Ultimate Nyssa Glass by H. Burke (best value ebook reader .txt) 📕

“Does anyone else know about you?”

“A few folk—enough that if I disappeared there would be questions.” Ellis had spent the last hour or so seeing to that, with Clarence’s help. “My lawyer’s been quietly setting things into motion for my return over the last few months.” The clock on the wall chimed four. Dear Lord, let O’Hara be quick. I don’t know how long I can keep Rivera busy.

Ellis cast what he hoped was a lazy glance around the room. “Love what you’ve done to the old place. I heard you paid a pretty penny for it.”

“Yes, I did.” Rivera scowled. “I suppose I have you to thank for that.”

“Nothing personal. Just business.”

“And your interest in Miss Glass?”

A smile twitched at the corner of Ellis’s mouth. “Well, that is personal.”

“Oh really?” Rivera raised an eyebrow. “With your injuries, I didn’t think you’d be capable of such activities.”

Heat rose under Ellis’s collar. “That’s even more personal.” I’m not going to let him see me blink. If he’s stooping to that level, he’s feeling cornered. “Is she even alive? If not, we have nothing to talk about.”

Rivera raised his hand. “Calm down. Your felonious girlfriend is fine—for now.”

Twenty minutes to get in, twenty to get out, another ten in case something goes wrong. I have to draw this out.

“I have to wonder what you said to keep the police away from Dalhart Manor for all these years. Did you bribe and threaten the entire force?”

“You know my approach to business was always more pinpoint accuracy than broad strokes. Why grease all the palms when you can just discover what’s important to one or two men and push down on those pressure points?” Rivera’s hand wavered slightly, but he clenched down again on his cane, controlling the tremor.

O’Hara was right.

“Something’s been bothering me for a while. My father had full run of this mansion, experimenting on his staff for months. He would’ve needed supplies, tools, and someone to keep away prying eyes.” Ellis narrowed his eyes. “At first I assumed you found out about his experiments after the fact, but no, for my father to get away with what he did for as long as he did, he would’ve had to have outside help.”

Rivera scoffed. “Your father was a brilliant inventor, but he never had much of a mind for the practical side of things. I may have sponsored his activities for a bit. Didn’t stop him from cutting me out towards the end. I think he suspected my motives.”

“Imagine that.” Ellis scowled. “My dad was fragile, half mad, crushed by the loss of his wife. He needed help, and instead you fed his darkness. And for what? To strengthen your own failing body?”

Rivera recoiled. “What … what do you mean?”

“The way your hand was shaking just now. Palsy?”

Rivera’s face reddened, then his mouth hardened. “Fool doctors, for all their modern medicine, couldn’t give me a diagnosis. Just snake oil and false hope.” He leaned forward. “Do you know why I’m a successful business man, Dalhart? Because I’m ruthless, because I don’t tolerate weakness or idiocy. Ninety percent of success is appearance. If a man can’t control his own limbs, how is he supposed to govern a corporation?” He stood. “You should know more than most what it’s like to have your body turn against you.”

“I also know that sacrificing your soul to save your physical being is a fool’s trade.”

Throwing his head back, Rivera laughed. “Soul? Really? I would’ve thought your father would’ve raised a man of science.”

“My father raised a man who saw what the unchecked pursuit of knowledge without the guidance of morality could result in, and how miserable it could be. I can accept that I will never walk again. I couldn’t accept becoming a monster who would throw the lives of others away to further his own ends.” Ellis gripped the arms of his chair. “Rivera, stop and think. I don’t know what you’ve been diagnosed with, but my father’s research is not the answer. For one thing, he never perfected it. All his test subjects died—terribly.”

“So I will perfect it.” Rivera stamped the floor with his cane.

“And who are you going to experiment on? Yourself? Poor unwilling souls like my father did?”

“I’ll find a way!” Rivera’s lips curled into a snarl. “I have near unlimited resources … and for all your lofty speeches, you’re still here. Presumably to give me what I want.”

“To save Nyss, yes.” Ellis steadied himself. He had to stay focused.

“So, how do we start?”

Ellis barely suppressed a smile. This was the easiest way to stall Rivera. “Well, I suppose you could bring me paper and pen, and I could write down everything I know about my father’s work. Might take a while, but easiest way to convey information.”

“I suppose —”

The door burst opened behind them, and a small man with dark hair rushed in. “Are you all right, sir?”

Rivera furrowed his brow. “Yes. Why?”

“Bring her in, Jamison,” the small man called out the door.

A burly man dragged in a struggling figure with her head covered in a burlap sack. Ellis’s heart skipped several beats. Blast you, O’Hara.

Jamison thrust O’Hara into an empty armchair and wrenched off her hood. Her face was bright red, and her hair stuck up at all angles, but she managed a glare that was more furious than flustered.

“What’s the meaning of this, Aito?” Rivera frowned. “You know Detective O’Hara is on our payroll.”

“She may be taking your money, sir, but the men caught her sneaking up the back stairs towards the workshop and lab. There’s no way she could’ve known about that passage without someone familiar with the house tipping her off.” Aito nodded towards Ellis. “He got to her, I’m guessing.”

Ellis shrugged. “I’ve never seen this woman before in my life.”

“Now that’s a lie. She told us herself she was traveling with you.” Rivera narrowed his eyes at O’Hara. “And I thought you were a practical woman, detective. What did you hope