Passion's Wicked Torment

by Melissa Hepburne

  “He’s faking, damn it! You and Ladislas Terry, what a bunch of dunces. Of course he’s making out as if he can’t remember anything. That’s the smartest thing he can do. He figures that if we fall for it, we’ll stop trying to get that name from him.”

  “Yeah, but, boss, he’s been like this for two weeks now, and Terry can’t get anything out of him, no matter what he does to him.”

  Kristin winced at this, and she almost cried out. What were they doing to her brother? God, she wanted to rush in there and kill them! Were they . . . torturing him? She had to find out where they were keeping him so she could arrange to have him rescued. She had to!

  “Listen, Arthur, I’m working on the situation. I’ve got so many men out in California, trying to track down his sister, Molly, that she’s bound to turn up sooner or later. Then we’ll get what we want out of him. He’ll stop pretending he lost his memory when he sees her in front of him, getting beaten silly.”

  “But, boss, T.J. was the only one who got a good look at her. The others said it all happened too fast. All they remember is that she was a doll and had beautiful, really long hair. So we may not find her soon enough to—”

  “We’ll find her, damn you!”

  Kristin felt frightened. They were actually looking for her! Under her full name, Molly K. Fleming. Evidently they didn’t know that she had been called by nothing but her middle name ever since she was a child. Kristin’s mind was reeling at the realization of how close a call she had had. If she hadn’t told everyone she was going off to California to live with relatives, and then secretly joined Dallas as his moll, they would have captured her just a few days after Chad!

  Well, if they hadn’t found her real identity out by now, they probably never would. They certainly wouldn’t learn anything from trying to track down her grandparents in California. There weren’t any grandparents in California. She had invented them to make her disappearance plausible.

  Ironman said something she wasn’t able to catch, then Arthur Teal said in a plaintive voice, “Boss, we got to get him out of there! The heat is really on. The cops ain’t looking for him; for some reason the investigation was closed down tight. But the feds, boss, the feds! They’re nosing around all over the place. Can’t we just kill him?”

  Ironman thought a moment. Then he said, “I’ll go down and visit him myself. I want to see about this loss of memory nonsense. I know about this doctor who got drummed out of the profession for boozing it up. He’s a head doctor, a follower of this Viennese crackpot whose theories have been in all the papers lately.”

  “Sigmund Fred,” offered Teal.

  “Yeah, him. He’s a follower of him. Freud, not Fred. So I’ll take this follower of his with me when I visit the reporter. He’ll be able to tell if he’s on the level or not. I’ll go visit our reporter friend day after tomorrow. Meantime, since the heat’s on, I want you to move him to. . . .”

  Kristin’s ear was plastered to the heating grille, but just then, something unfortunate happened. Just as Ironman spoke the words of the new place Chad was to be moved to, he began playing the piano! Kristin felt like screaming. She couldn’t hear! He was talking about where Chad was going to be held, and she couldn’t hear!

  She rushed to the door and flung it open. Ironman and Teal both turned to look at her. She tried to make herself seem calm and casual, but failed. Her tension and anxiety must have shown on her face, for Ironman looked at her warily, quizzically. “What’s with you?” “I ... I want to have that drink now.”

  He stared at her for an instant, but then his face broke into a smile, and he laughed. “Whatever it is you been reading in that magazine, you ought to stop. What’s it about, anyway, lost pets?” He turned to Teal. “She’s real soft on lost pets. You should have seen her when we saw this stray dog that almost got run over on the street.”

  Teal was looking at her suspiciously. “Yeah?” he said. “I guess that really gets to her, huh?”

  Kristin made herself smile. “I was reading a very sexy article about the movie star Guy Faraday, and it made me think of you.” She went to Ironman and ran her finger down his chest, forcing a seductive look on her face. It worked. He brightened instantly, and his eyes came alive.

  He grasped her finger and looked her straight in the eyes. “Very soon, doll. Very soon.” He had Teal pour her a brandy with cream. Then he spanked her playfully as he directed her back toward the bedroom.

