“Good evening, gentlemen.” The man made a slight nod. “Password please.”
“April showers bring May flowers,” Louis said softly. The doorman bowed his head and opened the door.
Gareth and Louis passed through the door into a wide hall where a small number of people in masks gathered around a long table adorned with food, while others lounged on oversized furniture and talked with drinks in their hands. Glittering chandeliers hung from the high ceiling, providing just enough light to avoid bumping into anything. Gareth stiffened and lowered his head as he followed Louis down the hall. A man with a tray of drinks approached and handed each of them a glass of champagne.
Near the end of the long room, a stout set of stairs led to an upper level where music was playing and a large crowd was mingling. As Louis and Gareth reached the top of the stairs, they were effortlessly pulled into the dancing crowd. Gareth noticed others looked on from a circular balcony above.
“Who are we meeting and how are we supposed to find them?” Gareth asked, his eye already fixed on a quick exit.
Louis paused as he glanced around the room. “Ah, I’m not exactly sure. I don’t think they’re down here. Let’s try up there.” He pointed to the balcony. They wove a path toward a curving staircase. Gareth paused on the steps to take stock of the crowd, a few hundred people in their best attire shifting and glittering in the light while they hid behind elaborate masks. He turned back and noticed Louis was already scoping out the third floor. Gareth hurried the rest of the way up the stairs, nearly tripping on his cloak.
At the balcony level there were clusters of people at the railing and others perched on chairs and sofas in a large enclave. The sitting area was framed by a massive window that offered a panoramic view of sparkling city lights. Louis waved Gareth over to a set of large double doors off to the right, where another uniformed man stood guard. Louis approached but before he even touched the golden door handle, the guard stopped him.
“This is a private room.”
“I’m looking for someone. We have an appointment,” Louis replied.
“You won’t have any luck getting in there without a proper invitation,” the guard said, pointing with his thumb at the door. Louis turned to Gareth, who hadn’t heard the exchange, and just shrugged slightly. Louis addressed the guard again.
“Do you know where I might be able to find Amira Hassan?” Louis asked.
“I’m sorry sir, I’m not privy to the identity of the guests. But you might want to try one of the rooms further down this corridor.” The guard held out his hand to direct them.
Louis motioned for Gareth to follow and together they walked to the next set of doors only to find them unattended and locked. Gareth reached past Louis and wrapped hard on the wooden door. No response. They followed the corridor to another set of doors on the opposite side of the balcony.
One of these was slightly ajar, and laughter escaped through the narrow crack. Louis leaned in and peered through the small opening. Judging this was their destination, he straightened up again, pushed the door open, and strode into the room. The space was illuminated by a soft light and furnished with ornate antiques. One wall was comprised of a large bookshelf with a ladder on rails. A group of three amorous women were gathered on the long sofa in front of it. In the corner opposite Louis a man was seated in a large wing chair, casually sipping a drink and chained to a young woman who stood quietly next to him. Louis grinned at Gareth before he ventured deeper into the room.
Gareth hung back at the entrance and examined the scene. On his left a man lay on a chaise lounge while a woman in only a bra sat on top of him. At the back of the room, a group of people laughed loudly, but the lighting was too dim to see them clearly. With his hood still up, he looked again at the man in the wingback chair, attached by a chain on his wrist to a girl who shielded herself with one arm wrapped around her, tightly gripping the other. Gareth wondered if she was cold or frightened.
The girl’s long dark hair may have once been styled but was now a tangled mess, as though she had just been in a fight. She wore a black corset that amplified her small waist and large breasts, and she barely managed to balance on dagger-like stilettos.
The girl loosened her grip to adjust her corset and revealed a right arm amputated above the elbow. She glanced Gareth’s way and realized he was staring at her. She quickly looked away and resumed her protective stance. Gareth pulled the leather glove off his left hand, and as his movement caught her attention, her gaze returned to him. He grinned and waved with his three-fingered hand. Her saw her lip turn up in a slight smile and her body soften. He slipped his glove back on.
- -
“Do you see something you like, my friend?” said the man still seated in the wingback chair. Gareth stared at the girl while addressing her master.
“I might,” he answered roughly.
“I’m looking for a buyer,” the man said. “You can take her for a test drive if you like.”
Gareth lifted his chest a little higher to conceal his tension. He hadn’t planned on jumping back into this game again. At least, not so soon. He kept his gaze on the girl. Gareth noticed small freckles spanned her nose and she had a shiny silver piercing above her lip. She shifted on her high heels while staring at the floor.
“I will,” Gareth said and reached out to take the girl’s hand. With her eyes cast down, she put out her hand as the man released the chain around his wrist and locked it around Gareth’s.
“You might find a quiet spot in the next room.” The man pointed to an arched doorway on his right. Gareth nodded and walked away slowly with the girl trotting along to his wide gait. Before exiting, Gareth quickly scanned about for Louis, who was nowhere to be seen.
On the other side of the archway was a spacious room with large pieces of comfortable furniture covered with writhing bodies. Pulsing music drowned out all the other sounds. Gareth spied an unoccupied round tufted bench in the far corner, so he beat a path to it, with the girl following awkwardly behind. She stood stiffly in front of him before consenting to his invitation to sit on his lap.
