Flawless Betrayal

by Rachel Woods

  45

  Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean

  “After you failed to strangle Moana last year,” Ben said. “She found her way back to me, and I nursed her back to health. She was regretful and apologetic for trusting Richard, and she begged me to let her back into my good graces. After you failed to kill me two months ago, I woke up and escaped my restraints, which you hadn’t tied as tight as you could have, and I discovered you had stolen my envelope. Of course, I had to get it back.”

  “You told Moana to kidnap Spencer?”

  “She wanted to make up for going against me,” Ben said. “It was the perfect opportunity for Moana to make amends.”

  “You sure you can trust Moana?”

  Ben said nothing.

  “You think Spencer is treacherous?” Sione asked. “Moana is worse than that. You think she won’t stab you in the back?”

  “She knows better than that.”

  “You think?” Sione goaded. “Moana has betrayed you before. She had your envelope stolen and hidden in my casita.”

  “But the envelope was found, remember?” Ben said. “Spencer was the perfect Trojan horse.”

  “Yeah, and Spencer was the perfect delivery girl, too,” Sione said. “Passing money and fake passports to those three women you tried to protect. Except you didn’t. Despite your best efforts to keep them alive, they were all killed. Moana murdered those women because Richard told her to. Moana was working for my father, against you.”

  “She apologized for that mistake,” Ben said. “And I forgave her.”

  “If she went against you once, she’ll do it again,” Sione said. “Moana will do whatever is in her best interests, and if it means working with my father to take you down, she’ll do it.”

  “Trying to make me doubt Moana is not going to work, old friend,” Ben said. “You think I trust that bitch? You think I haven’t always known, from the moment I first met her, that she’s a backstabbing whore. You were the one who was fooled by her. You thought you saw something good in her, something that made you get down on one knee and propose. All I ever tried to do was show you what a crazy bitch she was, but you didn’t realize it at the time.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “When you caught us together,” Ben said. “Wasn’t what you thought. Wasn’t some passionate love affair going on behind your back. I was trying to show you that she wasn’t the right woman for you, but you didn’t want to see that. You got pissed off when you should have thanked me.”

  “I should have thanked you for screwing my fiancée?”

  “I did you a favor,” Ben insisted. “Moana wasn’t the right woman for you. And neither is Spencer. That bitch made a living drugging men and stealing from them. She stole from me and then stabbed me in the gut and left me to die.”

  “Too bad you didn’t.”

  “Think about that, old friend,” Ben said. “If I had died, you never would have met Spencer. Although, that may have been for the best. You actually have me to thank for that sick, sadistic relationship the two of you have.”

  Ignoring Ben’s insults, Sione said, “If Moana hurts Spencer—”

  “Moana has orders to treat Spencer with dignity, as if she were a guest in her home,” Ben said. “Certainly, Moana is treating Spencer better than your father told Tommy Fong to treat her. At least, I’m not having her kept in some filthy shack on a dirty mattress.”

  “Where is Spencer being kept?” Sione asked.

  “Don’t concern yourself with that,” Ben advised. “She’s someplace safe.”

  46

  An Island off the Coast of Belize

  “You’re…Richard?” Spencer gaped at him, her heart racing as memories assaulted her mind. “You’re the bastard who had me kidnapped in Belize?”

  “Let me explain my actions,” Richard said. “I believe you have been given some misinformation about me, and I would like the opportunity to help you understand why it was necessary for me to do what I did.”

  “Nobody gave me any misinformation about you,” Spencer said. “They told me that you’re the devil, and I believe it after what you did to me! Tommy Fong tied me up like an animal in that filthy shack!”

  “Relax, dear,” he advised. “Calm yourself.”

  “Calm myself?” She stared at him, wondering if he was insane. “How the hell am I supposed to calm myself when I’m sitting next to the man who—”

  “Getting upset is not good for the baby.”

  “Go to hell,” Spencer said, yanking on the inside door handle. “Stay away from me! Let me out of here!”

  “I do regret that you had to suffer that experience,” said Richard. “But it was unavoidable.”

  “Unavoidable?” Spencer scoffed. “You couldn’t avoid having me kidnapped?”

  “Despite the deplorable conditions in which you were kept,” Richard said. “You were never in any danger of being hurt. It was always my intention to release you.”

  She bristled at the self-justification in his tone. “So, since you were eventually going to let me go, that makes what you did okay?”

  “Having you kidnapped was not one of my finer moments,” Richard conceded. “But let’s not pretend that you were some innocent victim.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “It means you never would have been forced to go to Belize if you hadn’t stolen from Ben.”

  Spencer stared at him, feeling condemned.

  “Sione’s mother informed me of your past after she concluded her lamentations about the consequences of your pregnancy on our son’s life,” Richard confessed. “I know what kind of woman you used to be. You have a history of drugging men and taking off with their valuables, which, in my estimation, would disqualify you from throwing stones.”

  “I know I’ve made terrible mistakes,” Spencer said. “And bad decisions.”

  “Admittance is only the first step,” said Richard. “After that, there should be some responsibility and restitution for your actions. Some repentance for your sins.”

