Milk Money

by Jude E. McNamara

  I paused and looked around to see if I saw Scott anywhere. I supposed he had already headed outside to join Winston.

  I dialed Reese’s number next. Reese’s voicemail came on just as I was exiting the Carnegie Center lobby doors. I saw my SUV pull up so I hung up without leaving a message thinking I’d call Reese again when I got settled. I was thankful that Winston and Scott were waiting. Not wanting to wait for Scott to come open the door for me in the heavy rain, I bolted towards the door and jumped in with both feet. I was famished now. Food couldn’t come quick enough. “Let’s get some food, Scott,” I said not looking up. The SUV took off at full speed just as I got in and fastened my seat belt.

  “I can’t say that food is on our list of priorities today, Ms. Montgomery,” a strange female voice said just as the SUV doors automatically locked. I turned with a look of shock, wondering whose SUV had I gotten into. I swung around in my seat, desperately looking for Scott.

  “We’re going to take a short ride,” she said, my eyes now peering at the blonde woman in the grey suit that I had seen earlier.

  “Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my car? Where is Scott?”

  “Excuse me. I believe you’re in my car, Ms. Montgomery. I’m sure you’re a bit confused since our vehicles are similar. There’s no reason for you to be alarmed. Your driver is momentarily tied up right now. Your security chief is likely to be in quite a bit of a stir right now.” The ice queen laughed. “I expect they’ll be along shortly,” she said smugly.

  She poured herself some amber liquid in a glass.

  “May I offer you something?” she said as she waved her hand across her car’s minibar.

  “No. And I don’t appreciate your detaining me. What exactly do you want?” I asked.

  “Well let me take a moment to enlighten you Ms. Montgomery. My name is Tatiana. I represent the interests of certain individuals whose interests shall we say . . . conflict with yours.”

  “Stop this car right now and let me out of here!” I shouted.

  “I would try to calm down now, Ms. Montgomery, if I were you. You see, your dear friend Mr. Fitzgerald owes our organization quite a bit of money, and well, you seem to be today’s answer to our organization’s little problem.”

  “Listen lady, you may have a problem with Brooks, but I don’t have a problem or any interests with either or you.”

  “Well we shall see now, won’t we,” she said.

  “You don’t actually think you’re going to get away with kidnapping me, do you?” I hissed at the bitch.

  “Kidnapping. What a strong word Ms. Montgomery. As I recall, you jumped into this vehicle on your own accord. Your timing couldn’t have been better. You quite saved us from having to employ coercion tactics.” Her laugh was positively evil.

  “If you don’t stop this car and let me out, you’re going to have real problems beyond whatever your issue is with Brooks,” I snapped.

  “I like to think of this moment as a problem resolution session,” she sneered. “Mr. McKenna has a problem and you are the resolution.”

  “Right now you’re keeping me against my will, bitch. Let me out of this car right this minute.”

  “Yes I realize I am detaining you, but keep you? Nooooooo . . . I doubt that will be necessary in the long run. Think of this moment as our accelerating the pace at which we plan to recoup our money.”

  “Recoup your money? That’s none of my business. That’s between you and Brooks.”

  “Well it appears Mr. McKenna’s plans to marry you in order to merge his business interests with yours have backfired. I understand your marriage was intended to be the means by which he planned to repay his little debt to us,” she said, sipping her drink slowly.

  “Marry Brooks?” I laughed hysterically. “You must be a psychotic bitch. I wouldn’t marry Brooks Fitzgerald McKenna on a good day. Actually, I’m not even the marrying kind, or hasn’t he enlightened you? And, if I were, he’s the last man on earth that I would marry.”

  I moved to open the locks on the doors, jiggling both sides of the SUV doors to no avail. The ice queen looked at me quizzically. Brooks must have really convinced this cast of characters into believing that I would marry him. Certainly they must be amateurs. If Nicholas gets wind of this he is surely going to kill Brooks and this whole band of rogues.

  “I don’t think that will be necessary. A waste of your time actually,” the ice queen said. “You can’t get out until I say so.”