“What’s your name?” Gareth asked.
“Sky,” she replied in a small voice.
“I’m Gareth,” he replied, the words tumbling out of his mouth with a low rumble.
Sky gave him a gentle smile and took his gloved hand in her small one. She kissed the back of his glove and looked up at him, her large brown eyes heavily painted with black liner. She slid his glove off and ran her fingers over the scars on the back of his hand. When Gareth jerked his hand away and rested it on her back, Sky placed her hand in her lap and hung her head.
“You can do whatever you want with me,” she said without looking at him.
“I know,” Gareth said, “but not tonight.” He reached up and stroked her cheek. Sky stared at the smooth, white wall and sat nearly motionless, her breathing shallow and uneven.
“How old are you?” Gareth asked.
“Nineteen,” Sky replied. Gareth sighed and rested his hand lightly on her thigh.
“Do you know what you’re getting into?” he asked.
Sky almost rolled her eyes but held back and sighed instead. “Yes,” she said calmly and glanced into his only visible eye, a ring of speckled gray that seemed to reach behind her own eyes to scan the contents of her mind. She pulled back and he gave her a crooked smile.
Gareth brought her face to his and kissed her gently. After a moment she returned his affection. He pressed a little harder and bit down gently on her plump lower lip while his fingers slid across her shoulder and along her arm. Sky instinctively responded in kind, causing him to tighten up and pull away. She perked up and opened her eyes.
Gareth simply shook his head, and she glanced away to avoid his stern gaze. As he cupped her face with one hand, he ran the other through her knotted hair. She didn’t wince but leaned into his palm and closed her eyes again.
Gareth stroked her nose and grazed her lips with the tips of his fi
ngers. Sky responded to his touch, her lips parting slightly.
“I think you’ll do,” Gareth said softly in her ear.
Sky slowly opened her eyes and her shoulders pulled back. The only response she could muster was silence.
They got up and returned to the man in the wingback chair, but he was gone. He had been replaced by two women who used the chair as a stage for an erotic show as three drunk men sharing a long sofa watched intently. Gareth scanned the room but saw no evidence of the man with the shaved head. He darted for the main door that led to the hallway as Sky followed behind like a duckling, her chain rattling with each step.
Just as Gareth reached for the door handle, Louis swung it wide open from the other side.
“Where have you been?” Louis shouted, his face lit with excitement.
“Right where you left me,” Gareth said flatly.
“I found Hassan. We had a nice little chat. Even though it was short, I think we might have a lead. I wish you could have been there.” Louis glanced behind his friend at Sky, who was leaning in to hide behind Gareth.
“Oh, I see. Who’s the girl? And what’s with the hardware?” Louis asked.
“I’m looking for a guy with a shaved head and a small mask like the Lone Ranger,” Gareth said.
“I have no idea who you’re talking about. I’ve seen a dozen bald guys in the last fifteen minutes, and they all look the same to me.”
“Hmm.” Gareth peered around Louis to scan the hallway.
“Why are you looking for this guy anyway?” Louis asked.
“He has something I want.”
“What? The other half of your face?” Louis laughed drunkenly at his own tasteless joke.
Gareth ignored him and contemplated his next move.
“Excuse me . . . sir,” Sky said softly. “If you can’t find Jared, you could just take me with you.”
Gareth spun around and frowned at her. “What?”
“She said you should just take her and run,” Louis said loudly. He turned to Sky, “You have to speak up, sweetheart. He has only one ear.”
“Oh, sorry sir,” Sky said, looking down again.
Gareth paused to weigh the options before he nodded. “OK, let’s go.”
He quickly backtracked in an arc around the balcony toward the staircase. Sky wobbled along on her stilettos, her corset barely containing her breasts, while Louis huffed behind, watching her closely. When they reached the open balcony Gareth scooped up the tiny girl as if she were filled with nothing more than air and carried her down the stairs. Her left hand clung to his cloak as he glided down the stairs.
He gently put her down when they reached the crowded dance floor, and they cut a wide circle around the crowd. Gareth, still in the lead, slowed his pace, trying not to draw attention to the trio as they made their way to the final staircase that led to the wide main hall. Gareth stopped to consider the chain that bound him to Sky.
He had no key.
Gareth wrapped most of the chain around his wrist like a massive bracelet and covered it with the ample sleeve of his cloak. He held Sky’s left hand, concealing the cuff on her wrist, and walked casually down the hall with Louis at his side. He focused on his target, the single door at the far end of the hall, and did not glance sideways. Louis instinctively remained quiet and went first through the door, speaking up only to thank the man in uniform on the way out.
Once they were outside, a cool spring breeze greeted them. Sky shivered. They were quickly escorted to a waiting limo. Sky slipped in first followed by Gareth and then Louis. The driver closed the door, took her seat, and Louis gave her directions to the waiting helicopter before he raised the privacy divider.
“Well, we did it. We stole a girl and got away with it,” Louis said, triumphant.
Gareth, damp with sweat, pushed back his hood and glared at his friend.
