Explicit Memory

by Scarlett Finn

  He tensed as he spoke and it made Flick sigh. ‘You’re beating yourself up, because you’re not fond of her personality. I’ve got to tell you something, Rushe, and please don’t be disappointed by this, but you don’t like very many people.’

  ‘Only one person.’

  ‘Yeah, and if it wasn’t for my breasts I’m not sure that even I would qualify sometimes,’ she teased.

  Letting her body drift into his, she wrapped her arms around his ribs. It still took him a few seconds to reciprocate, but eventually his arms relaxed. He locked one wrist in his other hand, and the embrace encompassed her.

  ‘You have to deal with Connie.’

  ‘I’ll talk to Silver tomorrow,’ he said, and his mouth sank into her hair.

  Flick closed her eyes while thinking about the women in this building, those who revered Rushe and those who feared him. They wanted something done about the clients this new girl was bringing in, but none of them had wanted to talk to Rushe about it. Yet, six words on Flick’s part was all it took to solve the problem, because she had no doubt that now Rushe had it in his mind, it would be dealt with.

  Chapter Sixteen

  All through the car ride to her parents’ she thought about Rushe. Eric talked as they drove, he played the radio and sang along with the tracks that played. He made jokes and stopped at gas stations for food, which he munched on while they travelled. The usual journeys she took with Rushe were a major contrast to this one with her newest associate.

  Eric had filled her in on what he’d found at Serendipity’s apartment, which ended up totalling a big fat zero. There was evidence that Jansen had been staying there, but nothing written down that indicated any investigation on his part. The computer was gone too, which confirmed what they’d thought – someone had gone through the apartment already. So any evidence that may have been there was long gone now.

  ‘Where’s Gracie’s mom?’ Flick asked, when the radio station switched to the weather and Eric turned the volume down.

  ‘At work, probably,’ Eric said, attempting to rub powdered sugar away from his thigh.

  ‘No,’ Flick smiled. ‘I meant, you said that you didn’t have a steady girl, but you have Gracie, and she’s so young—‘

  ‘You wanna know how I screwed up?’

  ‘I never said that. I’m curious,’ Flick said. ‘You didn’t love her? Was it a one night stand? Or one of you screwed around—‘

  ‘We’re better parents apart,’ Eric said, forgetting that the sugar was there.

  ‘You don’t sound convinced of that,’ Flick said, noting how static his usually animated expression had become.

  ‘Jocelyn is,’ he said. ‘She’s a great mom, the best.’

  ‘You like being a dad?’

  ‘You should see Gracie when I walk in the room, man. She gets all excited and starts squealing. It’s a buzz, and it takes forever to calm her down, she just...’

  ‘Worships you,’ Flick said, feeling the burn in her cheeks from the stretch of her smile. ‘I’d love to meet her.’

  ‘I don’t think Rushe would like that,’ Eric said, back in his easy, relaxed state. ‘He looks at her like she’s an alien.’

  ‘Rushe has met her?’

  ‘A couple of times,’ Eric nodded. ‘Just brief like. I’ve done some hardware for him in the past. Gracie comes to the shop when I’ve got her.’

  Flick tried to picture her lover doing business while a two year old weaved in and out of his ankles. She could imagine how uncomfortable that would make him, but it made Flick laugh.

  ‘Do you want kids?’ Eric asked.

  ‘Not me.’

  ‘I’ve never seen Rushe like that, like he was with you in Hutten’s place yesterday. You’ve got him by the balls.’

  ‘You sound happy about that,’ Flick said.

  ‘Well yeah, but not in a bad way. That guy is too uptight, he needs to chill out.’

  ‘Would you say that to his face?’

  ‘Not a chance,’ Eric said, flashing her a smile.

  ‘Have you heard from Scott?’ Scott was Eric’s colleague, the second man to hire Rushe for the last job.

  ‘Not recently,’ Eric said. ‘Don’t expect to for a while. Losing Susie changed him. I think he’ll need time to get over it.’

  ‘Getting over something like that doesn’t seem likely.’

