Chapter Nineteen
The sound reached me first, moans, groans and whimpers disrupting my mind’s darkness. I blinked. My lids rustled like sand over my eyes. The lights in the room were dimmed and for a moment, I couldn’t make out anything around me. My arms couldn’t move. My hands were fastened securely behind my back. My cheek peeled off a warm surface when I lifted my head.
I swung my legs around and managed to sit up groggily. My head throbbed with a dull ache, coupled by a sharp pain when I planted my foot on the plush carpeting. Then, the memories began to pour in. I recalled the attack, the escape, the trap snaring my ankle, those men catching up with me. I remembered my finger curling on the trigger and then...nothing.
My pulse drummed in my ears. I forced my eyes to work. I sat on a semicircular leather couch among a bed of embroidered pillows. Behind me, several similarly shaped sofas rose in four tiered levels. The ceiling arched into a softly illuminated cupola, decorated with frescoes copied from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.
Flanked by elegant curtains, an enormous television screen dazzled my eyes. The screen was dark, showing only the pause button. Before I could make sense of where I was, I heard the sound of a throat clearing next to me. I turned around and died inside.
“Don’t look so surprised.”
Red shared the couch with me. For a moment I contemplated the idea that we had both died and this meeting was taking place in hell. But then he cupped the back of my head and forced his lips on my mouth.
Terror rattled me to the core. Was this a nightmare? A flashback? A hallucination? I struggled in his arms, testing the duct tape binding my hands. It didn’t budge. I tried to shake off Red’s hold, but the harder I fought the harder he clutched me. His fingers dug into my scalp. His mouth became more aggressive.
I gagged when he forced my jaw opened and pushed his tongue into my mouth. I tried to hold back, but I couldn’t. I croaked. I gagged. Then I threw up all over him.
He slapped me so hard that I flew off the couch and landed against the wall. The room flickered before my eyes. A trickle of warmth dripped from my nose. Blood. It was true. The monster that inhabited my nightmares had returned.
“See what you made me do?” He dropped the remote on the couch and, wrinkling his nose, wiped the vomit from his shirt. “Here I was, enjoying our sweet reunion and off you go, acting up like a shithead. You deserved that, wouldn’t you agree?”
Nobody deserved to be beaten, enslaved and abused. Nobody. But saying so would only provoke Red into more violence. I was trapped and bound and I didn’t expect to live very long. I huddled against the wall and I swallowed my rebuke.
Red called out. Someone scurried into the theater room and cleaned up the mess. My field of view narrowed on Red’s sleek loafers as he came to stand next to me. I expected his foot to crash against my face anytime now. Instead, he drew a monogrammed handkerchief from his pocket, knelt beside me and, tilting my head back, pressed it against my nose.
“Querida...” He blotted the blood from my nostrils. “You’re such a reckless bitch. You beg for violence. All those years trying to tame you seem like such a waste. I rescued you from the jungle. Remember? I protected you. I gave you the best of everything. Tell me, Rose, why did you betray me? Why did you run?”
Red’s skewed version of my story stung. I stared at him, unable to connect with his faulty reasoning. Was I stuck in The Twilight Zone? Did he really believe all of those lies?
He picked me up from the ground and settled me on the sofa. I hated the way he arranged me on the cushions, as if I was his rag doll and he could pose me in any way he wished. He took off his dirty shirt and loomed above me, the large, imposing, barrel-chested bear of a man I remembered. He scratched his belly, ruffling the dark line of hair dipping into his pants, inspecting me with his black eyes.
“You look good,” he said. “You must be eating at least occasionally these days.”
On second thought, since I’d last seen him in Las Vegas, his belly had expanded and so had his waist. A few platinum strands streaked his black hair and mixed with his chest’s dark, coarse curls. The years had deepened the lines on his face. He looked older.
“You’ve got a glow about you.” His nostrils quivered like a predator sniffing for game. “I’m going to enjoy getting reacquainted with this version of you.”
The chills that rattled my body shattered my composure. I pulled on the duct tape binding my hands in outright desperation. I truly wanted to die.
An attendant came into the room and offered him a clean shirt. He put his arms into the sleeves and pulled it over his shoulders.
“Don’t worry.” He reached out and caressed my face. “I’ll give you what you want, very soon, querida. You won’t have to wait long.” He buttoned his shirt. “But before we get to that, we’ve got a few things to talk about.”
Talk about?
“Just kill me.” I lost it. “Just be done with it and kill me.”
His elegant eyebrows rose in surprise then curved in mock resignation. “My poor Rose.” He ran his knuckles over my cheek. “So soft you are, so pretty and delicate, inside and out. How could you possibly think that I’d want to kill you? I assure you, I want to work on our relationship. The judge will understand.”
“No judge in the world would ever believe anything you said,” I spat out in defiance.
“You’re mistaken, querida.” He flashed his bone-chilling smirk. “The federal judge who is expecting your testimony has been presented with extensive documentation detailing your lifelong mental health issues. Several experts will testify that you suffer from depression, paranoia and acute anxiety disorder. They’ll detail the severity of your eating disorder over the years, your propensity to hurt yourself and your suicidal behavior.”
I could barely get the words through my throat. “Suicidal behavior?”
“Just a little while ago one of my men had to sneak behind you and knock you unconscious to prevent you from shooting yourself,” he said. “What do you think the judge will say when all of that evidence is presented in court?”
Ice crusted over my spine. He was messing with my history and my mind. Red planned on taking me to that Brooklyn courthouse himself. He also planned to invalidate my testimony with a fabricated interpretation of the behaviors that his abuse had triggered in me. My story was so foul, so cruel, violent and vicious, that most people would find it hard to believe.
