Chapter Three
Salvatore
My second meeting with Mara was in the backroom of a seedy bar two towns over. We weren’t alone, but she insisted that no one who knew her father would deign to visit a honky-tonk bar like the one she’d picked for our meeting.
From somewhere at the front of the bar, country music blared from a jukebox. We were nowhere near , so that place was about as artificial as you could get.
Mara sat across from me in a plunging black top and jeans that looked like they’d been painted on her body. Her boots were that over-the-knee kind I’d only ever seen on strippers, and I couldn’t keep my mind from picturing Mara wearing nothing but them.
She moved her stool over closer to mine. After she hopped up on it, I could tell that Mara could lean over from where she was and whisper in my ear. It meant no one could hear our conversation.
“I don’t want you to take me at home.” I could feel her warm breath on my ear and it sent a shiver down my spine. The electric sensation hit my cock, and I had to adjust myself. Fortunately, Mara didn’t seem to notice, and if she did, she didn’t say anything.
“You’re changing the plan.”
“Yeah, but this will make it easier,” she said with a smile. “I’ve come up with a safer way to carry out our plan.”
“Your plan,” I corrected.
“Okay. Whatever, man. Just hear me out.”
Mara proceeded to tell me about the party she and a friend were throwing on the friend’s yacht. I sat and listened, and after a few minutes, I realized that the scheme made sense. If her father was in the , the house would be well-guarded, but if she and her friend were planning a secret yacht party, it would be much easier to abduct her.
“What about the money?” I asked when she finished.
“So, you’ll do this, then?” she asked and then bit her lip expectantly.
“As long as you pay the deposit,” I resigned.
“Let’s go,” she said and stood up.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I didn’t bring the cash here with me. I’m not that stupid. We’ll have to go get it. Come on. We’ll take your car, just in case daddy is tracking me,” Mara said and took me by the hand to lead me out of the bar.
“Honey, the kind of people who are tracking me, it would be much better if your daddy caught us.”
“No, honey,” she said with utter contempt, and I could tell that me calling her honey had gotten under her skin. “It wouldn’t. Let’s talk on the way. We’re attracting attention here.”
She was right. Heads had begun to swivel our direction, so I let her lead me out of the bar. What she didn’t realize was that would be the last time I ever let her lead me anywhere. Once the deal was sealed and I had her money, Mara would learn to submit to my commands or I’d turn her over to the police myself. If everything about this job didn’t go right, I’d have no other option than jail or witness protection anyway.
She gave me directions to a place in the industrial district. “Where exactly are we going?”
“I gave you directions,” she snapped.
“I know that, bitch. What kind of place is it.” God, I’d grown tired of her insufferable attitude.
She punched me in the leg, but it didn’t hurt. Still, it took all of my strength not to backhand her. I’d never liked hurting women, but Mara made me want to break something.
“It’s the warehouse I use to sell stuff. I figure if he hasn’t caught me yet, it’s safe from my father’s sphere of influence,” she said.
When we arrived, she pulled what looked like a garage door opener from her purse and opened one of the massive bay doors. “I’m not pulling my car in there,” I said. “I still don’t trust you.”
“Well, you can’t leave your car out here. Pull in fast.” There was something in the urgency of her voice that I decided to listen to instead of arguing more. I knew her family had to be mafia, and I wondered if her father didn’t know about this place because it was in a rival family’s territory. Great.
She closed the door behind my car and I got out. We were in a narrow parking area that contained nothing but a door. “Follow me,” Mara said and she used a key to open that door.
Once we were on the other side, she flipped on a light. It was a dimly-lit hallway with another door on the other end. She bolted the door we’d come through shut.
She had to use a different key to unlock the door on the other end. Her security was severely lacking, but I was still impressed by her attempts to keep the place locked down. Mara wasn’t stupid.
We crossed the second threshold and she bolted that door behind us as well. “The money’s here,” Mara said as she flipped on the lights. “I think you should stay here until the abduction. You’ll be more than comfortable, and I want you off the map until the big day. I’ll get a ride back to the bar from one of my associates. I have people outside of my father’s influence who do me favors.”
“You want me to be your prisoner until I kidnap you,” I said.
“Don’t think of it like that. You’re just laying low. You said yourself that people are after you. I’m going to assume you already have everything in place for my kidnapping. You have a location ready? Someplace not associated with your old work?”
“I do. I have a place.”
It was a place that I’d never wanted to involve in work. The remote cabin was supposed to be my retirement home. It was supposed to be my little paradise where I could go when I’d finally had enough of my life and wanted to disappear.
That was not meant to be. It would be my last stop before I fled the country forever. It was either that or die. I was probably lucky that I’d survived as long as I had.
“Great, I’ll get you your deposit,” Mara said.
She went to another door on the other side of the room and unlocked it. Mara threw me a glance that said don’t even try to follow me and disappeared through the door.
Mara returned moments later with a black backpack over her shoulder. It made a loud clank and thump when she set it down.
“What is that?” I asked.
“It’s half your payment. Gold bars. It’s heavy,” she said.
“Gold bars?”
“Yeah, do you know how much cash that would be? Movies where they have a million dollars in a duffle bag are not realistic,” she said with a haughty laugh. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be able to find an enthusiastic buyer when you want to trade them in.”
She was right. Gold wasn’t a hard sell, but how was I going to get out of the country with them?
“I have a friend,” she said, as if she could read my mind. “He’ll get you anywhere you want to go.”
“How do I know I can trust you or your friend?”
“What choice do you have?”
I didn’t have much choice. She had me there, but I didn’t like any of it. I hadn’t stayed alive as long as I had letting other people run the show the way Mara did.
“I appreciate the thought you’ve put into all of this,” I said, “but you need to sit down and let me run this show. I do things my way.”
“You sound like a child throwing a tantrum,” Mara said. “It’s not like you’ve proposed any better ideas. I think you’re desperate, and you need this money. On the other hand, I don’t need you. I could easily find someone else who would probably do the job for half what you’re charging me.”
“You know what, I think you should find someone else. I’m not in the mood for this shit. I’ll get the money another way,” I said and turned to unbolt the door.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Mara said, and all of the sugar-sweet artifice that she maintained most of the time had slipped away. Something dark and sinister had come to the surface.
“Oh yeah?” I knew better than to play anything into her hand.
“Yep. I’ve done a little research on you. I know who you are. I know who is looking for you.” The threat was there just under the surface.
If I didn’t do the job, she’d turn me over to the men looking to kill me. Alarm bells were going off in my head. I’d let desperation blind me to the fact that I had walked into a trap. Hell, in the end, Mara wouldn’t even have to pay me. I’d be lucky to get out of this situation alive.
“Fuck,” I said and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Fine. I’ll stay here, and we’ll do it your way.”
Mara gave me the address of where the yacht would be docked and told me what time to abduct her from the party. When she left, I looked around the warehouse. The area where I was hiding was a swanky apartment, and I had to admit that I’d spent time in worse places waiting for a job.
There was beer in the fridge and a big screen tv in the living area. Mara had an extensive collection of movies on demand, and there was a high-end laptop sitting on the mahogany coffee table. I assumed that it was fine for me to use it during my stay.
I used the computer to research the area where I was to kidnap Mara. I thought about the power play she’d made earlier, and I began to wonder if I had to abduct her for real to survive.