  ‘He’ll make it, or he won’t,’ Eric said.

  ‘Turn up here,’ Flick said, knowing that the GPS would direct Eric to the front of the Hughes mansion.

  ‘Is there a back entrance?’

  ‘You’re not coming in,’ Flick said, pointing ahead. ‘Pull up there.’

  Eric did as she directed and put the vehicle in park. ‘You said to Rushe I was going to look after you.’

  ‘If I walk into that house with a guy like you only a few days after leaving it with a guy like Rushe, then my mother will have a heart attack... I want you to find that girl, the motel receptionist, just like we talked about.’

  ‘I thought we were abandoning the idea of building a legitimate case.’

  Flick shook her head and reached into the back seat to snatch her jacket. ‘We don’t know how this will play out, so I’m not ready to give up on anything yet. It will take you the rest of the day to drive to that motel in Maine. Find out if anyone has approached or tried to influence her.’

  ‘You’re gonna go in there alone? Antoine’s in there.’

  ‘So is half my family, and a dozen phones,’ Flick said. ‘He doesn’t do the hard work, he wouldn’t physically hurt me. I’m here to have a conversation.’

  ‘I’ll find the girl and get her to back up your story.’

  ‘Good,’ Flick said, and went for the door.

  ‘Do you know what you’re going to say to him?’

  ‘Antoine, yeah,’ Flick said, curling her fingers around the plastic handle. ‘Hayden, not so much.’

  ‘Hayden? The guy you were dating when you met Rushe?’

  ‘I wasn’t dating him,’ Flick said. She stood him up, twice, but it wasn’t deliberate. ‘I’m going to call him, because he saw Rushe and me together after that night, after Victor and the others died. I introduced Rushe as my boyfriend and told him that Rushe had saved me, so Hayden can back us up.’

  ‘Rushe ok with that?’

  ‘Rushe trusts me. Don’t make me regret trusting you.’

  She left the car and retrieved her bag from the trunk. Eric remained in the same spot and watched her walk down the sidewalk to the alley that led to the back gate of her parents’ house. He’d promised to watch her, and to his credit he did so until the very last second that she let him.

  Witnessing Antoine Mercier charm and disarm her family was sickening. From the moment she had come in to the house her mother, especially, made it clear that she was happy Flick hadn’t brought Rushe back.

  The last thing that Flick would want was for anyone to think that she was ashamed of her lover, because the only thing that kept him from her side right now was circumstance. But she wasn’t going to talk about him. In fact, she said very little to anyone during her time with the family.

  Flick quickly realised that it was going to be difficult to find time to talk to Antoine alone. The men didn’t actually join the women until dinner time, and then the air was filled with the banality of small talk. Being back here like this made Flick wonder how she’d lived this life, in this world, for so long.

  Nothing here mattered. It mattered to the people here, but when Flick thought of what she did with Rushe, of the life they lived together, this seemed to be so frivolous, sickeningly so.

  A few times throughout the meal she had seen Antoine watching her, and she knew that he had things to say to her. At least he would be open to the idea of them talking, which was the first hurdle to overcome.

  Vivian and Martin left early, but Lucia and her husband, Roger, hung around for longer. They had been waiting for Charles to finish a phone call, but they eventually gave up waiting and deci
ded to leave.

  Flick was unsettled by how her sister’s gaze lingered on Antoine, who seemed happy to receive the attention. When her mother went to see the couple off, Flick deliberately hung back in the hope that Antoine would do the same, and he did.

  So when the door to the drawing room closed, leaving them alone, she and Antoine turned in unison to face each other. ‘Your family is very welcoming,’ he said first.

  ‘Perhaps they wouldn’t be if they knew the truth of who you were,’ Flick said. ‘And what you and your family do for fun.’

  ‘You know nothing of my family,’ Antoine smirked. ‘Not as I know yours... your sister Lucia is especially friendly.’

  The European slunk around her and moved back into the body of the room, leaving Flick with a chill. He’d worn such a smug leer that there was no way Flick could doubt his intimacy with Lucia, she just didn’t know how far it went.

