‘Or sold her. I won’t put myself in the same situation.’
‘Lonnie,’ Simone snipped.
The goon farthest from the door lifted his arm, and an abrupt snap startled them all. But Candy cried out and leapt back. Flick was shocked to see blood oozing from Candy’s shoulder. It seeped between her clutching fingers, draining from the face hidden behind the crude make-up.
‘Fuck!’ Cody shouted, and rushed over to the bleeding woman, who fell back against the wall. ‘You bitch! You shot her! What the fuck!’
These women were Rushe’s responsibility, and Flick was supposed to be his partner, so by extension that technically put them in her charge too.
‘You may not be in physical danger. But I did not say the same about those around you. Shall I tell my man to continue?’ Simone drawled, very aware that she had proved she had the upper hand.
Exhaling, Flick gave up hope that Rushe would happen upon this scene. Simone might be a superior bitch, but if the Mercier family wanted Flick dead or kidnapped, they wouldn’t have sent this feeble opponent to take on Rushe, or whoever else might have been here protecting Flick.
If it had been their objective to abduct her, then it would have made more sense to do it from her parents’ house, especially since she was alone in the Hughes’ house on her first night there.
‘No,’ Flick said. ‘Cody, get Candy help.’
‘But—‘
‘Do it.’
Striding forward, Flick felt no fear, because any threat of conflict was nothing she couldn’t handle. The two hooligans parted to let Simone exit first, one went out and the other, Lonnie, waited for Flick to exit in front of him.
If she had expected a gang of hoodlums ready to seize her the moment she stepped onto the sidewalk, then she was disappointed.
Simone was already beside the driver in the front passenger seat of a sleek black vehicle idling at the kerb. Lonnie waited for Flick to get into the back while his friend went onto the road to get in at the other side, sandwiching Flick between them in the back seat.
As they got underway, Simone opened the glove box and twisted to hold up a length of black silk. ‘Lonnie.’
The shooter took the silk and wound it around Flick’s head. This was a familiar experience, but she had hoped to be beyond it. In the past, she had found herself seated for a journey of hours. Being crammed in between these hulks would make for an unpleasant and uncomfortable trip if it was going to play out in the same scenario today.
Thoughts of conversation came and went. Rushe had shown how powerful quiet could be. Flick did not intend to show anyone her hand, and displaying emotion would gain her nothing. So she waited, prepared for someone else in the car to break the seal of silence first.
All of her assumptions turned out to be false. Less than half an hour later, the car slowed to a halt. At first, she assumed there was a hold up on the road, but then the engine ceased and doors began to open.
The human bread flanking her disappeared, and so wasting no time by waiting for permission, Flick tugged off the blindfold and shuffled out of the car. The particular road was unfamiliar, but the set up was the same as many residential city streets.
Traversing an alley behind Simone and the driver, Flick was escorted by the two others from the back of the car. Simone carried on through the door that the driver held ajar until Flick entered as well. Aiming her down the dark but clean hallway, the three men remained tightly around Flick, like three points on an arrowhead, as they ascended the stairs.
If this was where Serendipity was being held, then it was closer than she had assumed it would be, either that or something else was going on here.
The apartment they arrived at was normal. It was an open plan, large space, with a few doors around it, nothing sinister at all, and no gangsters, other than those who had entered with her. With high sash windows that let light flow over the expensive designer furniture, this could be an abode in any European city.
‘Follow me,’ Simone said, leading Flick toward the window and the wood-framed velvet chaise.
Lonnie passed them to unlock a door, and when he pushed it open Flick was nervous at the implied invitation for her to enter. But her anxiety fled when a form rose out of a wingback chair inside the room, and Flick recognised Serendipity.
‘Flick,’ Serendipity smiled, and rushed forward.
The women met and embraced like old friends, which should have been, but wasn’t, peculiar. They hadn’t spent considerable bonding time together. Their friendship consisted of nothing more than a few minutes of comfort and conversation in an intense situation.
The downtrodden and neglected Serendipity of now had a fuller figure and a brighter complexion, but melancholy still stained her aura.
‘Have you seen him?’
‘No,’ Flick said, allowing Serendipity to lead her past a bed and to the chair in the window that she’d vacated. As Serendipity sank down into one, Flick lowered herself into the matching seat angled toward the window.
‘Rushe went to the hospital and copied some of his notes,’ Flick murmured, when the door was closed and she and Serendipity were left alone. ‘He hasn’t woken up.’
‘I punished him,’ Serendipity said. ‘He didn’t mean for any of it to happen. He was doing his job. Going undercover was what he did. Bringing those bastards to justice was his mission. He didn’t mean for me to get involved, it was never his intention—‘
‘Don’t punish yourself. It wasn’t his fault, but it wasn’t yours either.’
‘We had time together. He tried so hard, and I... I punished him.’
‘You went through a trauma, worse than the rest of us,’ Flick said. ‘He knew it would take time.’
Serendipity stared out of the window at the apartment block across the street, and a calm came over her, which fired Flick’s memory of the first view she’d had of the husk of a woman Serendipity was back then. Blank, vacant, void of any emotion, that’s how Serendipity was.
