by Maxine Storm
"It's quite rare for anyone to get close to Armand," Alex said. "But there must be something he sees in you if you've been able to spend time together."
I felt a moment of pride at her words. I looked at Alex and saw how traditionally gorgeous she was, and yet she and other journalists were never able to get close to Armand.
"That's why Maximilian and I had an idea," Alex said. "It's crazy, but you're the only one who could help."
"What is it?" I asked.
"Maximilian thought that if the police aren't going to look into it, he was going to. But we need more proof, more data," Alex said.
"There's not too much I know about him," I confessed. I was reminded of how little Armand had really shared about himself. And how little he asked me.
"That's where you come in - again," Alex said. "If you're able to go to his place, you can provide us with information he'd never share with anyone."
"But how?"
"By bugging his place," Alex said, confidently.
"'Bugging it'?"
"Yes," Alex said. "We'll give you a special electronic tool, and if you attach it to his computer, and leave another one somewhere in his workroom, we'll be able to essentially wiretap him and read all the information he's creating digitally."
I lost my voice and my chest became tight. Did they really want me to be some kind of spy?
"Isn't this illegal?" I said.
Alex moved her head to the side in contemplation.
"At this point," she explained, "people's lives are at risk. Journalists, truth-seekers like you and me. Young women who get drawn into the Armand mystique and don't make it back. It's time something is done about Armand Silver. You can help us bring him down, Janet. You can help us bring him to justice. It's not just for the women whose lives were taken. It's to take a stand, to say, we won't be silenced by the powerful and the rich. That no matter who you are or what you own, you aren't above the law. This is what you can help us show people, Janet. The government isn't going to do it. It's up to you."
"I don't know, Alex," I said. "I want to help. But I just don't know."
I sighed.
I didn't want to believe it was all true. But Alex was so certain, so convincing, I could feel her pain. I thought of Britney's passing, and imagined other journalists going the same way.
I imagined going the same way - gunned down because in the end I knew too much and asked the wrong person the wrong questions.
"Janet, let's also try to remember your career," Alex said.
"What do you mean?"
"If you carry out this last task for the assignment, I'm sure it'll reflect incredibly well of you. Maximilian would be sure that you'd get the credit you deserve."
Alex must have detected the uncertainty on my face as she continued to stress the point.
"You'd be able to get anywhere after this, if you decide to help. Maximilian knows everyone in the industry. Any company in the world, you name it, and you'll be hired. You won't have to be just a journalist. You'll be much more than that."
I imagined not having to live in such a crammed, tiny apartment, in a rough neighbourhood. Not having to suck up to superiors or have weirdos on my case about trivial tasks. I imagined being recognized for who I am, and what I can do, rather than who I schmooze with.
And then, as if to brush it away, Armand entered my imagination. The man who changed my life. Who showed me a way of living that made me more excited, more passionate, more lustful, and even more cared for than I thought possible. Could I throw that all away for this? To return to my past life of dull emotion?
"Janet," asked Alex, "can we count on you?"
I was still processing it all, my heart torn between the desire for a future with Armand, and the desire to become somebody special, and then, as if to answer for me, my phone rang.
Ring ring.
I closed my wide open mid-sentence mouth and looked at the caller ID.
There was no way it could be, and yet, it was the only way.
I looked at Alex, tears in my eyes.
"It's Armand," I said.
Chapter 27
Armand
She was hiding something from me.
She was hiding something, and I was going to find it, whatever it was.
Whatever it takes.
No one gets anything past me.
Ever.
People have tried it in business.
Biggest mistakes in their lives.
So imagine it happening in my personal life.
She was hiding something, and I was going to uncover it.
Because I needed to have her, to own her.
All of her.
Any secret she was keeping was something keeping me away from possessing her completely.
It was a refuge she was keeping from my soul.
I have my own past, but it's mine. I can't let anyone get to it.
I can't let them get to it the way people in my life had gotten to it before.
The way they had gotten to it and tried to twist the knife.
No.
I will not be controlled like that again.
She was so innocent, she didn't even know what she was doing.
How it drove me like this, how it drove me to have her in my control, to have her part of me.
She didn't know what she was getting into.
With me.
With my demons.
She didn't know.
Lucky for her.
Others weren't so lucky.
But if she didn't comply, then she was going to know...
She was going to know what happens when you think you can try to play Armand Silver.
Chapter 28
Janet
My phone was ringing.
It was Armand.
Alex and I were just talking about monitoring him. It wasn't just for the Global Eye piece I had been assigned to write on him.
Alex said it was for so much more.
But then why didn't I fully believe it?
I did and I didn't.
I didn't have time to fully process it.
But the phone was ringing and I had to answer it.
Alex stared at me as I raised the phone to my mouth.
"Armand?" I answered.
"Janet," Armand said, gruffly. "Where are you?"
