by Skylar Cross
"I know where she is, Caden."
Everything disappeared. The sea. The beach. My yacht. There was nothing in the universe but Sebastian's voice on the phone and me.
"Kiri," he said. "Kiri Huang. I saw her myself. She looks well. Very attractive young woman."
Shit, is he lying? I can't tell. I can tell when 99% of the world is lying, but never Sebastian.
"I'm going to ask again, Sebastian. What do you want?"
"You know what I want. Something in your possession. The only thing I've ever wanted. But now I have something to trade. I have something you want."
I stared out at one of the two islands in the bay. My eyes fixed on the tiny chapel built atop one of them.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Sebastian," I said.
He laughed again.
"Oh, I believe you do, Caden. Look, there's no reason for animosity between us. Let's make a fair trade. For old time's sake. I give you what you want. You give me what I want. We both get something out of the deal. We go our separate ways. What's wrong with that?"
"Sebastian, I'm going to hang up now."
"If you really wanted to hang up, Caden, you would have already. The very fact you're still on the line tells me all I need to know."
Fucking bastard.
"Caden," he said. "Have dinner with Valentina and me. We're here in Petrovac at the Hotel Del Mar. Bring the beautiful blonde who was recently sunbathing on your deck but went below."
I jumped up, scanning the beach, the road, the buildings, and the hillside. In my field of vision were at least two thousand people out enjoying the summer sun. Sebastian is one of them, watching me right now.
Sebastian laughed.
"You look well, Caden," he said. "You've filled out quite a bit since I saw you last. But tell me, how do you keep your waist so trim?"
"Fine," I said. "Dinner. The restaurant at the Hotel Palas. Eight o'clock."
I clicked off the phone.
Chapter 13
Claudia had promised her traveling companions she would have dinner with them, so I called Yung-Hee, a beautiful girl I had met the night before Claudia. She was available for dinner.
For the first time in years, I was nervous. I had banned fear and anxiety from my life, but Sebastian and Valentina had been such a pivotal part of my upbringing that I couldn't help but sense just a few jitters at the prospect of seeing them again.
Just in case, I had my Glock 19 handgun tucked into a concealed shoulder holster under my white sport coat.
I saw them as soon as we walked in. Sebastian stood up and motioned us over.
God, he had aged!
The fortyish man with slicked-back hair I knew had been replaced by a much older man. Big gut. Spiky snow white hair. Rosacea-red face.
But still with the cigar, the flowered shirt, and the Panama hat. Apparently, Sebastian was one of those guys who found a style he liked and stuck with it forever.
Valentina, on the other hand, still looked amazing. Not very different from the first time I saw her twenty-four years ago. Now forty-four, she looked much younger than she was. I had a momentary flashback to our hotel in Rome so many years ago. My stomach churned a little.
"Caden Storm," said Sebastian as we arrived at their table. "I can't believe it's you. The only thing I recognize about you are those aquamarine eyes. The rest is an entirely new person."
He put his hand out. I didn't shake it.
Valentina moved toward me to kiss me, but I didn't move. She took the hint and sat down.
"This is Yung-Hee," I said. "Yung-Hee, this is Sebastian and Valentina."
I sat and ordered some wine from the attentive waiter.
Sebastian glared at me, trying to get a read on me. I sensed frustration because he couldn't. The student had become the master.
"Billionaire," he said. "Caden Storm a billionaire. Who would have ever guessed?"
"I did nothing to hide myself from you," I said. "Everything I created was in open view for anyone to see. No deceit. No con artistry. You could have found me at any time. Why now?"
"Because I just recently figured out what happened to the locket. After the incident at sea, Valentina and I returned to the island and with the help of Maru Huang's enemy took over his resort."
My blood boiled. My fingers twitched. I so wanted to grab the gun and shoot Sebastian right there. But I steeled myself.
"So you had a hand in that?" I said.
"Yes," said Sebastian. "We tore that place apart looking for the locket. But it was gone. You had last been seen riding a small boat out to sea. The girl Kiri was missing. We presumed you had both drowned somehow. When you didn't show up, we left thinking you were dead. What a surprise when we saw your name in the papers a few years later!"
"So you didn't know she was on the boat? That she likely saw what you did?"
"No, she hid herself well. Then somebody else hid her well. Because the big bad billionaire Caden Storm couldn't find her for almost twenty years."
"Where is she, Sebastian?"
Sebastian laughed.
"What, you think I'm just going to tell you?" he said. "Just like that? No no no, you have something I want. It hit me when I saw the profile Forbes magazine did on you. How could a boy have built an empire so quickly? He must have had some capital behind him, no? Perhaps capital from a mine... where the walls are lined with gold?"
I chuckled.
