Chapter 2: Terms And Conditions

The room had no windows. They had dragged him to the room at the rooftop of the building away from preying eyes.

Charlie noticed that first, even before the restraints, before the way the air felt thicker the moment the door sealed shut behind him. No glass. No view. Just poured concrete walls painted a shade of gray that wasn’t meant to soothe only to erase a sense of time.

They sat him in a metal chair bolted to the floor. Not handcuffed. That was deliberate. His wrists rested in his lap, fingers knotted together so tightly his knuckles burned. Somewhere above, fluorescent lights hummed with an uneven pitch that made his teeth ache.

Claustrophobia wasn’t panic. Panic was loud. This was quieter. It crept.

The guards left without ceremony. The door closed with a sound that landed in Charlie’s chest and stayed there.

He breathed in. Counted. He always counted.

Four in. Six out.

It didn’t help.

The hospital alert buzzed again in his pocket, muffled but unmistakable. He felt it like a pulse against his thigh. His mother. He knew it was about his mother. They wouldn’t keep messaging otherwise. The system only escalated when something changed.

Please, he thought not to anyone in particular. Just… please.

The door opened.

Dexter Ashcroft walked in alone.

No jacket now. Shirtsleeves rolled neatly to his forearms, cuffs precise. The blood was gone from his hand, replaced by a faint abrasion that had already been cleaned and dressed.

He looked calm in a way that felt unnatural so soon after violence, as if anger were something he could put down and pick up at will.

He didn’t sit.

He leaned against the table instead, arms crossed, head tilted slightly as he studied Elior like a file laid open on a desk.

“You’re shaking,” Dexter observed.

Elior hadn’t realized he was. He tried to still himself. Failed.

“I’m sorry,” he said automatically.

Dexter’s mouth twitched not a smile. Something sharper. “For what?”

“For…” Charlie faltered. There were too many answers. Existing. Being seen. Carrying the wrong name. “For being here.”

A beat of silence.

“That’s interesting,” Dexter said again. He pushed off the table and circled slowly, shoes whispering against the floor. Each step felt measured, intentional. Predatory without needing to be.

“You apologize as if space itself belongs to someone else,” Dexter continued. “As if your presence is a transgression.”

Charlie stared at the floor. The concrete was spotless. Probably scrubbed between sessions. He wondered how many people had sat in this chair before him and learned something they couldn’t unlearn.

“I didn’t mean to see anything,” he said quietly. “I won’t tell anyone. I swear.”

“I know you won’t,” Dexter replied.

That should have been comforting.

It wasn’t.

Dexter stopped in front of him. Close enough that Charlie could see the faint lines at the corners of his eyes, the careful stillness of a man who never wasted motion.

“Do you know why people like me don’t kill witnesses?” Dexter asked.

Charlie’s throat tightened. He shook his head.

“Because dead men create questions,” Dexter said. “Living ones create leverage.”

Charlie’s breath stuttered.

Dexter reached into his pocket and removed a thin tablet. He tapped the screen once. The wall opposite Charlie lit up.

A hospital room appeared.

White sheets. Monitors. A familiar curve of a woman’s shoulder beneath a thin blanket.

Charlie made a sound he didn’t recognize as his own.

His mother lay unconscious, oxygen tubing beneath her nose, skin sallow against the pillow. A doctor moved in the background, face grave even through the grainy feed. Panic bells started going off in Charlie’s head immediately he saw his mom.

“Pulmonary complication,” Dexter said calmly. “Advanced. She was admitted an hour ago.”

Charlie surged forward, instinctive, desperate. The chair stopped him cold.

“Please,” he whispered, the word tearing out of him. “Please, I didn’t, I can pay, I can… I’ll work more shifts, I’ll do anything.”

Dexter raised a hand.

The screen froze.

“Sit,” he said softly.

Charlie obeyed. His vision blurred. He wiped his face with shaking hands, ashamed of the tears even as they fell.

“This is where we stop pretending,” Dexter said. “You don’t have money. You don’t have influence. You don’t have time.”

He leaned in, voice dropping just enough to feel intimate.

“But you do have utility.”

The word hit harder than any insult.

Dexter straightened and tapped the tablet again. The image shifted documents now, lines of legal text scrolling past too quickly for Charlie to read.

“Your father’s case is… unresolved,” Dexter continued. “Assets frozen, charges suspended but not dismissed. A very untidy situation. One signature in the wrong place and the debt transfers to next of kin.”

Charlie went very still.

“That’s you,” Dexter said. “In case that wasn’t clear.”

The hospital alert buzzed again. Louder now, insistent.

Dexter turned the tablet face down and set it on the table between them.

“Here’s my offer,” he said.

Charlie lifted his eyes, heart pounding so hard it hurt.

“For two years,” Dexter said, “you will be my partner.”

The word felt wrong. Misplaced. Almost obscene.

“Publicly,” Dexter clarified. “Photographed. Interviewed. Presented.”

Charlie stared at him, confusion cutting through the fear. “1…I don’t understand.”

“You don’t need to,” Dexter replied. “You need to agree.”

He began to pace again, outlining terms the way a surgeon might outline an incision.

“I’m stepping into a more visible role. My reputation is… effective. It is not warm. You are young. Unthreatening. Tragic in a way the public finds palatable.”

Each word stripped something from Elior without touching him.

“You soften my image,” Dexter said. “I stabilize your life.”

He stopped and looked directly at Charlie.

“In return, all charges tied to your father are suspended indefinitely. Your mother receives private care. Specialists. No billing statements. No waiting lists.”

Charlie’s chest heaved. He thought about the offer deeply, it was better than dying and his mom was gonna get the care he couldn’t provide her. Hope flared dangerous, blinding.

“And you?” he whispered. “What do you get?”

Dexters gaze didn’t waver. “Control.”