"Good." Ruben said, his voice eerily calm and devoid of any trace of the desire to bed the woman in front of him.
"Now I want to hear it from you all. Say: this isn’t over until Boyevik is free."
There was no response. The stark reality of the goal was too jarring, too frightening.
"This is what you want. Don’t worry about the repercussions, just say the words. Say it together and say it now."
The four repeated the phrase in unison. He moved to the next goal.
"This isn't over until Boyevik has told his story."
The four duly repeated.
"This isn't over until Boyevik gets what he truly deserves."
Nadia squeezed hard on her mother's hand and she squeezed back in response.
All four repeated the phrase.
"It's not over until everyone here is home and safe." Candy said. "Repeat after me God damn it."
The group repeated.
"Good." Ruben said, "and now last but not least, let me hear you say: we own this."
"Wait." Suzy said, a little too loudly. She was still staring at Ruben, the others still had their eyes tightly shut. "There's still one more thing." Her eyes looked huge to Ruben and despite his large, muscular frame and sculptured, immaculate attire, he felt a shudder go through him. Was she really going to go that far? Make the whole group repeat it? It was a dimension to his decade long fetish of agreed control that he had never experienced and it threatened to push him over the edge.
"It's not over until Ruben Mayweather has demonstrated his full obedience to Suzy Falstaff, just exactly as he agreed."
Ruben felt his breath quicken beyond his control and then, as Suzy slowly glanced to the floor, then lifted her big round eyes to him again his cock hardened to rock in his pants and his grip on the people to either side of him softened momentarily.
You dirty little bitch. He thought, and then smiled as he led the group in the repetition of Suzy's bizarre goal.
"It's not over until Ruben has demonstrated his full obedience to Suzy, just exactly as he agreed."
He had never experienced premature ejaculation in his life, but this was as close to it as he had ever come.
I am going to make you come so hard for this you sneaky little bitch. He smiled at her and she felt herself go hot and red under his gaze.
"Now finally," he said regaining his composure, "Everyone, repeat after me, we own this, we can do it and we're not going home until it's nailed to the wall."
The group repeated it and each one in their own way felt the excitement of full and total commitment to a goal. They opened their eyes and exchanged glances. As cheesy and crazy as it was Ruben's mini task force of new recruits felt better than they had in days, some better than they had in years.
Suzy nodded her head silently. With the expertise, resources and commitment they had together in this room, what could possibly go wrong?
Chapter Two
Clay was at home in his Manhattan penthouse looking down over the city. He had expected to see Nadia again within a couple of hours of leaving her at home. When the driver he sent to collect her told him that she had gone on a trip with her mother and wouldn't be back for twenty-four hours he went into situation mode instantly.
"Stay there in case she comes back." He barked at the driver. "Call me right away with any news." He immediately called her number but it went straight to voicemail. He called Ruben but that went to voicemail too. A call to Candy yielded the same result.
Now he went from situation mode to full emergency. For Clayton Hargrave this meant an exterior of complete calm, with a level of internal focus that blocked out every other thought until his goal had been accomplished. He could spend days or weeks in that state of mind.
He now calmly called his own security people.
"Max. Find Nadia, Suzy, and Mrs. Komerov Senior. Locate Ruben and Candy. They aren’t picking up .Give this your top priority."
"Yes sir Mr. Hargrave."
Max was ex-special forces, ex police and a former highly successful private detective. If he couldn't find them then no-one could.
Clayton now called his brother Dale.
"What's up little big man?"His brother was in a good mood. It wouldn’t last long though.
"Nadia and Louise have left home without informing me as to where they're going. I need your help finding them."
"They might have gone for a walk Clay. Call me in couple of hours if you haven't heard from them."
"Nadia took her mother out of hospital. They left a message to say they'd be back in twenty four hours but did not say where they were going."
"Shit. That's not good. Where's she located?"
"No idea."
"No idea? You mean you don’t have her tagged with that big brother complex you have?"
"I promised her no more of that and I meant it. Now I see how wrong that was. I've got Max looking for them, but I need your people as well."
"I'm on it."
Clayton ended the call and didn’t move. He stared out at the Manhattan skyline and let his thoughts go still. This city had inspired him his whole life, even before he had set foot there and when he needed to think this majestic view was his touchstone. He watched the street traffic for a little while longer and then took out his Hargrave Robotics customized Blackphone. He stared at the screen for a few moments and then waved his hand over the screen to log in, tapped an icon and watched his surveillance tracking software come to life.
A 3D rendering of the earth came to life with six distinct glowing red dots located around the globe. He tapped 'history' and hair thin red lines extended instantly back to the location where he had tagged all six of Mikhail Boyevik's goons. A handshake with each was all it had taken after they had been paid off and warned to forget about their boss's existence. He watched as the lines extended their separate ways, one heading to New Jersey, two more to New York, another to Moscow, one to South America and one to Australia.