  “What exactly do you want with me now, Tatiana, or whoever the hell you are?”

  “Well it appears that Mr. McKenna’s indebtedness to us remains unresolved. Mr. McKenna convinced members of our organization that there was to be a marital merger with you and him, thereby ending his financial woes. It has come to our attention that he has failed to achieve those plans. I’m here to collect,” she said.

  “Collect? Surely you don’t think I have any intention of paying you people, Brooks, or anyone else for that matter any money do you?”

  I couldn’t believe this was happening. I looked past her shoulder to see if I could see Scott and Winston following our SUV. It was hard to see anything through the tinted windows. The big burly man in the front passenger seat looking like Bluto was blocking my view of where we might be headed. He had unusually broad shoulders and looked strong as an ox. His bald head looked super shiny reflecting off the thick black mustache connected to thick-as-a-forest black goatee. I was sure he readily could crush a person on a whim. I couldn’t see his eyes through the black-rimmed aviator sunglasses he had on his face. I was starting to get panicky. How in the hell could I have gotten mixed up with anything to do with Brooks Fitzgerald McKenna’s mess? My stomach began to rumble. I was incredibly nauseated and pissed.

  “You must not know who I am, bitch. You’re going to pay for this move for sure,” I scowled.

  “Oh don’t think for one minute we aren’t aware of who you are Ms. Montgomery. Or, better yet, your worth to us. We are well aware that you’re the daughter of a U.S. senator, heir to the Carmichael Ketchup empire, and lover to that very wealthy fine specimen of a man, Nicholas Becker,” she said, licking her lips.

  I wanted to smack this bitch’s face for even taunting me about Nicholas.

  Don’t go all Ike and Tina on this bitch, Harper. You’ve got a baby to think about here.

  I wasn’t done with her yet, but I did have the baby to think about. Otherwise I’d take matters into my own hands right now and leap across the seat and choke her to death. I was hormonal too. Oh yeah. The visions of my hands around her neck were already starting to swirl around in my head.

  Jesus, where was Scott? I hated that I couldn’t see out these windows. All I could see was the back of the driver’s head. Not as big as Bluto there, but he looked like the kind of man you didn’t want to mess with, frankly. I felt physically close to really throwing up on the ice queen.

  “And just how much to you expect to extort my family for with this little trick of yours and Brooks McKenna?” I questioned her.

  “Twenty-two million,” she said coolly.

  “Twenty-two million, huh. Perhaps you’ve forgotten you’re kidnapping a senator’s daughter, you bitch. The FBI will be on top of you before you can count to three.”

  These clowns hadn’t done their homework. Twenty-two million was chump change to both my family and Nicky’s. Nicky was known to blow that kind of money in a few hours in Vegas at the Baccarat tables. Hell, my mother’s credit line on her American Express Black Card was higher than that. What was wrong with these fools?

  “Apparently you don’t know how things work here in the United States. You’ll never get away with this. You’ll be hunted down with nowhere to hide,” I said.

  “I’ll be well on my way and out of the country by then Ms. Montgomery. I’ll lay odds ten to one that Mr. Becker will see to it that this matter goes away long before the FBI has time to ever get involved. I’m counting on his distaste for a media circus in this
matter to get things resolved very quickly. How do you say it here in America? Pay to play?”

  At the same moment she finished her sentence, the car stopped in front of a large red brick manor that looked to be located in a secluded area. We passed through some gates and turned up a very long driveway. One couldn’t see the manor from the road. The place looked old, regal, and appeared to be well kept. We hadn’t driven long enough to leave town so I knew we were still somewhere in the Princeton area. It was raining so much heavier now and the temperature felt like it was dropping. I was starting to get chilled. If I could just get away from these clowns and back to my plane.

  As the car stopped, the large burly Bluto-looking man opened my door. He grabbed my arm hard, dragging me out of the vehicle. I struggled but it was no use. He was way too big.

  “Take her purse and her phone, Ivann,” the ice queen said as she headed up the walkway, opening the double doors to the dwelling ahead of me.