  “Do I have to go back in there?” she asked, trying to hide her desperation. She put on a pout. “It’s so . . . lonely.”

  Ironman sighed. “Naw. I don’t think so. Go on, sit down. Why don’t you finish putting some of those figures in the ledger book. We’ll be done soon.”

  Kristin went to a table near the veranda windows and sat down. She opened the large green ledger book and began entering figures in it from slips of paper containing yesterday’s receipts from Ironman’s operations. She had been doing this for him for the past few days, since he himself detested the drudgery of it. Her mind was not on the figures she was entering, though, but on Ironman, as she hoped desperately that he would continue talking about where Chad was to be taken.

  Ironman returned to the piano and began bumbling on the keys. He glanced at Kristin with happiness and hunger in his eyes. He turned to Teal and said, “So you just keep doing like I told you to, right?”

  “Yeah, boss. Right.”

  “And then day after tomorrow me and my doll here,” he said, indicating Kristin, “will go on a short trip to my pride and joy. And then I’ll take a few minutes to go downstairs and visit our guest.”

  “Are we going somewhere?” Kristin asked with studied nonchalance, looking up from her ledger. “Where?”

  Ironman winked. “You’ll find out, doll. You’ll love it.” He turned back to Teal and continued his discussion. Kristin was in agony. She wanted to push it, but she knew that if she did, he would become suspicious. His “pride and joy,” that’s where he said they were going. Where was that? What was it? She’d find out in two days. Day after tomorrow, he said. That was when he would visit Chad. She’d find out where he was being held at last!

  “All right, Arthur. Is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?”

  “Hunter and his men are raiding Rooney’s numbers racket on Lindyras Street, like you told ’em. Not shooting anybody up, just grabbing the betting slips and terrorizing the place. Without the slips, Rooney won’t know who bet on what; so his customers can all claim winners, and he’ll have to pay ’em off. Or get them all angry by not paying off the legit winners. Hunter wants to know what to do with the slips. I didn’t know what you had in mind for that, so I told him to come here after and bring ’em to you.”

  At that, Ironman flew into a rage, leaping up from his piano bench, grabbing Teal by the shirt front. “Here?! You told him to come here? I told you never to have Hunter come here!”

  Teal was shocked and amazed by the outburst. When he tried to speak, he stuttered. “Y-you never told me, boss. Maybe you told someone else, but you never told me."

  Ironman realized that he was showing his jealousy by acting in such a fashion in front of Kristin. He glanced at her and saw that she was watching him intently. He made an effort to get control of himself again. He let Teal go, releasing his shirt. He began patting off his clothes, as if trying to undo the damage. “All right. I must have told Riggio, but not you.”

  Teal clearly wanted to ask what the big deal was, why should Ironman get so upset over having Hunter come over. But he did not dare. Ironman had a flash fire temper, which his keymen quickly learned not to mess with. Anytime they discovered a subject that set him off, they made sure never to mention it again.

  Teal could not know how insanely jealous Ironman was of Hunter. Kristin knew. Ironman believed that they secretly still cared for each other deeply, and absolutely nothing she could say could convince him otherwise. He went to great pains to keep the two of them apart.

  Kristin had only s
een Hunter once since they had been arrested together after that time on the island, and even then Ironman had been clearly upset about it. It had been at an earlier ball he gave for his political cronies, and he could not very well have left his key henchman off the invited list. Hunter had ignored Kristin totally, and she had ignored him equally as well, refusing to even look in his direction. Ironman had been curt and had barely treated Hunter civilly.

  “Well, I better go, huh, boss?” Teal was unnerved by the display of anger, not understanding its cause.

  “No, you stick around. Have another drink.” Ironman tried to seem more jovial, but he failed dismally. He glanced at Kristin, who quickly turned her eyes away, not wanting to confront him over his jealousy. He could not be reasoned with about it, she knew. The best thing she could do was to just let him cool off by himself. In fact, she thought, the smart thing to do was to leave the room so that she was not here when Hunter came, so Ironman would not have any cause to be further provoked.