It was the one in Australia that had always given him the most concern, but that was not the case today. There had been movement since the last time he had checked in one week ago. A lot of movement. The dots from New Jersey and New York had joined together and then travelled to the Middle Eastern Emirate of Dubai. The dot in Moscow had travelled to Bangkok and then been joined by the three dots from Dubai. The dot in Australia had moved to New Zealand. The dot in South America had moved from Bogota to southern Chile.
The trend was clear. Boyevik's lieutenants were converging on Point Nemo far down below in the Southern Hemisphere.
Clay whispered a command and a list of his contacts appeared. He put in a call to Mayweather Services VP Brad Whitmore.
"Brad, do you have handle on Ruben? I can't get a hold of him."
"He called to say he was taking some time off, a day or two. Asked me to hold the fort. What's going on?"
"Get in touch with your people in Point Nemo, something big is about to happen."
"Sorry Clay, Point Nemo is Ruben's personal hideaway, we don’t have anything to do with that."
"Then get me someone who can, this is potentially very, very important with enormous implications for Mayweather Services."
"Okay. I'll do what I can, but Ruben is very protective about Point Nemo. When he goes there it's to get away from Mayweather Services and he doesn't like his team down there to have anything to do with us in the US. I don’t think we have a single contact for him or his people out there."
Clay had to fight to control himself. He had trusted Ruben to take care of Boyevik's imprisonment. Now when he needed information there was no way to get it? How could he not have arranged for some means of communication between such a vast personal property and his headquarter office?
"It's your ass if the shit hits the fan on this one Brad. Do what you can." He ended the call and dialed Max, his own chief of security.
"Get a team out to New Zealand as quick as you can. Charter whatever the hell we need to get there. Everything else i
s on hold."
"Yes Mr. Hargrave. What about Nadia and her mother?"
"That's why we're headed there, but don’t stop looking for them here. Delegate to next best. Walter Smith is a good man."
He saw a call coming in from Dale.
"Keep me updated Max. No mistakes on this one."
He ended the call picked up on Dale.
"What the fuck is going on?" His brother was almost shouting.
"Calm down Dale, I'm the one missing a fiancée here."
"Suzy is gone too and fucking asshole Ruben isn't picking up--"
"He's taken a leave of absence."
"A leave of absence? The only reason he ever does that is to wind up one of his crazy little romances. He has no right to go anywhere near Suzy or Nadia."
"Shut up Dale. It’s obvious you haven't had your dick sucked in a while and now you've decided you're 'in love' with Suzy Falstaff you're letting your emotions get out of control."
"Is that so? Well maybe you can suck my dick for me and it'll help me clear my fucking thoughts about this whole screwed up mess."
Clay took a deep breath and ignored his older brother's crass remark. Dale was the older brother but by far the most impulsive. His gung ho personality and uncanny business sense made him a juggernaut when it came to business decisions but sometimes Clay thought he was fundamentally unable to think clearly when it came to women.
"Suzy is missing. Louise is missing. Nadia is missing. Ruben and Candy are missing." He said very slowly and distinctly to let the gravity of the situation sink in.
"This is bad." Dale said. "That bastard knew Suzy didn't want him anywhere near her and now he's pulled one of his weird stunts to steer her into his little perv world. I will beat his ass from--"
"Shut up and listen Dale. None of that represents any real problem."
"Other than Ruben fucking Suzy."
"That's only a problem for you. The real problem is that Mikhail Boyevik is planning a jail break and we have to get out of here right now to stop it happening."
"Boyevik? I don’t care about that piece of shit. Let them try for cryin' out loud. Just call Ruben's guys and let them know. They'll take care of a handful of Mafia losers. It's Suzy I want to know about."
"Shut up. Shut up. Just shut the fuck up about Suzy Dale. God you are the most annoying son of a bitch. You are the only person in the world who will not listen to me when I am telling you what to do--"
"You shut up. If you fucking listened to me half as much as you listen to your dick then we'd be trillionaires instead of billionaires."
Clayton took another deep breath.
"Ruben's people can’t be contacted but I'm pretty sure that he's on his way out there with now Nadia, Suzy and Louise."
"I don’t get it. Why would they go there? It makes no sense."
Clayton waited before he responded. It was a habit of his before he uttered something that made no sense but of which he was absolutely sure.
"That's where they're going. That's where I'm going. You can do whatever the fuck you want but if you're interested in Suzy Falstaff then you need to get on board with this or else I guarantee you that girl is marked for Ruben's bed and she won't be the same person when he's finished with her."
The thought sent a chill through Dale. He knew Ruben better than anyone. They had shared an experience together as young men that had changed both of them irrevocably and although he couldn’t be sure on specifics what he did know was that any woman who made the brief journey into and then straight out of Ruben's life was never the same afterwards.
"Okay, okay, okay. God damn it, stop fucking with my head. You're always right about these things. I'm nearly at your place now anyway, we can travel together."
"Good. I'll be ready as soon as you get here."
"Hey Clay, little bro, wait, one more thing." His voice sounded calmer, more fraternal.
"What is it big bro?"
Dale held up his middle finger to the camera on his phone.
