The Mysterious Women Series:Blackmail

by Paramita Choudhury

  Chapter 22

  “Boss the entire paintings look similar, which one do we take", one of the man asked Robert. They had been spying on Zack right after the accident but didn’t attack him. It was Robert's idea to threaten them and then steal the legacy. Breaking through the security and alert was a tough job, yet they did it. Take all the SUVs and make sure to leave no evidence, be careful", he commanded hi men". Before entering the apartment they chloroformed the doorman and since they were all wearing masks, so there were least chances for him to remember their faces."Boss we got all the paintings", one of his man said."Are you sure"? He was impressed at his men's job. Need to raise their payments soon. "Heck if we didn’t". He checked the paintings for about half an hour but got nothing in them. He sent a message to Tatyana. After a minute she responded back, it'll do just be careful, deliver the goods and come back to me. His face glowed he knew she loved him; she had stuck quite long now. This Romanov woman stole my heart; need to shower her some gifts. "Everyone listen, take these paintings to the boss, tell him these are the only pieces in this apartment and wait for his orders", he announced. "I'll be there shortly after you".

  After everyone shared their stories about Zack, it was Armel's turn. He told them about the day he and Zack met in the University and how their rivalry turned into friendship. He then spoke of Zack as an employer "Though I'm his friend yet I can feel that he must be a great boss because generally such a huge mass wouldn’t be here, certainly not on a boss's birthday party, you all must really respect him to do so". He then turned towards Zack who gave him a curt nod and his smile turned to a gleam "Well now our birthday boy has got an announcement to do" he said" Zack my dear would you do the honor of coming here to the dais and make your announcement". Zack who was standing with Laney all this while walked to the bar stool where Sara, Mitchell and Lucie were chatting like old friends. "Here he comes", told her friends. She revolved in the stool and saw him standing there just like a prince waiting for his princess. "Would you like to come with me to the dais"? He asked politely. She was half drunk and her mind stopped functioning immediately as soon as she saw the smile in his face. She was awe struck and surprising everyone she trying to match his height she stood on her toe tips , she ignored her friends' stares and surprising everyone she replied "No", Zack felt himself dumbfound, everyone stared at her and her friends were totally surprised "How can you say him no"? Mitchell shook her; she kept her arms crossed and glared, while a creepy sensation made her anxious. He smiled deviously, folded the cuffs of his shirt and cradled her in his arms while she screamed, "You Neanderthal man, drop me down". Not until I have my way with you. "You would be wise to watch your tongue lady", he warned, his voice soft yet threatening. Yet she kept on shouting like a raged lady. Everyone was shocked by their boss's behavior including the fellow business men and celebrities who had never seen Zack outdo such acts for a simple secretary. The hall was filled with laughter, claps and whistles. "Don’t leave her Zack, otherwise she'll blow you", Ryan yelled standing among the audience. "How could he fall for her instead of me"? A woman wailed she was the lead actress in a movie which was jointly produced by Zack and some other producer.

  After he carried her to the dais he let her stand there, knelt in front of her and took out a ring from the box Armel provided him. As a last minute thought he had brought the diamond ring along with him, in case he got a chance to meet her. The ring was a simple one with a diamond placed in the middle with his and her initials carved on the other side. He knew she liked simple things, just by looking at the choice of her dresses he could make that out. Taking her hand in his he kissed it and asked "Would you like to marry this playboy"? She smiled and asked a question in the form of verses " Zack, What do you wish to gain? Trusting me will only give you pain. Pains that you will endure for a lifetime, still I'll waste no tear for you not a single dime." He remained silent for a while before answering "Honey trust me, because I'm the one who loves thee, with me you'll always be happy". Watching them from the audience pool a sturdy Ryan chuckled "My sister does not give up easily", "But you do", Mitchell surprised him. Meanwhile on the dais, Sara who was now holding Zack's hand like a precious object and had tears in her eyes , " Can you make me feel safe enough, so that I can trust you till I reach my grave? Tell you that I'm the one for you and in return you tell me you love me too". The orchestra now started playing the Disney theme of' I see the lights', Zack saw it as the chance and slipped the golden ring in her finger can't take any more chances with her , she seemed quite anxious herself and hugged him tightly almost making him choke. Yet he didn’t leave her until his phone beeped, holding Sara in an embrace he whispered "Honey I got an important message to check". Her dream snapped back to reality though she knew he was busy man, yet she was not prepared to leave him so soon. He stared at her for some time trying to understand her feelings but she didn't show off, she'll probably understand that I cannot give her all my time; she slowly walked back to her friends who were still eager to hear the story. Not everyone was happy with this arrangement some of the bachelor including Mr. Richard made their exit in a hurry while a few single ladies cursed Sara in the restroom. Others who were not busy stinging curses danced with joy.