  Spencer looked away, knowing what he meant.

  She’d never confessed her crimes. The things she’d stolen would never be returned to their rightful owners. Responsibility and restitution would have to be avoided if her hopes and wishes for a life with John and the baby were to come true. Maybe the right and honorable and moral thing to do would be to turn herself in. Maybe a part of her wanted to do just that, but she lacked the willingness and the courage. It was selfish, she knew, but she didn’t want to go to jail. She wanted what she didn’t really deserve—the chance to be with John and raise their baby together.

  “There is a saying that goes something along the lines of you cannot be fooled without your own participation,” Richard said. “So, it could be perceived that the men you targeted should not have been fooling around with a woman young enough to be their granddaughter in the first place. Dirty old men shouldn’t be surprised when they get scammed. After all, if something is too good to be true—for example, a beautiful young woman interested in an octogenarian—then it probably is.”

  Spencer remained silent.

  “How about we not pick at each other’s faults and flaws?” Richard suggested. “We’ve both done things we regret, things we’ve gotten away with that we should be behind bars for.”

  “The things I did were not directed at you,” Spencer pointed out. “You were never one of my targets. I never did anything to you, but still you forced me into the middle of this beef you have with Ben so you could teach him a lesson.”

  “The problem with Ben is that he will never learn.”

  “What exactly was kidnapping me supposed to teach him?” Spencer asked. “Tommy Fong said you were trying to make Ben obey your orders, but I would like to hear from you what you think Ben will never learn.”

  “Ben will never learn that he should not go against me, because he won’t prevail,” said Richard, rubbing his eyes. “I told him that we needed to get rid of those
traitorous bitches, Karen, Carla, and Maxine, but he was of a different opinion. A misguided, foolish opinion that compelled him to envision himself as some sort of protector of those women, providing them with money and new identities so they might be able to escape the consequences they deserved.”

  “Oh my God,” Spencer whispered, realization dawning. “You killed those women.”

  “I did no such thing,” Richard said, slightly indignant. “You will never find their blood on my hands.”

  “Maybe you didn’t pull the trigger,” Spencer said, “but you gave the order to have those bullets fired and their hands chopped off.”

  “I had to protect my interests,” said Richard. “I would think you would understand that. Your little mission trip to Belize wasn’t done out of the goodness of your heart or because you wanted to help Ben out. You didn’t want to go to jail.”

  “You seem to think that we have something in common, but I am nothing like you,” Spencer said. “Yeah, I used to be a thief, but you’re a cold-blooded murderer. You shot a woman seven times.”

  “Again, I was protecting my interests,” he said. “It was a judgment that had to be carried out. That woman was a two-faced bitch, trying to play both sides from the middle.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She used to work for me,” he said. “I sent her to Belize to protect my interests.”

  “You hired her to kill those women, you mean?” Spencer said, horrified but not terrified.

  “She was able to provide the level of protection I required,” said Richard. “But then there was an attack on her life, which was almost successful. Instead of coming to me, she went to Ben, crawled back into bed with him.”

  “Crawled back in bed with Ben?”

  “Moana’s orders to kidnap you came from Ben,” Richard said.

  “I don’t believe you,” Spencer said. “Why would Ben want to kidnap me? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Obviously, he wanted something from you in exchange for your release.”

  “I already gave him what he wanted from me.”

  “That envelope he sent you to Belize to look for,” Richard said, nodding. “Apparently, he lost possession of it. The envelope was stolen from him after you delivered it to him.”

  “So, it’s my fault that Ben was careless and let somebody steal the envelope?” Spencer shook her head. “That’s Ben’s problem, not mine.”

  “I’m afraid it became your problem when Sione stole the envelope from Ben.”

  “Why would Sione steal Ben’s envelope? Spencer shook her head, confused. “How could he have…”

  Spencer sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. She knew how John could have stolen the envelope. The night they’d broken up, John had confessed to following her to the Toyota Center, where he’d seen her talking with Ben. Later, he’d confronted Ben. During the confrontation, he might have taken the envelope. But why?

  “Ben had you kidnapped to get the envelope back,” Richard said. “That bitch Moana helped him.”

  “Moana?”

  “Moana is the woman who kidnapped you,” Richard said.

  “The woman you shot seven times,” Spencer said, images of the murder flooding her mind.

  “She was a backstabbing whore,” Richard said. “My son never should have gotten involved with her. She broke his heart, betrayed him in the worst way.”

  “She told me about that,” Spencer said. “She was engaged to Sione when she cheated on him with Ben.”

  “She was the genesis of the feud that exists between Sione and Ben to this day,” Richard said. “She burned the bridge between them, and I don’t think it can ever be rebuilt.”

  47

  Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean

  “Why didn’t you kill me? Or let me die?” Ben asked a few hours later, after their last conversation, which had left Sione with a sour taste in his mouth. Even the malted scotch the flight attendant had poured for him couldn’t get rid of the bitterness.

  “You should have killed me,” Ben went on. “If you had, we wouldn’t be on this plane right now, flying halfway around the world.”