  ‘Isn’t that a risk?’ Flick said, trying to maintain her mask and not show how this news disturbed her. ‘If my father finds out you’ve been trying to seduce his daughter—‘

  ‘Your father cares much less about his family than he does about his business.’ Antoine picked up the rim of his wine glass and took it to his lips.

  ‘Something you can identify with, I’m sure,’ Flick said.

  ‘You came here to confirm your family’s welfare, did you not?’

  ‘Yes,’ Flick said, sauntering toward him.

  ‘They are healthy, and they will continue to be while you and your master work for us.’

  Flick knew that referencing Rushe as her master was meant to belittle her, but she’d never feel disrespected in that role. ‘And if we choose not to?’

  Antoine lowered the glass to his side. ‘You have delivered yourself to me for punishment?’

  ‘I am here to tell you that I have no intention of betraying Rushe.’

  ‘You could have told my cousin that,’ Antoine said. ‘When she came for you.’

  ‘And trap myself with her?’ Flick said. ‘No. I came here to tell you. I’m smart enough to know that Simone is only running your errands, just as you run your uncle’s.’

  Antoine put his glass down after another sip. ‘Do you think that we will accept your refusal without consequence?’

  Flick made herself move in closer until they were only a foot apart. ‘This is about good old-fashioned revenge. Dress it up anyway that you like, but that’s what it comes down to. You don’t like Rushe, and he’s not intimidated by you.’

  ‘No, he is not.’

  ‘You want him off the streets so that he can’t interfere in your operations again. This is about punishing the man who put one over on you. But you cannot take on Rushe. He’s trumped you once, and he’ll do it again.’

  ‘We do not need to take him on,’ Antoine said, wearing that smirk again. ‘We have Serendipity. All we need to do is dispense with you. He will be neutralised when you comply.’

  ‘I will never stand up against him.’

  ‘Then you will lose your life. We will not allow you to further derail our plans.’

  ‘Do you think that killing me will make Rushe easier to deal with?’ Flick said, trying not to laugh while making no secret of her amusement. ‘Others have tried that before...’

  ‘I am not deterred by your present defiance. I believe that you can be persuaded.’

  ‘Can I?’ she asked, sneering as she looked him up and down.

  ‘Oui,’ Antoine said. ‘You are a sensible girl, Felicity, despite your tendency to talk too much. What will your death achieve for your cause?’

  ‘Do you think you can logic me into rolling over on the man I love?’

  ‘You are risking yourself for a man who does not reciprocate your love.’

  ‘Simone has tried that line with me already,’ she said.

  ‘We have heard how distant you are from your lover, how Rushe shuns you in that place. And now you are here, departed from him.’

  So news of the tension between her and Rushe in the brothel had travelled back to the Mercier family. ‘It’s nothing,’ Flick said, turning away from Antoine to get away from the nauseating scent of his cologne. ‘You have spies?’

  ‘We know everything,’ Antoine said. ‘We know where your lover is, we know how he spends time with other women in that place. How he favours young Tawny.’

  Flick wasn’t about to tell Antoine that she and Rushe had actually mended the rift that had threatened to form. ‘My relationship is my business.’

  ‘You will die for a man who makes love to other women? Even when you are in that place, when you are in his bed, he chooses to seek pleasure with other women.’

  When Antoine’s form loomed up behind her, Flick’s eyes closed. The proximity made her want to lash out, to scream and injure the man causing the threat to Rushe. She might know that Rushe had never been intimate with the women at Silver’s place. But whoever was reporting back obviously didn’t know that.

  If they knew that Rushe spent time with Tawny, or had heard about him spending time with her before, then it stood to reason that the mole would assume that there was sex involved.

  ‘He does not want you, ma chère,’ Antoine said, lowering his volume. ‘My cousin was right, Rushe toys with you for his own amusement. He is not a man to be faithful, and he is not a man to value your life more than his own.’