"I'm just getting a coffee at a cafe," I said.
"With whom?" Armand said.
I looked at Alex.
It was as if Armand had someone staked out a place in the cafe and could see I wasn't alone. Maybe it was just my voice. Or maybe he didn't know at all.
"Huh? I'm by myself," I responded. "I love coffee, especially the syrupy type with lots of whip cream," I said dryly.
"That sounds terrible," Armand. "Not real coffee."
"You're missing out," I said.
Armand grunted, as if he had enough of the chit chat.
"I need to speak to you," Armand said.
"I can't right now," I said, playfully. "I'm busy. With my coffee." Who was he to demand a meeting like this? Especially after the dangerous stuff I heard about him from Alex just now. I was going to meet him on my terms.
"Don't be a fool, Janet," Armand said. His words cut straight through my little game. "Where are you?"
"I'm at La Capitano. It's on 5th Street, in the Junction."
"OK. I'll pick you up."
"I'm fine here, Armand," I said.
"Stay there and get ready," he said, before hanging up.
I put the phone down.
How could he just command something like that? It's like my opinion didn't even matter. He already had his mind made up. Yet I wanted to see him, even if Alex stoked any fear I had of him, any worry.
Alex must have seen the look of disbelief on my face.
"Everything OK?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said, "Armand's coming soon to pick me up."
Alex smiled very faintly.
"It's like he's walking right into your hands," she
said. "Just stay cautious at some level when you're with him. Then, when you can, put this on his computer."
Alex handed me a tiny piece of dark colored plastic.
"This thing will be able to read information on his computer and his Internet use. It's state of the art eavesdropping technology. Some lab developed it for the government. Maximilian obtained one through his connections."
I held the tiny computer chip in my hand. I couldn't believe this was real. This tiny thing could cause so much damage, so much chaos, and yet, it was mine.
"Be careful with it, Janet. Naturally, we only have one," Alex explained. "This is a big responsibility. You'll be the one that will finally dig out the real goods on Armand Silver. Imagine where you'll be able to go after all this is done. Any non-government organization, any newspaper, any think-tank. Maximilian will be sure you get it if you succeed. If you do this, you'll get what other journalists couldn't. The stuff he and his company have been hiding. We can't have this guy running free. He's charming, sure. But underneath it all, a monster."
I nodded my head and tucked the spy-chip into my purse. But I couldn't say anything out loud to agree with her description of Armand. I wanted to tell her she has him wrong, and yet there were the fears she had implanted in me of the past murders she says Armand was involved in.
"Well, I better be going before he arrives," Alex said, getting up from the booth. "Good luck."
She walked over to my side and gave me a light hug, the kind where your just your shoulders touch, before turning and strode out of La Capitano, her heels clicking on the floor with every step.
I lifted up the strap of my purse pocket and squinted to see the spy-chip.
The severity of what Alex and Maximilian were asking me to do hit me in the gut.
I really was asked to be a spy.
"It's for an important purpose," I'm sure Alex would say. "It's to help where the government and other media companies couldn't."
"It's for your career," I'm sure she'd say.
In a sense, she was right. It'd be one of the biggest scoops of all time. And it'd be mine. I wouldn't have to worry about anything career wise again, I thought, Alex's reassurances that Maximilian would guarantee I could work anywhere I wanted coming to mind.
But was it the right thing to do?
If what Alex - and I guess Maximilian - were saying were true, then it would be. Armand had to be stopped before someone else was hurt.
"That someone could be you," said a voice inside of me.
But I knew the time I spent with Armand was unlike any other.
That's how he makes them all feel, a voice inside of me said. A gorgeous man like him could have any woman he wants. That's why it was so easy for him to get rid of the women who stood in his way. Don't be next, I imagined Alex saying.
I had to get her out of my head.
She was taking over my headspace and I didn't like it.
I didn't get the right vibe from her the first time we met.
And if there's one thing I learned, it's that you have to listen to your heart.
I was thrown out of my train of thought when a heavy hand thumped onto the table in front of me. Must have been that annoying waitress trying to get me to buy something or have me get out. Global Eye, Alex, Philip - I couldn't even have a place to think in this city without someone demanding something from me.
"What do you want?" I said, irritated.
"I want YOU, Janet," said a gruff voice. "And all you've been keeping from me."
I opened my eyes in a shock. Armand was towering beside me, as if blocking out the light from his massive and powerful frame.
"Armand," I said, "I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else."
"Were you expecting someone else?" he said sarcastically.
As if right on cue, the surly waitress from before came up to us.
"Could I get you guys something?" she said, gazing at Armand, twirling her perfectly glossy long blonde hair.
"No," Armand said sharply. He lowered his hand to me. "Let's go, Janet."
My hand felt so tiny inside Armand's, as if I were a kid. He guided me up toward him and brushed past the waitress who was standing so close as if to box us into the booth.
