Behind The Billionaire's Locked Room

floor among my tools and half-finished sculp

b. Streetlight came through the high windows in long yellow bars and lay across the workbench, across the figure I'd left drying under p

n. Creating art for a man w

e: my sist

led C

here," I s

ter, he was sitting across from me on an o

with too much sugar, because he'd known from my voice which kind of night it was. He handed me the

this is insane. A year locked

him'? That's not a cont

thousand dollars.

s to you in that tower? Wh

oked at me-not with desire, exactly. With re

ook at the broken thing

years ago. He hasn't been seen publicly since. He s

g trauma by collecting artist

en thousand by the end of the month. Even if I manage that, the treatment costs three hundred thousand. I can't sel

r a long moment. "Wha

s startup failed. He's been

h his hair. "So West just...

years. He has pieces I forgo

aiting. And now, when

s expression darkened. "Tha

a pre

ed after I got home. Hands reaching through bars. "Or maybe he's ju

uzzed. Unk

uthorization for the treatment protocol. An anonymous donor has guaranteed coverage

nds s

whispered. "He's already

ou even s

eal." I looked at Chris. "Caitlin could sta

out deciding to, among the tools and the clay dust and the half-built figures that would never be finishe

re near my sternum. I put my knuckles down on the concrete floor and held them there. The grit bit in. Real. Th

e, for everything hers. The arithmetic o

ear. Into that tower, with that m

dates abou

s face changing. "You need me to know you're okay. Build that into whate

complete

some desperate woman he can lock away. You're an artis

e

gain. The embossed num

asked. "Help me figure

s jaw set. "I'll make sure you

rotects you if t

y. One trusted contact who knows where I am. Clear exit conditions

as the night went on, the way it always did when he was thinking hard, until the last clauses were crammed along the margin in letter

p of his glasses. "You don't have to call him," he

" I said. "That's

back to

, I picked

my hands an hour ago and I was still holding it, because putting

nsurprised. "I was beginning to t

e cond

ear him smile. "I'd be di

t without argument. When I asked for weekly me

ed, the silen

you a year-I need to know why. The real reason.

use. Longe

finally. "Sign the contracts. Begin yo

er. The truth isn't something I can gi

n. Thought of the sixteen percent s

e there

he said. A