"I love you little guy." He said with a grin.
Clay ended the call without a trace of a smile.
********************
Ruben was by far the most composed person on the flight. This was his element, his forte. He was always at his calmest when things were most chaotic, it was the reason he had chosen high level international security as his area of expertise and one of the reasons he loved working with Clayton and Dale. There was always something going on their world that required his unique experience and this was by far the most interesting case so far.
"We should all get some rest." He suggested in his commanding way. They had already been traveling for several hours and the girls had been busy on their laptops setting up a false trail of credit card purchases and other obviously traceable activity to throw Hargrave security people off the scent. Nadia's mother had already retired to her sleeping quarters.
"I don't need any rest." Nadia grunted. She was busy making sure that any attempt to track her by mobile phone or by any other electronic means would fail. Suzy meanwhile was attempting to get a bead on Clayton and Dale's whereabouts. She had logged into the phone company's mainframes and was using their location based services to pinpoint where the brother's were at. She didn't look up from her work.
"We all need to rest because what we have o do when we get to Point Nemo will prove exhausting." Ruben said. "Trust me, I'm never wrong about these things."
Nadia looked up. He had the same always-right-about-everything-I-was-born-to-lead-the-world look about him that set her on fire when she was with Clay.
She smiled and closed her laptop.
"You're right Ruben. I'm done here."
"Suzy. Are you listening to me?" He said a little louder. "I said it's time to rest."
"Huh?" She looked up from her work. "I'm not done here yet."
"It's been a long day Suzy, we all need some down time before we get to Point Nemo." His voice had become even more stern and Nadia had noticed the difference. She stood up to confront him.
"If she says she isn't done, then she isn't done."
Ruben held her gaze impassively. He had seen what Nadia was capable of and certainly would never underestimate her, but a deal was a deal, and in this particular manifestation of his control game he, as always, held all the trump cards.
It was bedroom time.
"She's done." He said calmly and began moving towards the engrossed young woman but Nadia instantly blocked him and caught one of his thick, strong wrists in her thin hand.
"The lady is done when she says she's done. And not a second earlier."
The two stared at each other. Ruben weighed up the pros and cons of simply enforcing his will. After all, it was his charter flight, his crew, his island they were flying to and his willingness to co-operate that everything depended on. Nadia also weighed up pros and cons; she was absolutely dependent on the good will of this highly capable man and his professional services for the time being, but it wouldn't always be the case. He was helping them now but he clearly had some hold over Suzy. She absolutely refused to let her friend be compromised in order to help her rescue a man who by all accounts was a monster despite being her biological father. Clay had given hints to her about how Ruben treated women. If Suzy had been roped into some kind of unfair bargain, she would do her damndest to make it as hard as possible for that bargain to be made good. She couldn't force him but she might be able to shame him, ridicule him or otherwise thwart him from manipulating the woman he was so determined to control.
The adversaries both made ready to speak but were interrupted by Suzy.
"I've got something." She said. "I've found them. Both of them."
Nadia and Ruben broke off their battle of wills and went to where Suzy was seated at the conference table.
"Clay and Dale are together and they're travelling."
"Are they headed to Hawaii? That's where I left the trail for them."
"Ah, ah. It's hard to tell exactly but it looks like
they're headed south west."
"The same flight path as us." Ruben said calmly.
"Shit." Nadia hissed. "Why the hell didn’t they follow the trail to Hawaii? There's no way they can know we're headed to Point Nemo."
"This is Clayton and Dale Hargrave Nadia." Ruben pointed out. "They aren't exactly Keystone Cops. You're talking about two of the cleverest and most astute business minds in the United States of America."
"And why is it that you don't 'exactly' seem so God damn surprised?" Nadia said accusingly. "Maybe they had a little help from the third wannabe Hargrave brother."
"Why would I do that?" He said calmly. "I made my promise to Suzy and to all of you. Trust me, as clever as Clay and Dale are they won’t prevent us from achieving our goals. I personally guarantee it."
"Well until that happens Ruben, you're under suspicion and whatever deal you have with Suzy is off until we get what you promised us."
Suzy looked now, shocked at her friend's words.
"What are you talking about Nadia? Nobody said anything about a deal."
"It's okay Suzy." Ruben said. "Nadia makes perfect sense. We can postpone our agreement until after Nadia's father is off the island and in a safe place where he can talk freely. I'm prepared to wait."
"I knew it." Nadia said. "You may look like God's gift to womankind but you're really just a sick little pervert and the only reason you're helping me is so you can fuck my friend in whatever weird way gets you off."
"Nadia, just shut up." Suzy jumped to her feet. "Who the hell do you think you are? I'm a big girl, I can make my own decisions about who does and doesn’t fuck me."
Nadia glared at her.
"You let him fuck you or you can let him dangle you upside down from a meat hook with your head in a sack while he whips you for all I care, but just don’t kid yourself that you're doing any of it for me."
Her Sweet Surrender: Billionaire Secrets - Book Four Page 2