Free Tiger Trap by Eric Walters Page B

your opinion on. I want to know what you think about me.”
    “About you?”
    “Yes, tell me your insights and assessment of me.”
    I didn’t answer. I didn’t know what to say. I knew what I thought of him, but I couldn’t really say that.
    “Come, come, Sarah, I’ve seen you watching me and I know you well enough to figure you have an opinion. I’d like to hear it.”
    He stared straight at me, his arms folded across his chest, that smirk getting even larger.
    “Well, I guess at the very beginning I was a little bit uneasy about —”
    “Sarah, before you continue, please remember that you are, without a doubt, the
worst
liar I’ve ever met in my entire life. So I suggest that rather than embarrass us both that you simply tell me your real opinion.”
    I felt stunned. What was I supposed to say now? I stood silently.
    “If you can’t say anything good, don’t say anything at all, huh?” His smirk grew bigger again. “You probably think I don’t have feelings, so there’s no danger of you hurting them.” He lifted his left foot and rubbed the toe of his boot against the back of the other leg. “Just go ahead and spit it out.”
    “I don’t like you!” I snapped, the words jumping out before I could stop myself.
    His smirk softened into a smile. “I suppose you don’t trust me at all, either.”
    “Not as far as I can throw you.”
    “And you don’t think I even like animals.”
    “You like money and the animals are nothing more than money to you!”
    “Further, you hate these boots,” he said, gesturing at his shiny, shorn feet.
    I nodded enthusiastically.
    “They’re very comfortable. Do you know what they’re made of?”
    This time I shook my head.
    “It’s caiman. I don’t imagine you even know what a caiman is.”
    “It’s like an alligator from South America. Some types are very rare and endangered.”
    “Actually,
these
are made from a very rare type.”
    I shuddered. I wasn’t surprised, but I was still offended.
    “Now I’d like to tell you what I think of you,” Anthony said.
    I didn’t care what he thought of me, but I still didn’t want to hear it. What awful thing was he going to say about me? I braced myself.
    “I like you.”
    “Yeah, right,” I scoffed.
    “I do. And the reason I like you is because you remind me very much of a younger version of me.”
    I was expecting him to insult me, but this was really hitting below the belt.
    “And I’ll tell you why,” he continued. “You and I are both, by nature, very observant and very analytical. We’re both always trying to figure out what’s going on around us. Watching, observing, predicting, trying to foresee every possible consequence and then strategizing how to handle them all.”
    I remained silent. Just because that was how I was didn’t mean I had to agree with him.
    “You’re very smart and do well,
very
well, in school. Partially, that’s because you’re clever, but also, partially, it’s because you simply outwork everybody else. And finally, you not only want, but you need, to be in control. It bothers you when somebody else is in control, and that’s perhaps why you don’t like me.”
    “There could be lots of reasons why I don’t like you,” I added.
    “Regardless, I still like you. I even admire you.” He paused. “Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you get in the way of what needs to be done. Remember that.”
    He turned and walked away, and I felt an eerie chill spread throughout my entire body.

Chapter 9
    I opened up the freezer. The new freezer. It was packed to the brim with meat. Anthony had not only bought a new freezer but he’d worked out some deal with a meat packer so we could get all of the meat we needed. It came pre-packaged, all wrapped up in brown paper, labelled and weighed. I wondered how much he was paying for the meat, but it really didn’t matter. There seemed to be enough money for everything.
    “Everything” included the two men who had