  As soon as Mitchell got hold of her she pulled her along instead of her continuous denials for a square dance. Everybody had joined the dance including small time celebrities who were here just to become more popular among the folks. She danced four rounds the last ones being with Ryan and Armel. Even though she was here her mind was with him. As the dance was over she searched for him but couldn't find him anywhere. Seeing her anxiety Ryan chuckled "When do you plan to use the modern communication system"? She pulled her cell phone from the purse and dialed his number. He didn’t receive it immediately but after a few rings he answered her call and told her that his apartment had been robbed, at first she had a guilty feeling, and it is because of me that he has to go through such hardships.

  Sara went over to the lady in pink gown, who was now chatting with Mitchell "We need to talk"; she said stunning them for the third time with her serious attitude."Girl you need to relax", Mitchell chuckled "I can't relax when he is in such a situation due to my selfishness", and Sara stated "what are you saying"? The other woman got baffled. "We can't talk here come with me", Mitchell walked them to the adjoining room. She shut the door so that no one could peek in and then turned towards them "what's the matter honey"? "They ransacked his apartment", Sara replied."We can't work this cover any longer Lucie"."Sara calm down", Lucie told her. She then turned towards Michelle who gave a curt nod "We knew about this already". Sara cursed under her breath but didn’t utter another word "I had Martin follow Richard and the guy was seen accepting a parcel containing Drugs and Sedatives which meant that he was involved in the sudden disappearance of the models who worked for the different ads produced by the company's media section. And then since his phone was tapped we could hear his conversation through the office telephone just after he received the package, the call has been traced and it was someone from Manhattan. Agent Von and his team reached the place immediately but it had already been emptied, while searching for clues they got a few wrappers of protein bar". Lucie's eyes widened in shock "The new hands man he has the habit of chewing of Protein bars daily". Michelle took a sat near Sara who was already sitting on the couch "We are not sure about that so Richard has been taken for further enquiries while he was trying to escape from the party". Sara sat on the couch for a while but couldn’t make out one thing however hard she tried, a multimillionaire CEO like Zack who controlled more than fifty companies all around the world how could he never understand that they were working undercover in his office and using him as a bait, then it clicked her "Zack is the mastermind behind all this". Both the ladies clapped their hands like giddy kids "Bingo"; Michelle tapped on her shoulder "You figured it out finally"."I figured out something else as well ", she grinned " His apartment hasn’t been ransacked ", this statement of Sara made bo
th the women glance at each other with narrowed brows "You see he is the mastermind he knew what was going to happen, I mean after we were attacked he was prepared for a ransack in his apartment and yet he didn’t change the security code". Michelle had known that Zack was the master mind but this was new information, she couldn’t help but dig more into it "And would this help him "? Sara didn’t answer for a while as if trying to understand his next move "He would know what they are after". She now crossed her legs and gazed at her watch "As for me I think they want the legacy ", she smiled." Girl you stole it", Lucie said out of excitement. Then as if something struck her head she stopped laughing "I never told you about any legacy, how did you know about it"?

  "Because I told her", they turned to see Zack standing there along with Laney. This was the time when Lucie and Michelle were about to break down totally confused "I don’t understand this Zack why didn’t you tell us anything about the legacy "? Mitchell asked. Zack gave a sly smile "Because a few secrets must be kept only between lovers ".All of them laughed at this ironical statement, Michelle was about to ask something else regarding his plans but before that she snapped by Ryan "Officer? Mitchell"? who seemed to have passing by and entered the room for a little fun , instead he got to face people whose identity was much different than what he thought "I think I closed the door", Mitchell pouted "They manhandled it ", Lucie informed."She didn’t close it properly", Laney said."Oh I did", Mitchell said "It isn’t strong enough to hold back", Laney replied arms crossed while Mitchell investigated the door. Sara sat in the couch and watched their cynical performance while Zack watched her from the corner of his eyes."For Pete's sake Mitch, Laney I don’t think we are here to test your skills on carpentry ", Lucie scolded both Mitchell and Laney.