"Joke's on you," I said. "In a tiny office fronting the road that leads into Pape'ete, Tahiti is my world headquarters. In that office is a ledger of every transaction conducted by KH Holdings since its inception sixteen years ago. Every penny is accounted for. All available for public viewing. Even for you. No gold from any silly gold mine."
Sebastian's eyes narrowed.
"You're telling me the truth," he said as he puffed on his cigar. I sensed a little awe in his voice.
"Damn straight I am," I said. I pointed to my head. "I built my business with this gold mine up here."
"Fine, Mr. Brains. I believe you. But you still have something I want."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because you are here. You're considering my offer. If you weren't, you wouldn't have come. You have the locket, don't you?"
I took a sip of my martini. I noticed a man watching us from one of the hotel balconies. Fortyish, red crew-cut, taking pictures with his cell phone.
"Perhaps I do," I said. "But how do I know you're telling the truth about Kiri?"
Sebastian reached into his sport coat. I felt my hand involuntarily move toward my Glock.
He took out a photograph and dropped it on the table. I felt a tug in my heart.
There she was.
But I couldn't be sure.
The girl in the picture was stunning. Full lips. Big eyes. Beautiful skin. Amazing body underneath a gray pinstripe suit over a green camisole. She wore a nametag. Parts of the nametag were blurred out. But the name clearly read, "Kiri."
While my gut told me it was her, I couldn't be certain. The last time I saw her she was five years old. This girl looked like somebody I would seduce. The thought repulsed me and I shook it off. Sebastian picked the picture up and put it back in his pocket.
"That's not her," I said as I stood up. "We're leaving."
"Caden," he said. "I'm not well. I have congestive heart failure. The doctors tell me I need to go in for a bypass."
"I'm heartbroken," I said. "To what funeral home should I send flowers?"
"Caden, all my life I've wanted only one thing. To get back what killed my grandfather and great-grandfather. It was their gold mine. It belonged to them. Look at me, Caden. I'm an old man. I'm never going to make it to that damned mine. But I have a son. He's ten years old."
I looked quizzically at Valentina.
"He's not hers," said Sebastian. "His mother is another woman."
"How lovely," I said.
"And I want to leave him that mine. I'm going to leave him that mine! It's his birthr
ight."
"Sebastian, you're laying it on a bit thick now. I thought you were better than this. Now if you'll excuse us, we're leaving."
I took Yung-Hee's hand and stood up.
"Good luck finding her," said Sebastian. "Go ahead and try. You can see she works somewhere that requires a nametag, but that's all you have. She could be in London, Tokyo, or Chicago for all you know."
"Sebastian, nice try," I said. "But that's not Kiri Huang and I don't have your precious locket."
Sebastian laughed.
"That was a terrible lie," he said. "I taught you better than that, boy."
At the word boy, my blood went on fire. The last man to call me boy was the late Jacques Decoud. I led Yung-Hee out into the soft summer night.
As we reached my rental car, I tapped my watch while holding the door for Yung-Hee. The tiny earpiece hidden in my ear canal came to life. I closed the passenger door.
"Did you get the picture?" I said.
"Yes," said Forrester from a control room on the other side of the earth. "Good quality. We have it."
I got in the driver's side of the car.
"How about the man on the balcony taking pictures? Did you get a clear resolution on him?"
"Yes. I already know who he is. Hacker. IRA. Bank robber. Name's Kyle Connor."
"Who are you talking to?" said Yung-Hee.
I smiled at her.
"Just you, my sweet," I said.
I leaned over and kissed her.
Chapter 14
I would have liked to have gotten a tracking device in Sebastian's luggage so Forrester could have followed his movements via his GPS setup, but I had no staff in Petrovac. If I had known Sebastian was going to be there, I would have been better prepared.
What I did have with me was a contact lens with a built-in camera. It's experimental now, but soon people everywhere will be wearing one. Privacy is indeed dead.
The contact lens I wore transmitted and recorded my entire meeting with Sebastian and Valentina, including a sharp reproduction of the picture of the girl Sebastian claimed was Kiri.
Back in the control room I had built for Forrester and his team at my residence in Boston, I looked at the picture of the girl.
That couldn't be her.
She's gorgeous.
Not that she wouldn't be gorgeous. I mean, what did I expect? That she would still be five? It's been nineteen years.
For the next several months, we looked for every girl in a service job who would wear a gray pinstripe suit. Forrester and one of his team members, a 22-year old hacker genius named Jason, couldn't get a lead anywhere.
Part of me believed that Sebastian had faked everything, that this is some other girl. He knows I like attractive women, so this is a trap.
But another part of me saw something in the eyes. Maybe it was her.