From personal experience, Flick knew what it was to exist in that state, because it often gripped a person when reality overwhelmed them. It was a condition of self-preservation, and Serendipity knew that station well because she’d resided there for months.
‘Don’t let them set you back,’ Flick said, slipping to the front corner of her seat. ‘You have to be strong.’
‘For what? If he doesn’t wake up—‘
‘Jansen needs you to be strong. He loves you. Getting you back was all he could think about. He blamed himself for everything.’
‘And I wasted our reunion. We’ve spent months fighting, drifting back together only to crash and lose each other again. He’s been so pig-headed about collecting evidence, about trying to find a way to prove that the Merciers were involved. It took over our lives. He was never there, but when he was... I punished him.’
‘How long have they had you here?’ Flick asked.
‘A little more than a week,’ Serendipity said. ‘When they took me... I was at the hospital. They knew I would be there.’
‘Rushe is working for the Merciers. They have him working for a guy called Silver. We’re going to get you out of this.’
‘They want something from Rushe,’ Serendipity said. ‘Jerome Mercier is the head of the family, he’s Simone’s uncle.’
‘What do they want from Rushe?’
‘I don’t know. I overheard them talking. Jerome’s out of the country. Simone said to one of them that we were staying here until he returns to the US.’
‘Are they looking after you?’
‘Compared to the last time?’ Serendipity mustered a smile. ‘I can’t stop thinking about him lying in that hospital bed... Drew always wanted... he just wanted to do what was right. Somehow... he’s never had very good luck.’
Flick hadn’t known Jansen’s first name until now. ‘He found you, we can’t lose hope.’
The bedroom door opened to reveal Lonnie standing with Simone. ‘You’ve seen her,’ Simone said. ‘She
’s alive. Now come here.’
Seeking Serendipity’s hand before her forced departure, Flick gave it a squeeze in hope that it conveyed some solace, no matter how ineffectual it would be. Then on filtering out of the room, Flick saw that the other men were gone.
Simone settled on the couch and poured coffee from a cafetière that sat on the polished walnut table, then she replaced the vessel on its cork coaster and lifted her coffee cup.
‘Sit,’ Simone drawled. ‘We have things to discuss.’
Chapter Eight
‘You came to Silver’s for me,’ Flick said. As Lonnie disappeared into an adjoining room, leaving the two women alone, Flick crossed to sit at the other end of the couch from Simone. ‘You said Rushe wanted to know that Serendipity was alive, but it was me that you came for.’
‘Yes.’
‘Is your cousin Antoine still with my family?’
‘He is. We wouldn’t want you to get the idea of doing anything reckless.’
‘Like what? You have everything you want, and I can’t affect that. Jansen has possible brain damage, Serendipity is your prisoner, and Rushe is running your errands.’
‘And you expected to pay no price yourself?’ Simone asked.
Nothing in her life was ever as it first appeared anymore. ‘So this is where you bill me; what’s the charge?’
‘Your involvement led us to where we are today,’ Simone said, lounging back against the armrest. Each one of her words was so effortless and casual that they could easily have been talking about something as mundane as the weather. ‘And it will be your involvement that will resolve this situation.’
‘Will it?’ Flick asked, struggling to contain her urge to lunge over the couch and throttle the woman who was the cause of so much suffering. But with the bodyguards only a room away and Serendipity locked up¸ such an action would only get her into trouble.
‘Jansen has paid his price and is no longer a threat. Serendipity is here to ensure that you pay your share. And you will make sure that Rushe pays his.’
‘What is it that you want me to do?’ Flick asked.
‘Betray him.’
‘Who?’
‘Your lover,’ Simone said, her lip curling in undisguised pleasure at the command she had just issued. ‘You are an innocent. A little lamb trotting behind the wolf, and he will turn on you when he is hungry. You are nothing to him.’
‘There’s nothing you can say that would make me betray Rushe,’ Flick said. Ignoring the coffee and the smug European, Flick rose to her feet. ‘If I’m not a prisoner, then I’m leaving now. Thank you for letting me see Serendipity.’
‘You have the power to liberate her,’ Simone said, stalling Flick. ‘We have one straightforward task for you. Comply, and everyone will live. We can go back to our business, and we can all go our separate ways, all even.’
The idea that this could be so simply resolved was enticing, and Flick lowered herself back onto the couch to hear Simone out. Genuine betrayal might not be an option, but the situation may be able to be manipulated to their advantage. So it would serve her to find out just what Simone was suggesting.
‘If you don’t want me as a prisoner or in a hospital bed, then you must want me doing my part with Rushe. Do you think he will let me lie on my back for your family? Is that what you mean by betrayal?’
‘We do not wish you to prostitute yourself in Silver’s whorehouse. Silver is nothing to us. Rushe is repaying a debt to Silver that pre-dates his association with our family. That will be settled, and we will be assured of Silver’s silence on his knowledge of our acquaintance.’
‘Then what can you want from—‘
‘You are going to testify against him,’ Simone said. ‘Testify to the brutality of your kidnap, your stay, and your experience with Rushe, the man who violated me... the man who violated you.’
‘You’ve accused Rushe of rape? You want him to be the fall guy?’
