by Vivian Gray
“Right on time,” Anton said, checking his watch and stepped towards the men. “Do you have him?”
The two shadows stepped away from one another to reveal a smaller shape between them. A shaking figure of a man.
“Please, I didn’t do anything,” he whimpered, his voice hoarse. “I didn’t do anything.”
“That’s what we are here to decide,” Anton said. He pointed down the hall, and the two men began leading the smaller man in that direction. “Last door on the right.”
As they disappeared into the gloom at the end of the hall, I reached out and grabbed Anton’s arm. “What is going on? Who are these people?”
“This is business.”
With that, Anton followed the men into the building while I stood frozen in the doorway. On the one hand, this was not the kind of building I wanted to find myself wandering alone in. On the other hand, I didn’t think I wanted to be a part of whatever Anton and those two men had planned for the other man.
Riddled with indecision, I stood in the doorway, letting the light from outside wash over me. As long as I stood there, I had a way out. I had an escape plan. I could run away and never look back. I could forget about Anton.
“Are you coming, Bailey?” Anton asked before disappearing into the last room on the right.
I looked outside, squinting up at the sun and the car idling in the parking lot, and then stepped forward into the dark hallway. I’d made my bed, now it was time to lie in it.
The interrogation went on endlessly, and I understood very little of what was being said.
“You re-routed the shipment,” Anton said for the fifth time, pacing back and forth across the dusty floor. Faded fast food containers and browned leaves coated the cracked tile floor. Everything looked sepia-toned, like we had stepped into an old western movie.
“Everything arrived on time,” the man said.
Throughout the interrogation, I’d learned his name was Aleksei. He worked for Anton, but I couldn’t say for sure exactly what he did. They kept talking about shipments, so I suspected he had something to do with the delivery of goods, though I didn’t yet know what those goods were.
“That isn’t the point, and you know it,” Anton growled out. “You re-routed my shipment through China. You put everything at risk.”
The man shook his head. His eyes were wide and bloodshot. “I have a friend who doctored the papers. No one will ever know.”
Anton leaned forward until his face was only a few inches away from the man. “I’ll know.”
He nodded towards the two men, who I had surmised were “the muscle”, and they picked Aleksei up by his arms, so he sagged down between his shoulders.
“It was cheaper, Anton. I only did it because I thought it was what you’d want me to do.”
Anton shook his head. “I made it clear what I wanted you to do. I arranged the shipments, and it was your job to carry them out. You failed.”
“It saved money. It saved so much—”
“THEN WHERE IS MY MONEY?” Anton exploded, lunging for the man and screaming into his face. “What happened to all of this money you saved, Alek?”
Aleksei shook his head and hiccupped, letting out a single sob.
“You lied to me. You stole from me. You put my entire business at risk,” Anton said, listing everything out as though this were a trial. “You’re fired.”
“No, please. Please. I will do better. I will make this right,” the man begged.
Anton held up a hand to silence him. “No, I’ll make this right.”
Then, with a quick flash of his wrist, Anton directed the nameless brutes on either side of Aleksei towards him. They closed in on the cowering man and, at the same time, began to beat him.
Aleksei’s screams echoed off the ceiling and walls, and I understood why Anton had chosen such a secluded location. I threw my hands over my ears, unable to listen to the sound of flesh hitting bone. To the sound of Aleksei screaming for mercy.
Anton turned from the sight and walked straight towards me, his eyes trained on my face. I didn’t have any control over my features. I was sure I looked horrified, but I couldn’t have arranged my expression into anything else. I had never seen such ruthlessness in my life.
I tried to wrap my mind around the fact that Anton and I had shared a bed the night before. I’d lain awake for part of the night, watching his bare chest rise and fall with his easy breathing. I’d studied the smooth slope of his nose and the curve of his lips. I’d thought about how beautiful he looked against the dark sky through the window. Now, though, he was wrath.
As Anton walked past me, he slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me from the room, leading me down the hall and back into the light. Even though we’d been inside for less than half an hour, I still expected it to be dark outside. Surely, the sun couldn’t be shining on a day like this.
But it was, and I squinted against it, trying to understand how two extremes such as dark and light could coexist in the same moment.
Anton opened the car door for me, and I slipped inside without a word. He said something to the driver that I didn’t hear and the car took off, pulling away from the building and back onto the street, headed for the skyline.
Chapter Eleven
Anton
She’d reacted in the way I’d expected she would, her fear and anger channeling to a stony silence. She was pulling away from me, and I knew it would be for the best. For both of us.
“Is that man going to survive?”