  It was starting to turn to dusk now. We were a long way away from the locked gate at the entrance of the driveway. I looked back over my shoulder to see if I could see another vehicle or anything that resembled Scott and my security detail. There was a man-made pond to the right of the driveway with a wooded area with lots of foliage on the other side of the pond. The rain beat down on me a lot harder and the wind had picked up dramatically.

  As we entered the manor, the foyer led to a very large dining room to the left and a sitting area to the right that had a large fireplace that was lit. The ice queen and Ivann led me into a sitting area.

  “Leave us,” the ice queen said to Ivann.

  Ivann reminded me of Curly of the Three Stooges. He looked big and stupid. A yes-man with no brains. All muscle and brawn. He must have read my thoughts too. He left the front room rolling his eyes at me just as another older woman in a maid’s uniform entered with a tray of food. Breads, cheeses, fresh fruit, and hot chicken noodle soup. A pot of hot water and tea bags with lemon were on the tray.

  “You must be hungry. Eat,” Tatiana said.

  My emotions were swinging now between anger and fear. I was hungry, so I didn’t turn down the food. I could feel the tears welling up in the back of my eyes. I took a seat and began to eat quietly. I needed to think about how the hell I was going to get out of this situation.

  The ice queen walked towards the fireplace and stood with her back to me, her hands held out in front of her as if to warm them. I used the opportunity to observe my surroundings and to figure out if there were any windows and exits out of this old mansion.

  “No need to try to take flight, Ms. Montgomery. That would be a waste of time. You’re well guarded here. Besides, there’s a major tropical storm coming.”

  Jesus is everybody psychic around here? I could have sworn she knew just what I was thinking.

  “You’re not going to keep me here against my will,” I said, feeling a bit more fortified now that I had food in my belly.

  The ominous-looking driver arrived.

  “Is there anything else you need Tatiana?”

  “Not now. Go back to your post,” she mumbled. “I know it doesn’t feel like it, but I want to make your stay here as comfortable as possible here. I’ve asked the guards to remain out of sight as much as possible. Trust me. I expect your visit with us to be brief. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re not being watched,” she said.

  “You’re keeping me against my will and you have the nerve to suggest that I be comfortable? I’m not comfortable. I will never be comfortable being held against my will. And the day will come you will regret that you ever made me feel uncomfortable. For the record, you should consider me beyond uncomfortable,” I hissed.

  The ice queen handed me a cell phone.

  “Make the call,” she said, as if I knew specifically who she wanted me to call. I mulled the matter over in my mind for a moment.

  “Now,” she huffed.

  I dialed the number.

  “Nicky, help me.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Nicholas

  Lucia, Stephen, and I made it back to Becker Towers in record time, having arranged for one of the Milk Money helicopters to shuttle us from the airport to the rooftop of my building. We were the last ones to get clearance before all flights were canceled. The helipad on top of my building was one of the many conveniences that I loved about Becker Towers. In my business, time was money. The helipad saved me a ton of travel time. Once we got back to the Towers we connected with all of our GPS locater systems and began a search for Scott and Harper.

  Lucia immediately went into overdrive, scanning all of our computers and emails for any information she could find that might lead us to their whereabouts. She had even hacked into Harper’s Facebook account to see if there was any strange activity.

  “Who knew you had hacker skills Lucia,” I said with a raised eyebrow.

  “When it comes to my knowing the depth of my skills, Nicholas, less is more,” she said without raising her eyes from the computer screens, her fingers tapping at warp speed.

  Lucia never ceased to amaze me.

  I dialed Harpers phone for the umpteenth time. She had a new ringback tone on her phone that was playing Beyoncé’s “Me, Myself, and I.” I knew that song because Harper loved R&B and Hip Hop. Mico always kept me up-to-date on what radio stations played the best R&B and Hip Hop sounds. I made myself playlists of music I knew she would like, so that whenever we were together, I would play music she liked. She in turn would tolerate my love for Chick Corea doing the classics and violinist Lucia Micarelli, whose song “Oblivion” I use to play when I wanted to make love to her. I called her phone again. Still no answer.

