rei attempted to shut it out.
"Shares," Gwen answered, "is that not fair? Nothing changes between you and I get what's rightfully mine."
Gwen addressed Cheng as if Rei wasn't sitting right there, as if Rei wasn't the one with access to those shares. What did rightful ownership even mean? How did Gwen rationalize that she was owed those assets, that Angelo intentionally granting Rei that power somehow betrayed Gwen's birthright? It was money, not a kingdom.
"You want shares?" Rei repeated, "you understand the current business model for Sundial involves robbing people and persuade them to our side, don't you?"
Gwen could never say Rei didn't try to warn her, but Gwen pursed her lips, considering that information.
"Fine," Rei said, turned to her brother, "give Gwen the shares, then. I'll sign them over... if you delete all the blackmail you have against Sébastien."
At his name, Sébastien straightened up.
In contrast, Jasper scowled. "Cheng, we can'tâ"
"What else do you have to bargain with? You can't shoot me. I promise my will does not leave anything to either of you," Rei insisted.
Cheng ground his teeth, mulling over the consequences of letting Sébastien go. It wasn't his idea in the first place. Rei knew her brother well enough to know he was not a criminal mastermind. That didn't mean she forgave him for his poor judgment.
"Cheng, you can'tâ" Jasper tried again, a sharp glare from Cheng once again interrupting the thought.
"What's worse? Letting Sébastien off the hook or letting me control majority share?" Rei's heart quickened with the false threat. There was no chance of Rei controlling majority, not after she set her stock broker to the task of selling her right out of the company.
"Or," Gwen said, "you could shoot him."
Reactions varied wildly, from Sébastien's alarm to Cheng's disgust. Jasper appeared a touch too keen.
The conversation was beginning to feel much more like a dream. It couldn't be real day Rei was experiencing. How could she go from waking up next to Sébastien to giving up a sizable portion of her wealth, saying a final goodbye to her closest mentor, and somehow end up in the back of a car where Gwen casually suggested shooting someone?
"No one is getting shot," Cheng said firmly.
"Thank you," Sébastien piped in, the first thing he'd said the whole ride.
Rei chewed her lip, waiting for Cheng's final verdict. Of all the people in the car, Rei was surprisingly glad for Cheng's control. At least his values were predictable. Vengeance was too unstable, too desperate. Her brother mediated Gwen's hatred and Jasper's spite.
"Fine," Cheng said, finally.
"Butâ"
Cheng's hand went up to silence Jasper's protest. "Do it."
Rei dared to catch Sébastien's eye, his face full of a tentative kind of hope. It was too early to be certain, but one could dare wish for resolution.
It was the least Rei could do. It was the best she could do to show him she was sorry.
Jasper fumbled over a tablet, Cheng observing over his shoulder. His stormy eyes flicked up to Sébastien, holding an assessing stare.
"He doesn't look like he's worth millions in assets," Cheng said.
The way Sébastien's eyes widened, brown and disarmingly innocent, implied his agreement and Rei shrugged helplessly in response. He was a symbol of something better that she wanted for herself and all she had was money. If she had something else to give him, she would give it.
Angelo called her the voice of fairness and justice in his letter, the one that accompanied the will, his safety deposit box key, and the heirloom necklace. Surely, this wasn't precisely what Angelo had in mind, but was it along the right lines?
Wait. Outside the window, the world moved around them, but they were having more than just a moving business meeting. They were going somewhere and Rei realized where and paled. The financial district flashed by. Rei easily recognized the arcades held up by marble pillars, the lavish exteriors housing upgraded versions of the banks they had always held. She couldn't mistake the landmarks because she had already visited their destination, somewhere in the time between receiving Angelo's letter and the fundraiser party.
Rei glanced at Gwen, her face obscured by the usual mask of her performance. Seeing Gwen's fury quietly simmering under her skin only made it more obvious that Gwen was almost always performing. Rei knew that better than anyone else, having seen both sides of that coin. Rei also knew better than anyone that Gwen without that buffer of distant charm, that apathetic dazzle, she was more dangerous. Like a cat, she graced others with affection on her terms and everyone around her ate up that attention. Like a cat, when hurt, she was temperamental and unpredictable and undoubtedly ready to bite.
So how would Gwen respond when they arrived at the bank, were led to Angelo's safety deposit box, and found it empty?
"It's done," Jasper said, handing his tablet to Cheng for review.
"So, you've got nothing on me?" Sébastien said, that quiet hope sneaking into his voice. Daring, dreaming of freedom. No more worries of being arrested. No more threat of being forced out of Temperance.
"Aren't I always?" Sébastien replied, not even defiant or sarcastic. Rei wished she possessed that kind of poise under pressure. Perhaps it shouldn't have surprised her after the nonchalance with which he handled himself when she had him bound.