  She got up and started toward the bedroom.

  “Where are you going?” His voice was not friendly.

  “I thought I’d he down for a while. I’ve got a headache.”

  “You sure you’re not just worried about making me jealous? You don’t have to worry about me, doll. I ain’t jealous. Of Dallas Hunter? Ha! What a laugh that is.” He was so defensive about it, he almost could not think straight. “You sit right where you are,” he ordered. “You don’t have to worry about Ironman Mike Gianelligetting jealous over any two-bit hood who I can buy and sell ten times over.”

  She shrugged and sat down again at the table. She leaned over to the console radio and flicked on the dial. Ironman stalked over and shut the radio off. He stood there, fuming, staring at her. He was impossible when he became so oversensitive.

  She returned his stare, not knowing what else to do. Finally he walked away and sat down on the plush white sofa. “Sit down,” he ordered Teal, who did as he was told. “So tell me,” Ironman began, “how’s your operation been going?”

  They talked for several minutes, making forced small talk. The air was filled with the tension of the unstated, as the subject of his wild jealousy was scrupulously avoided. Then the phone rang. Ironman nodded, and Teal picked it up. He listened for a minute, said a few words, then put it down with great relief visible on his face.

  “That was Dallas,” he said. “He can’t make it over right now. He said he’ll give you the betting slips at the party tonight.”

  Ironman grunted but said nothing. He understood. Kristin understood too: Even though Teal had been ignorant of Ironman’s insane jealousy, Hunter had not. He had deliberately avoided coming up to the penthouse, where it would be just he, Kristin and Ironman and possibly Teal. He knew his presence under these cirumstances would provoke Ironman. Tonight, Kristin knew, there would be scores of people at the ball Ironman was throwing. Hunter’s presence would be diluted, and he could enter and leave without even exchanging a glance with Kristin.

  Kristin was sure he would do just that. She was amazed and frightened then when, during the ball that evening, Hunter came directly up to her and asked her to dance, right before Ironman’s fierce, antagonistic eyes.

  ***

  It was at the Savoy ballroom, and everyone was having a wonderful time. The jazz band was playing, the booze was flowing freely, streamers were flowing down from the ceiling. Ironman was in a jovial mood, shaking hands and raising toasts to all the big shots who had come to pay their respects to him. Many of the guests were politicians who were on Ironman’s bribe sheet.

  The party had been going on for about an hour when Dallas Hunter arrived. Kristin saw him walk in, looking very handsome in his formal evening clothes. His lips held their usual insolent, mocking expression. Kristin turned away and moved a few paces off as Hunter came up to Ironman. She did not want to be near enough to risk any sort of provocation. Hunter removed an envelope from his inside coat pocket and handed it to Ironman, who nodded curtly in acknowledgment of it and put it away in his own pocket.

  “Join us for a drink?” Ironman invited, gesturing to the small group clustered around him. The others in the group smiled and muttered encouragement. Hunter said no thanks. He knew Ironman was only making the offer to avoid bringing attention to the fact that he did not want Hunter to stay a minute longer than was necessary. Ironman wanted Hunter to leave right away, and Hunter knew it.

  That was why it was so shocking to Kristin when Hunter turned to her and put his hand under her arm. “I’ve only got time for one short dance,” he said boldly to Ironman, grinning.

  Ironman said nothing. His eyes became inflamed. A hush fell over the small group clustered around him.

  Kristin said, “I’m not in the mood to dance, thank you,” as icily as she could manage. From the corner of her eye she could see Ironman’s reaction. He was about to become rough, to tell Hunter that the lady didn’t want to dance. But Hunter made a strategic move that made such a response impossible. Hunter said to Kristin in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, speaking the unspeakable, “Come on. Ironman won’t mind.What do you think, he’s afraid I’ll steal you away from him or something?”

  Hunter grinned to defuse the remark, but it was so explosive, Kristin thought Ironman would erupt in rage. Instead, Ironman found himself backed into a corner. He could not react violently without admitting to everyone present that he was afraid of losing her to Hunter.