I turned to her, surprised by the tone of her voice. Rather than repulsion or fear or anger, I sensed curiosity. Bailey looked up at me, her green eyes wide and round.
I considered lying but decided not to. “Yes, he will.”
She nodded, absorbing that information. It was clear by the rise in her shoulders she was relieved. The possibility of his death had been weighing her down. Perhaps I should have lied.
“Why did you have him beaten?”
“He lied. He stole. He lied about stealing,” I said matter-of-factly. “He put my operation in jeopardy.”
“What operation is that exactly?”
I looked at her, one eyebrow raised. “It isn’t any concern of yours.”
Her lips thinned in annoyance, but she didn’t argue. I knew she would find out eventually. It wasn’t exactly a secret but offering up the details of my illegal gun trafficking operation to practical strangers wasn’t a habit of mine. It would be better to wait until Bailey came to the information on her own.
By that point, most likely, she would be too far involved to ever consider going to the police. If she did, she would almost certainly do time, as well. That was the trick to illegal business ventures, I’d learned. Make sure everyone has a stake in the company. If they try to take me down, they’ll take themselves down, too.
Mutually assured destruction.
“You can’t keep me in the dark forever,” she said.
Her final word nearly stole my breath.
Forever. Forever?
What did that mean? Was it a meaningless expression or was it the hint of a commitment? I’d taken Bailey with me to scare her. I wanted her to pull away from me since I seemed incapable of pushing her away. But here she was, wanting to know more, wanting me to share everything with her.
“I’ll keep you in the dark as long as I like,” I said, hoping my voice sounded stony, distant. “I told you when you first came home with me, it is either this or the streets.”
Bailey looked up at me. Her red hair had dried in messy waves that hung around her shoulders, framing her pale face. The freckles along her cheeks and nose stood out brighter than they ever had before and I resisted the urge to reach out and run my finger down her nose. She pulled her plump lower lip into her mouth for a second before letting it pop out, a sure sign she was thinking over her options.
Then, as if there had never been another choice, she leaned forward, cupped her hand around the visible bulge in my jeans, and whispered
in my ear, “I choose this.”
For the first time, Bailey had truly surprised me. I glanced at the driver, who, to his credit, had resisted the urge to peek in the rearview mirror, and then slid closer to the door. I picked up her hand and moved it to the seat between us. I didn’t like how easily she’d been able to rattle my resolve, and if she touched me again, I knew I’d give in.
She inhaled, preparing to say something I knew would break me when the driver interrupted her.
“We are here, sir.”
We’d pulled up in front of the office, and I’d been so distracted, I hadn’t even noticed the car stop. I opened the door and practically jumped out. Bailey followed, but I didn’t stay to wait for her. By the time I heard the car door close, I was halfway to the office door.
At the end of the day, the drive back to the penthouse was uneventful, and Bailey kept her distance. She went to the guest room, which I’d annoyingly begun to call “her room”, as soon as we got home and showed no signs of coming out.
She’d spent the day getting to know the flow of the office – which closet the extra copier paper was kept, how much coffee grounds to put into the coffee pot to make it strong enough for the mid-afternoon slump the entire office felt, and where to sit if she wanted to avoid the arctic blast from the air conditioning.
In many ways, it had been like any normal day in any office building anywhere. Bailey popped in and out of my office when she had a question or was bringing me my lunch, but otherwise, we didn’t talk. I took this to mean she planned to keep things professional at work, which was a relief. I wouldn’t be able to get any work done if she planned to try and give me random handies throughout the day.
However, now we were home, and things were still professional. Her passion-filled act in the car that morning hadn’t come to fruition yet, and I found myself disappointed. I was moments away from marching from my office and barging into her room when someone rang the bell.
Bailey and I met in the hallway.
“Who’s that?” she asked.
I shrugged and moved to the intercom next to the elevator.
“Hello?”
“NYPD. Here for Anton Anasov.”
“Sure thing.” I pressed the button to unlock the elevator and watched as the elevator moved slowly up through the building.
Bailey ran to me, her hands wrapping around my elbow. “The police?”
“They rang the bell. That’s a good sign. If they were here to arrest me, they would have used the key from the front office and barged in. We’re fine.”
“Are you sure?”
I looked down at her, at the fear in her eyes. “Positive,” I said, hoping I sounded as sure as I felt. Either way, refusing the police and holing up in the penthouse would only work for so long. I didn’t have another option. “Just sit back and don’t say anything.”
By the time the elevators opened, Bailey was sitting on the sofa, hands resting obediently on her knees, and I was standing directly in front of the elevator, ready to face whatever was coming head-on.