"Debatable," Gwen said off-handedly, glancing out the window and the grace Sébastien had immediately melted into a flush of red and the duck of his head.
"Are shares to Sundial really so important to you?" Rei asked. It wasn't, Rei was sure of that. What interest could Gwen possibly have in a security firm? She was a supermodel, occupied by strutting down runways and wearing impractical clothes for editorial magazine shoots.
Gwen regarded Rei, her green eyes acidic in the unflattering lighting of the car.
Rei continued, "you get the house. You get almost everything else."
Everything else was a great deal. Angelo Ferrero had his own business, his own legacy. What Angelo owned in Sundial was hardly a fraction of his net worth.
"Except for his respect, his trust. Family heirlooms. No, he gave those things to you," Gwen replied. It wasn't at all about Gwen wanting the money, the necklace, the apartment. It was simply about Rei not having them.
There had been a time when their friendship had been genuine. Angelo Ferrero and Giles Collingwood were friends and that brought the girls together, but Rei distinctly recalled a time when they played dolls together for hours while their mothers drank mimosas on the patio. They staged fashion shows, swam in backyard pools, tanned during vacations to the Mediterranean. Rei lost track of when they had split apart. Maybe it had been so gradual that there was no moment to pinpoint. Maybe it began when Gwen's parents divorced. Maybe it began when Angelo began entertaining the interests Rei's parents ignored. Maybe it was a summer when Gwen went to Italy with her mother while Rei spent hers dusty and elated on a dig site in Mongolia.
Somewhere, there was a split and Gwen knew the ways to creep under Rei's skin, lashing out in that defensive, hurt way that Gwen could. It was in the knowing looks Gwen shot her, communicating silently that she got to Sébastien first, as if she'd known in some supernatural way that he was the kind of person Rei found herself drawn to.
Rei was not so skilled, but she had tricks up her own sleeves. If Gwen sought Sundial, then she could have it. Gladly. If anyone had bothered to ask Rei, she would have readily given it up. Somehow, however, she doubted that would have satisfied Gwen. She would have reached for something else instead, something else to have just so Rei would have not.
The car pulled to an abrupt stop, jarring Rei in her seat.
"Let's get this matter sorted, shall we?" Cheng said, as casually as he'd discussed Rei's disappearance on television. It was all just business. Wasn't everything?
Cheng reached over Rei, opening the door and giving her a persuasive nudge toward it. Cheng had never been one to roughhouse when they were children. Even then, he hated dirt, hated to be scuffed, or, at least, hated the scolding he received for getting himself into such a state. Now, he was perfectly fine with handling her roughly, forcing her to stumble out of the limousine and into the alley.
What a stark juxtaposition, limo against shadowed sideroad. No, not a juxtaposition at all. Cheng rose from the car, straightening himself and his jacket as he emerged. He matched his surroundings, no matter how finely his clothes were tailored or how neatly his barber trimmed his beard. A snake was a snake.
"What about Barret?" Jasper asked over the roof of the car, exiting from the other side. Rei couldn't catch herself before she shot her brother a questioning look, her eyebrows sternly knit. It was a fair point. Cheng wouldn't march his hostage into the bank still tied. With evidence erased, Sébastien didn't serve a purpose as a scapegoat.
Cheng considered a long moment, speaking despite how Rei silently dared him to say a word.
"Throw him in the trunk," Cheng replied.
"What," Rei said, standing taller as she wrenched Cheng around, her grip firm on his arm.
"I only recall you negotiating to delete our blackmail," Cheng replied, "for over a million dollars, you could have negotiated for much more than that for him."
He pulled himself free of her grasp, her fingers going slack. He couldn't do that. He couldn't be serious. Her hands shook, a slow realization dropping into her stomach. Rei chose to credit Jasper and his vendetta against his former partners and she chose to blame Gwen and her desperate to hurt Rei. Readily, Rei agreed that Cheng was an immovable object, stubborn and proud and desperate for approval. Those were things Rei had long accepted about her brother, but he was still her brother at the worst of times.
But this was worse than the worst of times. Cheng wasn't without guilt and Rei couldn't make excuses for him.
Gwen hooked her arm into Rei's, pulling her along while Rei twisted for a glimpse. Jasper disappeared behind the body of the limo, ducking out of Rei's sightlines.
A soft thump sounded and Jasper followed it with a quietly hissed, "you bastard."
Before Rei could see anything more, Gwen tugged her onto the street where the alley immediately dissolved into the pristine financial district. The home of Angelo Ferrero's empty safety deposit box.
_____________
A/N: Any guesses on how Baz is going to get out of this situation?