  "Mitch are you a fed agent"? Ryan placed his hands on her shoulder and turned her towards, his eyes filled with distrust. In all this commotion she had forgotten about the relationship they had developed, about their silent promises "As a matter of fact I am", she answered coldly trying to mask her feelings. "If all of your games' Guess who I am' and 'Is the wood hard?' are over , then can we discuss about our next move", Zack announced, he was annoyed with his friends. "I never knew that you were playing a spy", Ryan accused Sara he couldn’t believe the little girl he knew had turned as old as to be involved in espionage. "Neither did I being an ex marine", his words were cut short by his wife who signaled him to stop when she realized he was about to start his ex marine speech which would last for almost a minute or two making everyone too speechless to push him out of the room. "I will answer all your questions, but I need answers to a few of mine first", Sara said looking at Zack.

  Zack knew what she meant and as a starter for their relation he had to tell her the truth, the truth about his past "Alright let me start from my father he had a dual identity", Zack said "Dual identity"? Mitchell asked. "Didn’t I tell you the whole story before"? Lucie was annoyed at Mitchell's interruption. "But the dual identity thing was not mentioned", Mitch complained. "He phrased it that way Mitch, now please let him say", Sara said still a calm expressionless mask. "Actually the designer's company was just a show business behind that he was illegally involved with many drug dealers ", he then took a seat close to Sara."For me he had always been the most ideal dad. My mom she loved me a lot but always maintained distance from him I could never understand the reason because as much as I remember Ben once told me that they married out of love for each other. One day while he was having a heated conversation with my cousin I overheard them. Enraged I wanted to charge him then and there but realized that it wouldn’t be a good idea. So, later when I found sitting on his desk in the study room, I decided to approach him. There we had a conversation not that of a father and son instead it was a memorable time spent with a friend he told me the reasons that led him towards this business and as I was about to leave the room there was a power, immediately followed by a gunshot I heard my dad cursing , I knew he had been shot but in the dark it was hardly possible for me to recognize anything .I followed his voice and found him lying on the floor, he was dead by then , I sat near him and found that his hand held gun. Just as I took the gun from his hand the power supply was back and my cousin entered the room ", Zack looked at Sara she still had the masked expression; it doesn’t help when you act so cold. As if understanding his feelings she reached his hand slowly and nodded curtly encouraging him to continue "I knew instantly that this whole plan was designed to assassinate my dad. I couldn’t doubt Neil because he had been always with me like an elder brother, after mom he took care of me in every possible way, so it could never be him". He knew he was defending his cousin but how could he suspect someone who had always been with him whenever needed. A year after dad's murder I received a CD containing pictures of me holding the gun and dad lying there and this was followed by a phone call and many such phone calls in the future asking to pay him for the wonderful job he had done capturing the moment in the celluloid, I couldn’t let this matter go free, I had to know who it was so I hired a private investigator but the results were not satisfactory. One day while checking the tabloids I came to know of your sister's death he said motioning towards Sara. "My cousin he always maintained a low profile regarding his family but when I heard about his wife's death I knew he didn’t murder her. But since in both the cases he was involved I thought someone was after him and I needed to save the family I'm left with. So I thought of a plan along with Lucie to bring you here as my employee, since you are journalist it and were already working with Michelle on the model trafficking case so would be easier for you to investigate the case further when you come to know that your brother-in-law is my cousin and in this way you could get your hands on your sister's murderer". Everything he said made sense but Sara was not convinced yet "Why didn’t you come to me directly"? She asked after a long silence", "then you would think that he is behind all these behind all this", Mitchell replied."And why didn’t you tell me about it?" Laney asked his wife. "You would never help us", for the moment he shut his mouth."How can you say that now I believe you"? Sara asked "Because you know me quite well", Zack replied."How did he manage to take the photographs"? Ryan asked trying to digest all the confessions that took place in front of him." A few surveillance cameras were fit in the apartment and I suppose he was waiting for the right moment ", Zack answered."I think the person knows you very well to be able to do something like that", Sara said pondering over the points. "And he holds a deep grudge against Robensteins", Michelle added her verdict "But what do we do now"? I have a plan", Sara said smiling. Later when Ryan enquired Michelle regarding the FBI involvement in this case she told him that a few models of Ravens Smuts designers were missing and the FBI was investigating the case, moreover Elsa their late agent was Lucie's godmother, so they were running collateral cases now.