“What?” Louis said. “Don’t give me a dirty look. You’re the cradle robber, in more ways than one.”
Sky wrapped her arms around herself and shivered again. Gareth removed his cloak to wrap it around her narrow shoulders. She leaned into him and closed her eyes.
Louis turned away from the couple. City lights and endless traffic flew by in the pre-dawn light as the driver sped toward their destination. Gareth closed his eye to shut out the urban chaos.
Chapter 4
Sky rolled onto her back and rubbed her eyes. She yawned and stretched to her full length, then rolled back over and propped herself up on her elbow. Sunlight illuminated the room through a large window, but she found herself looking through a set of dark metal bars. She bolted upright. Although her vision was blurry, it was evident she was enclosed in a huge circular cage.
She scowled and tried to stand but her head swirled and pounded. She attempted to regain her balance but stumbled forward, her hand grabbing at a bar to break her momentum. When she was stable and upright she began to shake every bar that imprisoned her, looking for a weak spot. She grabbed the small door, and although it rattled a little, it wouldn’t open.
“Hello?” she called out in a loud, high-pitched voice. “Hello?” she called again, louder this time. There was no response. She stepped to the other side of the cage and looked out the window at a manicured garden that gave way to endless miles of green treetops. Staring into the isolated woodland, she felt her stomach to swirl with panic. When she looked down at her feet to distract herself from the view, she noticed the floor of the cage was covered with soft fur pelts. She dropped to her knees and ran her fingers through the soothing surface before she lay back down, pulling her knees into her and struggling to subdue the panic. She stared up at the top of the cage where the bars converged at the center and connected to a heavy chain that suspended the cage from a large wooden beam in the ceiling.
Quite suddenly, the door to the room swung open and a small Japanese woman entered, holding a silver tray. She smiled at Sky. “Good morning, Miss. I hope you’re feeling better. My name is Rose.” The smiling woman passed the wrapped items off the tray to the girl, finishing with a glass of water. Sky just blinked and rubbed her eyes, not knowing what to make of the situation. Rose exited without a word of explanation.
Hoping the knot in her stomach might be soothed with food, she grabbed a package and opened it. Inside there was a croissant stuffed with egg salad. She sat with her back resting against the iron bars and devoured it, stopping only to guzzle water. When she finished she opened the second package, a collection of cut fresh fruit. Sky had a few bites of peach and one piece of pear before she started to feel groggy. She left the food at the edge of the cage and lay back down on the fur pelts, fatigue flowing through her body and leaving her no other choice.
- -
Gareth sat at his desk with two large computer screens in front of him. His chin rested in one hand while the other scrolled through a lengthy proposal. He began to type just as his phone rang. He grabbed it off the top of his desk. “Yes?”
“Hello sir, it’s Rose. Sky woke up just a few moments ago. I gave her some breakfast that put her back to sleep.”
Gareth switched his screen view to his full-color closed-circuit monitor that revealed an image of Sky sleeping soundly. “I see,” he said. “Did she complain of any pain or discomfort while she was awake?”
“No, sir. She said nothing, but she did seem groggy.”
“Thank you, Rose,” Gareth said and hung up. As soon as he put down his phone, it rang again. He frowned and looked at the caller ID. “Lou, what’s up?” Gareth said.
“Hey Romeo, did you read through the package I sent? How’s our girl? Or should I say, girls?” Louis asked.
“The proposal is bloody long. These guys have too much to say about themselves. I like their idea, but I’m not sure if they’re a worthwhile investment yet.”
“They’re a smart team. Their developers have a good track record. If they can pull this off, their security system will be huge, and we should get in now before they get too hot.”
&
nbsp; “That’s a big if, Lou. You spend too much time imagining yourself drinking piña coladas on a tropical beach. You need to analyze why this won’t work. That’s your job this week,” Gareth said.
Louis sighed. “OK, Monsieur Buzzkill. I will put on my disaster thinking cap this week. Your job this week is to call Kitty and take her out to dinner.”
“I don’t have her number,” Gareth said.
“Oh. Well surely you can find her. That will be your new job for this week. By the way, how are things going with girl number two?”
Gareth leaned back in his chair. “Not as well as I had planned. Turns out she has some bad habits I need to break her of.”
“Damn! That sounds fun. Like, what kind of habits exactly?”
“She reminds me of your ex.”
“Mm, you mean fairy dust? That’s rough, man. Women are expensive enough as it is without a drug habit. I’d rather a girl be addicted to shoes; they’re cheaper. And sexier. I never thought I would say that.”
“She’s restrained and detoxing right now. It’ll be another week or two before I let her loose.”
“You’re an ass. Did you know that? Even in rehab they don’t lock people up.”
“She’s safe and sedated,” Gareth retorted.
“Oh. Well, that’s a great solution. Cure her of her drug addiction while pumping her with more drugs. That makes a lot of sense.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
“She’s a human being, Gare, not a wild dog you found in the woods.”
“You’re hardly one to be giving advice about women.”
“Well at least I don’t torture women like prisoners of war. Fuck Gare, show a little compassion.”
Like a Bird Page 3