‘It is necessary to underline their coercion of me. Rushe will take responsibility for financing the operation, for being Victor’s partner. And he’ll be the one to take responsibility for manipulating Jansen, both then and now.’
‘No,’ Flick exhaled, comprehending what it would mean to have Rushe arrested for the role they were designing for him.
‘We’ve already taken steps to put in place the links between Victor and Rushe, their finances and associations. We have covered all eventualities.’
‘You’re framing him. You want Rushe to go to jail, and you want me to help you put him there.’
The left edge of Simone’s lips tilted higher. ‘Yes.’
‘But Jansen wouldn’t have incriminated Rushe.’
‘Jansen is in no state to be confirming or contradicting anyone’s story. You will do this, Felicity. You are going to stand at our side as we watch him go down.’
‘I won’t.’
‘Rushe is a ruthless man,’ Simone said. ‘Like it or not, he is a criminal. He has been party to wrongdoings, and there is plenty that he can be legitimately accused of. He is the greatest threat to us, and to others. Getting him off the streets will minimise the chances of future interaction.’
‘You’re afraid of him,’ Flick said.
‘We are not condemning an innocent man, and you are not defending one. He is not a hero. He is malevolence in a cloak of virtue. You have been bewitched, and there will come a time that you will see him for what he truly is. With or without you, we will see that he pays for his crimes.’
‘He’s not vicious, and he would never—‘
‘Without Jansen’s testimony, the internal investigation will go away, relieving the pressure on our associates there. Our friends in the police department have already destroyed all evidence linking us to the crime, but they have pressure from their own superiors to worry about. They need to identify and incarcerate an individual to satisfy their own supervisors. Things are teetering on a knife edge, and if our police colleagues are discovered before this case is closed then that could be disastrous.’
‘What a shame,’ Flick said, emphasising her sarcasm.
‘You will corroborate my statement.’
‘And what about those of the other female captives?’
‘Irrelevant, none of them knew the truth.’
‘But you were seen at Victor’s side.’
‘I admitted that he was a threatening man, who compelled me to act against my will. He and Rushe both did.’
Flick recalled the inky silence that consumed the female hostages until they were shells of their former selves. The prisoners that Flick had met hadn’t known the names or features of any of their captors. They hadn’t known where they were, or even why they’d been abducted. Simone taunted Serendipity, but the European remained silent around the others.
If Simone had identified herself as a victim, then it was likely that the police would accept that she was. They might accept that she was there under duress and only following Victor’s instructions in the hope of saving her own threatened life.
‘We have destroyed all evidence that has to be destroyed—‘
‘Including Jansen,’ Flick snarled. Jansen, Rushe, and Flick were the only three people alive who knew the truth, and Jansen was no longer in a position to testify, or offer any contradiction to whatever fabrication Simone had woven for the authorities.
‘Maybe Jansen threatened to stop covering up Rushe’s involvement.’
‘You’re going to accuse Rushe of putting Jansen into his current state?’
‘The evidence that the police need to implicate Rushe is out there, and it’s only a matter of time before they find it, and find him too. We can ensure that they do, when the timing is right.’
‘I’ve seen how you take pleasure in watching others squirm, watching them tormented and in pain. Is your family this afraid of him?’
‘Now all we need is the testimony of one innocent victim, from a very respectable family, with a lot of credibility. You’re a poor, defenceless woman t
hat Rushe took a particular interest in. And for months he has been exploiting you for his pleasure.’
‘How can you expect me to do this?’
‘It will clear the debt and save everyone’s lives. You can ask as many questions as you like, but there is only one truth that you have to accept. When we deem it time you will deliver the story of Rushe’s brutality against you. All this time you have lived in fear of his tyranny, and he has subjugated you.’
‘You want me to tell them that he has kept me against my will, and that he’s raped and abused me for the duration of our legitimate relationship? No, I won’t listen to any more of this,’ Flick said, then ascended to head for the door.
‘Lonnie!’
She expected violence, or to be restrained, but the men appeared from the other room before Flick could hurry to the door.
‘Take Miss Hughes back to where we found her,’ Simone said, maintaining eye contact with Flick. ‘You have some time to think, but we will be in touch soon.’
Simone turned away to top off her coffee, thus dismissing Flick, who was trundled out with three men. They piled her into the car, tied a blindfold around her head, and drove her back to the brothel.
Flick stood on the sidewalk watching the car drive off and knew one thing, she wasn’t going back into the building that they’d delivered her to, not yet. As soon as the vehicle had left her sight, Flick turned to walk away in the opposite direction.
Still forming a plan, she had no definitive aim, but the last thing she wanted was to be discovered by anyone from Silver’s place until her thoughts were clearer. To form a distinct goal, and to make an action plan to get her there, Flick required help. So picking up her speed, she headed for the heart of town, because there was only one place she knew of to go to for information.
Calling up an old friend gave Flick what she needed right now, support. Rushe might not be in the brothel, and he’d been so distant that she couldn’t rely on him to listen to her woes at this moment. Before she took them to him, she needed to have her own plan of action in place. She needed to show him how seriously she took this situation and what lengths she would go to in order to protect him.
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