Sebastian didn't call for about three months. That irked me. Why is he giving me so much time? He wants me to look for Kiri, doesn't he? Why?
My mathematical mind went into overdrive analyzing odds and probabilities. But for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what he was up to.
As for Kyle Connor, Forrester found him easily. Lives in Boston. Does all kinds of contract work for criminal organizations. Brilliant hacker himself. Well-known to con artists.
Why was he in Montenegró taking pictures of us?
And where the fuck is Kiri really?
Sebastian was good. He knew what he was doing. He was letting me simmer. He knew he had lit a fire that wasn't going to be put out and was willing to play a long game with me.
One December afternoon in New York, I walked into the Starbucks on Sixth right around the corner from my Private Residence at the Plaza Hotel. I was with Gabriela, a Brazilian model I had met at a party the previous week.
Sebastian and Valentina sat at one of the round tables near the window.
My hand twitched. I didn't have my Glock with me. I had become careless, hadn't I?
"Be quiet and let me do the talking," I said to Gabriela.
"What? Why?" she said.
"I need to talk to those people over there. Just come with me. We'll get your latté afterwards."
"But I want my latté now," she whined.
I gave her the look that most every woman I have ever known loves. It's the dominant do-as-I-say look. Makes them melt. They love nothing more than a confident, take-charge man who leads them.
"I can wait," she said.
I smiled and led her over to the table.
"You haven't found her," said Sebastian without getting up.
"How can you be so sure?" I said as I held a chair for Gabriela.
Sebastian sipped his venti coffee and peered at me. Valentina just smiled the same empty smile of old.
"I know," he said. "I know you have that demon Forrester working for you. But I have my own demon."
"Kyle Connor is no match for Forrester."
Sebastian's eyes went wide. Gabriela looked at me with fear.
"Gabriela," I said, "I would introduce you to these people but they aren't worth knowing. Now Sebastian, give it up. I don't have what you're looking for. You don't know where Kiri is."
"You do have it," he said. "It's in a flour jar on your kitchen countertop."
Holy fuck, how did he know that?
Sebastian smiled.
"Oh, I'm right, aren't I?" he said. "I wasn't sure, but you just told me."
I just stared at him, dumbfounded for the first time in years.
"I found Teva," he said. "The housekeeping supervisor who worked for the Huangs. Lives in Singapore now. Valentina and I just paid him a visit. Recently. He was quite talkative. Told me that the day you disappeared, you ran into the kitchen, grabbed something out of Mrs. Huang's flour can, then rowed yourself out into the ocean. Which tells me that you deceived me. You knew Mrs. Huang was wearing a fake locket. I don't like being deceived, Caden."
The couple at the table to our left got up. I could tell they were alarmed. Sebastian was talking a little too loudly, not to mention his obsession with the San Tomé gold mine was seeping through again. An evil fire burned behind his eyes. Gabriela squeezed my hand.
In a flash, my strategic mind presented me with a detailed plan. I had been working on it subconsciously for months, but here in this Starbucks on Sixth Avenue I saw it laid out in my head in glorious detail.
"Fine, Sebastian," I said. "You win. I'll give you the locket. But only when I have met Kiri and confirmed that she is indeed the same girl."
"No no no," said Sebastian. "It doesn't work that way."
"Yes it does," I said as Gabriela and I stood up. "When you're ready to do it my way, contact me. You know where to find me. I'm Caden Storm. Billionaire."
Sebastian's eyes glazed over at that. If looks could kill...
I went to the counter and bought Gabriela her latté before continuing our Christmas shopping.
Chapter 15
I don't know what took Sebastian so long, but three months later he bit.
I was relaxing in my penthouse apartment at Bay Towers in Boston. I liked Boston with its dramatic change of seasons. Plus, I owned the entire Bay Towers complex. It had been a deal with Devlin Bane, who lives over at the Mandarin on Boylston Street with his new love Marisol. Such a perfect match. He had been miserable with his ex-wife, the supermodel Heather Hunter.
I was enjoying the spring morning, watching the boats in Boston Harbor while listening to the BBC World News when my phone rang.
"Hello," I said.
"You win," said Sebastian.
"I'm not just going to hand you the locket, Sebastian. I told you, I need to prove to myself that it's her."
"Fine," said Sebastian. He was wheezing. "I'm too weak to argue. I just spent three months at Mass General Hospital. Had to have that surgery after all. Just recently got back on my feet, but I can't walk very well."
Was this a trick? Hard to tell.
"Caden," he said, "I'm a weak old man. But I'm goin
g to trust you. I'm also going to ask you for forgiveness. I never meant to kill the Huangs. It just came out of me. It was a mistake. All I want is to die knowing my boy is taken care of."