  Flick knew different. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘I think I do,’ Antoine said. His fingertips touched her shoulder blade, making Flick flinch. But she didn’t move when he lifted a slice of her hair and smoothed it between his fingers. ‘You enjoy the danger, and you are overwhelmed by a man with such power. I see how you grew up here and see in you that spirit which craves more.’

  ‘There must be something else,’ Flick said. ‘Something else that you want from us. Killing us gets you nothing.’

  Antoine said nothing but continued to hold her hair. He lifted it higher, and she heard him inhale. The act made a quiver of disgust fire through her, but she remained in place. ‘An alternative offer,’ he said. ‘Actually, you could be more useful than we had initially anticipated.’

  ‘Me?’ Flick asked, tipping her chin toward her shoulder. ‘You think that I could be of use to you?’

  This news actually excited her, because it gave her hope that she could somehow save herself and Rushe from the tyranny of this family. On turning, she found her body uncomfortably close to his but she wouldn’t cower, wouldn’t let him gain the upper hand or see her tremble.

  ‘Rushe cannot be satisfied with a woman like you, you know this, don’t you?’ Antoine asked. ‘Since your relationship is doomed, perhaps if you would be willing to sacrifice it…’

  ‘You want me to leave him?’ Flick asked, unsure how this tied into what the Merciers could want from her. ‘Why?’

  ‘You have influence,’ Antoine said. ‘Here.’

  ‘Here?’ she asked, frowning at her parents’ drawing room. ‘I don’t understand.’

  Antoine took half a step back to lift his head and look around the room. ‘Your family has great influence, power, and connections in this part of the world that could be very useful to me. But our business interests are not sustainable as they stand.’

  That snap of horror in her spine must have registered to him, but he maintained eye contact, searching her for further reaction. ‘My family?’

  ‘Spending this time with them has shown me just how they value the material. Your father, your brothers in-law, they are... pliable.’

  ‘You want to corrupt my family? Annex them into your criminal empire?’

  ‘You flatter me. Empire is quite a goal,’ Antoine said. ‘I could have sustained interests here. Our families could collaborate.’

  ‘So put it to them,’ Flick said, hoping that he would. ‘Go and tell my father that you want to involve him in the trade of human cargo.’

  Antoine laughed and Flick actually shrank back, surprised by his reaction. �
�We would not do that. We are still trying to fulfil our potential. Not all of our business is illegal, it is important to maintain a respectable facade.’

  ‘Which my family can provide,’ she said. ‘You want to use my family’s credibility, maybe their money, and their network, to give you cover for further disreputable deals?’

  It wouldn’t be the first time that Flick had heard of society closing ranks to protect one of their own. If they wanted to support a cohort, then they had the money and the influence in many spheres to do just that.

  ‘Once this deal is completed, it will be difficult to maintain this level of intimacy with your family, unless I have a personal connection. You may be useful,’ Antoine said, returning his solemn expression to her.

  ‘Me? I know nothing about the business. I don’t have the connections to—‘

  ‘No,’ Antoine said, closing in on her again. ‘You don’t, but you do provide a link to your family; a reason that they would want to be generous with their advantages.’

  ‘I don’t—‘

  ‘You could provide us the perfect cover,’ he said. ‘You are an embarrassment to them, Felicity. Your name is not mentioned, here or in any of their circles. They are ashamed of you and your rebellion against the privilege they offer.’

  ‘My relationship with my family is not your concern.’ Flick knew that what he said was true, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear it aloud.

  ‘You have gallivanted long enough, and your family would very much appreciate you returning here.’ She remained silent. ‘You cannot be naive to my suggestion,’ Antoine said. But she was, until his hand rose and he brushed the back of his finger down her cheek. ‘Your family would be very grateful to the man who brought you back and kept you in line.’

  The clamp of revulsion trapped her lungs inside her ribs and compressed them until she had to gasp for oxygen. ‘You want me to... you want to use me?’

  ‘If we form a romantic union, we could make an excellent team.’

  ‘No,’ she said, slapping his hand away from her face and backing away from him. ‘I wouldn’t have you near me.’