"Come back soon!" said the waitress, faking a cheerful and friendly voice she never used with me the whole time I was there.
That's so typical of people in this city.
They don't care about you until they see you're with someone big or connected. She probably didn't know about the full extent of Armand's work. She just got taken in by the surface.
"No thanks!" I shouted back, not turning around to look at her.
It was mean but that's how I felt. I was too fed up to hide it.
Armand held my hand on the street on the way to the limo.
"That was a Janet I haven't seen yet," he said. "I want to see more of that. As long as it's not at me, of course."
Armand opened the door to the limo and guided me in.
He took out a bottle of wine from a cloister in front of his seat.
"This is 1878 Chateau Latour," he said, rotating the bottle in his hands. "I only share this with people I trust."
He set the bottle to his side and looked into my eyes.
"So I want to know, can I trust you?"
I wanted to say of course. That he could trust me with anything. But Alex's doubt crept into my mind and had me hesitate.
He reached for my hand across the seats and gently pulled me over to him.
"Straddle my lap," he commanded.
I felt the limo moving underneath my feet as I bent my head down and moved towards him.
I put my right leg to his side and followed it with my left leg and held the seat with my hands as I gazed into his eyes.
"Get down lower, Janet," he said,
Suddenly a string of police cars blared their sirens through a nearby street, a deafening noise as the limo drove onward.
When they stopped I finally remembered to ask Armand: "Where are we going?" I realized I had just gotten into the limo with him without thinking. It was like he had me in a trance and I unconsciously would follow his lead.
"It's a Japanese restaurant, Yasujiro," he said flatly. "Three Michelin stars. World class."
"It sounds delicious, I love Japanese food," I said.
In truth I don't know if I really did. Living in New York and not having sushi? That's not possible, you'd think. But it's true. I never really got the chance.
I didn't want to look so uncultured next to him. Especially after the last time we were eating at his place and I couldn't even name the ingredients he had stored in his kitchen.
I wasn't much of a cook. My mom wasn't either, and I guess the skill just wasn't passed on.
Armand gave me a wry grin as the limo stopped.
He got out of the car and went around to open the door for me.
"Thank you," I said, as he held my hand to assist me over the steep curb.
It was funny the way he could make me feel like I was his, the way he held my hand to help me or back when I was coming out of the coffee shop.
But when I would ask him questions about himself, to get a deeper understanding of who he was and his past, he went cold.
I thought back to Alex and Maximilian's project they wanted me to undertake. Maybe Armand was just secretive to everyone.
Even me.
It's like I wasn't in his inner world, his inner circle or something. Like I was just hovering around him.
But why?
We reached the entrance of the restaurant and were greeted by an elegantly dressed woman in a tight black dress ending just below her thighs.
"Ah, Mr. Silver," she said. "Nice to see you again. Your usual spot?"
"Yes, Tomiko," Armand said.
We were lead through tables of sharply dressed business men and women and fast walking servers hurrying with plates and bowls to and from the kitchen.
Tomiko lead us deep into the restaurant into
a more private area that was darker and had sections divided by wooden panels and separated with their own small platform on a few steps. She let us take our seats and handed us each a menu.
Armand handed them back to her immediately.
"We'll have two orders of my usual course," he said.
"Certainly, Mr. Silver," she said, smiling.
As she walked away back into the core of the restaurant I wanted to call out to her, "Hey, I order for myself!"
I turned to Armand.
"You didn't even let me take a look at what they are serving," I said.
"No need," Armand said, as if that was enough explanation.
As if that was all the explanation I deserved, said that voice of doubt inside of me.
"What do you mean?" I said. " I wanted to look at what they had." Sure, I might not know anything about Japanese food, but it was my right to not be treated like a kid on her first night dining out.
"I ordered you the best meal," he said. "There really is no debate about it."
I huffed in annoyance.
"What if I were allergic?" I sneered.
"You aren't," he said bluntly, while scanning the room.
"How do you know? You never even asked," I said.
"Don't be foolish," he said.
"No, you never did," I said. "You never asked me about that. You never asked me about anything about myself that matters to me. About my personal life."
Armand sat back in his chair and laughed sarcastically.
"You want me to ask something about your personal life? Why do you think you're here right now, Janet?"
I squirmed in my seat. His tone of voice was penetrating, sharp.
"Why do you think I brought you out here?" he asked rhetorically. "For a little bit of fun? To grab a bite?"
Armand shook his head slowly left and right.
"You've been hiding something from me, Janet," Armand said. "About who you are. And what you are after."
He stared at me, his eyes glowing in the dim light like embers as the shadows cut across his face.
"Me?" I stammered.
I wondered what he knew. Who knows if he had an inside informer at Global Eye or something. Armand had been known to have such a huge network that it was rumored two different companies fighting against each other were in the end both controlled by him.