  Everyone watched Ironman tensely, expecting a blowup. Ironman smoldered with fury, glaring at Hunter. Somehow he managed to hold his rage inside him, but Kristin knew this was only for a moment. Later, she knew he would make Hunter pay for this— dearly.

  “Sure, go ahead, dance with the man,” he said to Kristin, patting her hand. “I know you don’t feel like it. Everybody knows you don’t feel like it, right?” His eyes challenged everyone around him. There was a chorus of murmured assent. Then Ironman said, “But Dallas here, maybe he don’t get the message. So you go ahead and dance with him.”

  Hunter took her arm and guided her onto the dance floor, pretending to be unaware of Ironman’s displeasure. He held Kristin as they danced, maneuvering her toward the center of the floor. Kristin could see Ironman craning his neck to watch them closely. Then other couples came between them, and she and Hunter were surrounded by a jungle of dancers.

  “How could you do such a stupid thing?” she raged at him. “Are you crazy? You’re risking your life!”

  “I wanted to see you.”

  “Well I don’t want to see you. Or talk to you, or dance with you. Or have anything to do with you! Nothing!”

  He ventured a tentative grin. “The famous Hunter charm wins the day again.”

  “You know how he reacts to our being together. You’re not stupid. Why are you doing this?”

  His expression became serious. “This is the first chance I’ve had to talk to you since the arrest.”

  “You certainly didn’t want to talk to me then, did you? You left me alone in that jail. I could have rotted there forever for all you cared.”

  “I would have got you out sooner or later, if you hadn’t done it yourself.” He saw her skeptical look and added, “I had to leave you there. I had to see who you called for help.”

  “Oh? And why is that?”

  “I had the wrong impression of you from those questions you asked me on the island. I thought you were a spy planted by Ironman to check me out. That’s why I exploded that night on the island. I thought you were working for him.”

  “Well . . . what made you change your mind?” “You called him for help to get you out of that lockup. And then you stayed with him as his moll. If you really were his spy, you’d have tried to get back to me so you could have kept spying on me. He’d have forced you to do it.”

  Kristin didn’t know whether to believe him. His dark eyes were sincere, but his words sounded too melodramatic. She wanted to believe him, that much she knew. Deep in her heart she wanted to believe t
hat his sudden change of feelings toward her that night had been due to nothing more than some horrible misunderstanding. She had been so terribly hurt by the way he had betrayed her love that night—turning on her without reason—that it was hard to let herself trust him now.

  “There’s another reason I know now that you’re not Ironman’s spy,” he said.

  “What is it?”

  “He’s too damn jealous. I can see now that he’d never deliberately send you over to me, even as a spy. He wouldn’t have done that, knowing he was risking having you fall in love with me.”

  “Why, you conceited man! You think every girl who gets to ... be with you falls in love with you?”

  “Not everyone. I don’t get along with many women. I get along with you.”

  “Well let me put your mind at ease. I’m not in love with you!”

  “That’s too bad,” he said, his eyes becoming very earnest. “Because I’m in love with you.”

  It stunned her. And then suddenly it overwhelmed her. She became sharply aware of things that a moment ago had been merely unnoticed background: his strong arm about her waist, holding her close ... his handsome face only inches from hers ... the feel of his body now pressing against her as he held her close.

  She didn’t know whether to believe him. She distrusted her emotions at the moment. She distrusted his intentions. “If what you say is true,” she began, her voice softer and more vulnerable, “then tell me why Ironman would even want to send a spy to check on you. You’re a gangster just like him, after all.”

  “I can’t answer that for you. Not yet. Look, there’s something I want to know from you too. How did you learn about that reporter getting abducted, if not from Ironman?”

  “I won’t tell you anything. You’re not answering my question. I don’t think I trust you. I don’t believe you, Dallas Hunter. You say you love me, but—”

  Suddenly his head came forward, and he kissed her, passionately. It was so sudden and overwhelming, she felt weak, but excited. When he pulled back, she fearfully looked around to see if they were being watched. Ironman had not seen them. Too many dancers were all around them.