  “We’re on this plane because you kidnapped Spencer.”

  “I kidnapped Spencer because you stole my envelope,” Ben said. “This fool’s errand is all your fault. Completely unnecessary. If you had killed me, you would be married now, enjoying your honeymoon, if you hadn’t been so cowardly.”

  Ben was right. Sione had planned to kill him, had known death was the only option, the only way to be rid of Ben for good. Why the hell hadn’t he killed Ben when he’d had the chance? It was a question he couldn’t answer, a question he didn’t want to answer. The truth was disturbing, unfathomable.

  “I wouldn’t have killed you either,” Ben said. “I could have the night you showed up at the house in Third Ward. I had a loaded gun in the desk drawer. I could have pulled it out, shot you stone cold dead.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  Ben laughed. “Maybe because I didn’t want to be running from Richard for the rest of my life. Or maybe because we are brothers. Not like Cain and Abel, but Jacob and Esau. We have had our differences, but one day they will be settled.”

  “Nothing will ever be settled between us.”

  “You and I were not raised to hate each other,” Ben said. “And yet, we are constantly at each other’s throats.”

  Sione didn’t want to think about how they had been raised.

  “We were brought up as brothers,” Ben reminded him.

  “We were trained to be monsters,” Sione corrected. “My father wanted us to be in his league of gentlemen assassins, but that’s not what I wanted for my life. I never wanted that. You, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have a problem killing and destroying people’s lives.”

  “So that’s why you hate me?” Ben asked. “Because I joined Richard’s crew?”

  “I thought you felt the same way I did about it,” Sione said, disturbed by the conversation, wishing he weren’t in the middle of it. “I thought you wanted something better for your life. I thought you wanted to be a better person. When you chose Richard, it made me realize that I didn’t really know you.”

  “When you chose to go halfway around the world and live with your uncle, I realized I didn’t really know you,” Ben countered. “You left me behind. What the hell was I supposed to do? I had no choice but to follow Richard. I had no other family. My mother and father were both dead. I didn’t have a lot of options. And it wasn’t like you were extending me an invitation to come with you to live in paradise and become a better man.”

  “I only went because my uncle insisted and my mother wanted me to go,” Sione said, wondering why he felt the need to explain his actions, the fateful decision which had caused so much division between them.

  “You went because you’re a coward,” Ben said. “You didn’t have the guts to stand up to your father and tell him that you couldn’t be what he expected of you.”

  “I didn’t want to be what he wanted.”

  “No, you couldn’t. You were not able,” Ben said. “You didn’t want your father to know that you weren’t capable. When one lacks ability, one feigns disinterest in the skill.”

  “What’s that?” Sione scoffed. “One of your triad proverbs?”

  “If you could have been the man your father wanted you to be, you would have,” Ben said. “But, once you realized you could not meet his expectations, you fled.”

  “I didn’t want to meet Richard’s expectations,” Sione insisted. “I didn’t want to take a life. That’s why you’re still alive.”

  “You know why you’re still alive, old friend?” Ben asked, his smile grim. “Because of that promise Richard forced us to make to each other. You remember? He told us that there may come a day when we would fight, but it could never be to the death.”

  Sione remembered his father’s words, the promise Richard had forced them to make. Swear you’ll never kill each other, Richard had de
manded, eyes wild, slightly feral. It was hard to look at his father, to see an older reflection of himself, a fierce, crazed version of himself, bizarre and terrifying, a version he prayed he would never become. His father could never know that, Sione recalled, bombarded by memories of his fifteen-year-old thoughts.

  Swear you’ll never kill each other.

  At the time, Sione thought Richard was being weird, paranoid, in the throes of mania, having a moment, as his mother referred to those times when Richard seemed to be losing it. Why would he and Ben ever want to kill each other? How would they even get to the point where one of them one would want to see the other dead? Didn’t make sense. Ben was his best friend, the brother he’d always wanted.

  Little had Sione known. Richard hadn’t been crazy. Somehow, his father had sensed the rivalry and acrimony between them, lying dormant, simmering beneath the surface.

  Swear you’ll never kill each other.

  It was a promise Sione realized he had to keep, but not out of obedience to Richard or loyalty to Ben. He would keep the promise in honor of his uncle and out of respect for what his uncle had taught him. His little boy was another reason not to give in to murderous intent. He wanted to be the kind of loving compassionate caring father his son could rely on to be rational, thoughtful. He wanted to protect his son from men like Richard and Ben.

  “And what were the results of your tropical sabbatical?” Ben asked. “Are you a better man?”

  “Better than you.”

  “Hardly.” Ben laughed, but soon his mirth faded as the flight attendant hurried down the aisle toward him. The slight furrow between her arched brows made Sione’s heart slam.

  The flight attendant crouched next to Ben’s seat, speaking to him in rapid, whispered Chinese. Sione kicked himself for never learning the language. Ben had offered to teach him the basics, when they were younger, but Sione hadn’t had the patience or the interest. The flight attendant stood and hurried to the back of the plane, disappearing behind a curtain.