“Evening, sir,” one of the officers said. He wore a blue uniform and a porn-stache. I wanted to ask whether he planned to frisk me with his “nightstick”, but didn’t assume he’d get the joke. And even if he did, it probably wouldn’t help my case.
“Can I help you, officers?” I asked, smiling as casually as I could.
“May we speak to you alone?”
I turned to look at Bailey who was already beginning to stand up, then shook my head. “Anything you need to say to me can be said in front of her.”
The mustached cop looked uncomfortable being ignored, but his partner didn’t seem to mind and began talking.
“We are here on a civilian tip,” the second officer said.
“Tip?” I raised my eyebrows.
“Something about shady deals. Illegal weapons. International criminals,” Porno Cop said, pushing out his chest (the officers had said their names, but I had forgotten them immediately, opting instead for Porno Cop and The Other One).
“Wow, that sounds like a big deal,” I said, crossing my arms.
The Other One stepped forward, taking up an identical pose to my own. It was a power move I recognized well. “You know anything about that?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Not a thing. Sounds like your tip came from an unreliable source.”
“We thought it all sounded a bit too fanciful to be true, but now I’m not so sure,” Porno Cop said, stepping past me to stand in front of the large windows that looked out on the city. “Quite the view you’ve got here.”
“It was a real selling point of the place. No view like it in the city.”
He nodded at the skyline and then turned back to me. “I bet this place cost you a pretty penny.”
“A gorgeous penny,” I quipped.
Porno Cop moved forward, taking up a position in front of me and I could feel The Other One closing in on me from behind.
“You sure you don’t know what we’re talking about?” The Other One asked, his breath hitting the back of my neck.
“Positive,” I replied, not giving him the satisfaction of jumping in surprise or turning to meet his gaze.
“Perhaps, we’ll have to bring you in and question you down at the station,” Porno Cop said.
Bailey stood up. “On what grounds? An anonymous tip?”
I held out a hand to quiet her, and she puckered her lips, fear and frustration leaking out of her nervous hands. “That didn’t sound like a command,” I said.
“Anton,” Bailey warned, her breath a harsh whisper.
I turned to her, ignoring the cops standing on either side of me. “I’ve never heard a cop casually suggest someone go down to the station before.”
She pulled her shoulders up to her ears and shook her head, not understanding what was actually happening.
I looked from Porno Cop to The Other One. “I also know the law doesn’t threaten. The Law either does or does not. If you two have the kind of information you think you do and you are not arresting me, it’s because you have a price.”
“Anton,” Bailey said, moving forward and grabbing my hand. She leaned in and whispered, “That’s bribery.”
“That’s business,” I said.
The room went silent, and I waited, hoping I’d made the right call. Praying I’d read the situation right.
Porno Cop stepped towards me. “Thirty grand and we walk.”
Bailey’s mouth fell open, and I wondered how her view of the world had just shifted. Up until that moment she had, no doubt, believed all police officers to be upstanding, moral saviors who protected the general population from harm. But now she was seeing firsthand what money could do.
Everyone had a price.
The Other One seemed slightly miffed at the number Porno Cop had given me, but I accepted before they had time to discuss it. I handed all of the money to Porno Cop and smiled as they rode the elevator downstairs. In all likelihood, they wouldn’t be back again. It would be too risky to come back for regular payments.
“I can’t believe that just happened,” Bailey said, sighing and collapsing back onto the sofa. She had on a thin cotton robe, and it rode up her bare thigh as she stared up at the ceiling, disbelief written on her face. “Has that ever happened before?”
I shrugged. “A time or two.”
“Are you not freaking out?” she asked, eyes wide.
“I’m not exactly thrilled about someone out there making anonymous tips, but that could have gone a lot worse. All things considered, I’m doing great.”
“Who do you think told?”
I raised an eyebrow at her and tilted my head. Since the police had arrived, I’d been wondering whether Bailey could have had something to do with it. I gave her a pretty long leash at work. She could have called them at any point in the day. Or even while she was in her room. The walls in my penthouse were insanely insulated. I wouldn’t have heard her if she’d been on the phone.
“M
e?” she asked, standing up, her robe falling back into place, though it still fell mid-thigh. Her red hair was in a messy bun that was slipping from the hairband.
“It’s a possibility.”
She shook her head. “I wouldn’t do that. Why would I do that?”
I laughed. “Why wouldn’t you? I beat a man in front of you today, treated you like shit, had guards throw you into my car a few nights ago. I don’t even think I’d blame you if you were the one who called them.”