  I shook my head and paced the floor wondering if Harper was trying to send me a message that she was going to go it alone with having our baby and not even give me a chance to weigh in on the fact that I wanted to have a life with them. No way Harper would do such a thing as sending me a message via her ring tone, other than to annoy me. I suppose she wanted me to hear how she was feeling, but I knew that she knew in her heart of hearts that I loved her. I believed she loved me, too. Talking with her at the Joduku Presentation wasn’t the time or place to have such a serious discussion. I figured that ringtone was her way of letting me know she was pissed with me.

  Just as that thought raced across my mind, Lucia looked up at me saying, “Nicky I have something you need to see.”

  I moved towards Lucia’s direction and peeked over her shoulder. Someone had sent me an email with photos of Harper and me dancing together at Mico and Riley’s wedding, images of me carrying Harper in my arms at the Lincoln Center in the middle of the bomb scare, and photos of the Harper and me arguing in the lobby at the Joduku Headquarters. There was another photo of Harper exiting the Carnegie Center where our presentations were held. She was getting into the wrong SUV. That particular image had a text overlay written across the bottom in Russian. The words said Она будет нужна ваша помощь “What the hell?” I said out loud.

  “What the fuck does that mean?” I asked out loud. “What the he—”

  “Nicky please,” Lucia squawked. “Give me a second,” she said, still tapping her fingers at warp speed.

  I waited patiently as best I could, noticing that Lucia was entering the words from the photo in a Google Russian-to-English translator.

  Lucia swiveled her chair around slightly to face me.

  “It says, she will need your help.”

  All of a sudden it was clear to me that Harper hadn’t just run off with my baby. Someone was up to no good and had taken my baby maker and my baby.

  “Nicky,” Stephen snapped at me, now entering the great room hurriedly. “I have some new information!” he shouted.

  “Well that’s a start,” I replied worriedly. “It’s been five hours since I spoke with Harper.”

  I knew time was of the essence in these matters. It didn’t take long for Stephen to connect with his twin brother Scott but
the news wasn’t good. The little information we had was disjointed in that there was a major tropical storm that was hitting the east coast that was compromising all the cell phone coverage. Stephen had managed to get bits and pieces of information from Scott in between a host of dropped cellphone calls. The two of them had resorted to texting instead. Fortunately, Scott had loaded a GPS app on Harper’s phone and had planted GPS devices in her belongings shortly after Brooks’s assault on her at the office. Tracking devices were on all her vehicles as well. Stephen had a GPS system locator on Scott. Scott had GPS locators on Harper and Stephen. Everybody was looking at everybody. I momentarily wondered who was looking at me.

  Ring . . . Ring . . .

  I jumped. Startled.

  It was the Becker Towers concierge. Lucia answered on the speakerphone so we could all hear.

  “Mr. Becker, Senator Montgomery and his security are here. Shall I let them through?”

  “Yes, let them through.”

  Stephen and I looked at each other, knowing what was coming next, just as Lucia went to the door to let them through. It was going to be hard for me to control events. If the senator knew, this thing was going to get out of control fast and that was the last thing I needed to have happen. I didn’t want a bunch of government muckety-mucks to take over this matter because the media attention would be unprecedented.

  Senator Montgomery walked in with Malcom Cole at his side and two agents posted outside my penthouse doors. Scott had placed two of his own guards outside the door long before the senator arrived so now we had two of the senator’s guards watching two of our guards.

  “Senator, welcome,” I said, moving to him and shaking his hand. “Hello Malcom,” I said.

  “Becker,” Malcom grunted.

  Malcom and I gave each other the once over but neither of us said anything more than that to the other. Malcom shifted his weight from one foot to another as he took in Lucia’s gaze as she extended her hand. He was affected. It wasn’t a surprise to me. Lucia was an extremely beautiful woman and she had that effect on men. I heard Stephen make a growling sound deep in his throat. I wondered if he had spoken with MacKenzie regarding any word from Harper. I rarely heard Stephen growl and was wondering why was his protective nature showing itself over Lucia.