It was a brilliant strategy on his part, one I’d failed to anticipate, though it was exactly the kind of twisted scheme he favored. Worse, it could very well succeed. He’d use the force of his personality to charm both judge and jury. He’d conceal his vile nature behind his good looks and put on a show. He’d have tons of paid witnesses, whereas I’d have no one to corroborate my story. He’d expose all of my weaknesses while I’d have no way to show any of my strengths.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “The judge will dismiss the charges against me. I’ll be a free man. After that, we’ll pop over to family court, where my attorneys have already initiated the legal proceedings. Soon, you’ll be declared mentally impaired and legally incompetent. You’ll become my ward.”
Oh, my God. Was it possible? Was I still married to Red?
“So you see, querida,” he added, flashing his self-satisfying smirk. “I plan on taking care of you for the rest of your life.”
He meant it. He wasn’t going to kill me. He planned on keeping me for his use for as long as I lived. Steiner hadn’t delivered on his promise to annul the marriage and Red would be my caretaker for the rest of my life.
I started to hyperventilate. I couldn’t find my breath. Steady. Cope. Breathe. Okay, forget the rest, just breathe. Breathe.
I forced myself to wade through the panic. You’re still alive. Ash’s words echoed in my mind. You’re still in the fight. Focus. I had to get out of this place. But how could I escape Red in my present circumstances?
I recalled everything I knew about Red. He was smart, ruthless and violent, but he also loved the sound of his voice and enjoyed boasting and singing his own praises. After murder, gloating was his favorite hobby. He was a narcissist and stroking his ego always worked. He’d always craved my submission.
Did he still want it?
The attendant cleaning up opened the door as he left. I caught a glimpse of the balcony beyond the doors of the state-of-the-art theater room. I spotted mountains, a golf course and ski runs before the doors closed. I recognized those mountains. We were somewhere in the ski resort, not far from town, in one of the multimillion dollar homes that overlooked the resort’s best views. If I could manage to find my way out of the house, I might be able to run.
“Are you following what I’m saying?” Red plopped down next to me and perched his arm over my shoulder. “Do you understand how things will work from now on?”
I swallowed my pride and nodded.
“Good.” He drew me to him. “When this is done, we’ll have a second honeymoon at Hacienda Dorada. We haven’t been there in a long while. It’ll be good to rekindle our memories. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
I forced the word through my lips. “Yes.”
Red prodded me with a look. “Sí, what?”
“Sí, mi amor.”
“Better.” He patted my head as if I was a child or a dog. “You’ll be back to normal in no time. But before we go on, there’s the small matter of the flash drive you stole from the Miami house.” His stare and his voice hardened. “Where is it?”
“I... I don’t have it.”
“Now, Rose.” His fingers toyed with my neck’s fragile vertebrae. “Be reasonable. Don’t make me hurt you. Where is it?”
“I mean it,” I said. “I don’t have it.”
“It’s not at the cottage,” Red said. “The only reason why we didn’t destroy it outright was because we didn’t want to risk damaging the flash drive. But we tore the place apart. We looked, dear. We didn’t find it.”
His fingers tightened around my neck. My throat buckled beneath his grip. Dark spots flickered before my eyes. I couldn’t breathe.
“I need the flash drive back,” Red said. “You’ll give it to me or else—”
A buzzing interrupted his threats. In his pocket, his cell vibrated like an angry cricket. Red tore his glare away from my face. He looked at the number and took the call.
“Go ahead.”
I fixed my gaze to the floor, but I listened to the conversation while wrestling with the duct tape binding my hands.
“What do you mean, you haven’t found any stragglers?” Red barked into the cell. “Those sons of bitches scattered like frightened chickens. They have to be around. Bodies. You owe me some additional bodies. Are you sure you have control of the scene?”
Scattered? Thank God. If the guys had scattered, then they’d survived. I prayed hard that all of them had escaped. Ash had to be alive. He was skillful. He was resourceful. I clung to that hope, because if he was dead, then my life had no meaning whatsoever.
“Correct,” Red said on the phone. “No, I don’t want police sniffing around. If they come by, tell them you’re Feds. You’ve got those IDs I paid good money for. And keep looking for the thumb drive.”
So I hadn’t been out for that long. Red’s men were still at the cottage.
“I want to get out of this fucking place too,” Red spat into the line. “Notify the pilot. We’re New York-bound as soon as we’re done. Yes, I know you advised against coming here, but I don’t give a fuck. We can’t leave without the thumb drive.” His eyes fell on me. “We’ll find it. I guarantee it. No matter who has to bleed.”
God help me. I was short on time and long on terror. I worked on the bindings.
“I’ll deal with it personally,” Red said testily. “I don’t care about your risk management assessment.” He paused to listen. “I told you, I have to do it myself and yes, you moron, it means we do it here.” He paused again. “No, I won’t wait. You’ve got twenty minutes to get back here.” He hung up and let out a weary breath. “Risk assessment is such a cliché.”
I forced the word out of my throat. “H-how?”
“You want to know how I found you?” His lips turned up in a smirk. “How about a kiss, a real kiss from my obliging wife, in exchange for the juicy details?”
He was eager to negotiate with me again. I didn’t want to fall into the old pattern, but I saw no way around it. I leaned over, closed my eyes and, holding my breath, pressed my lips to his. He mauled me in return, scratching my skin with his beard’s coarse stubble.
The scent of him invaded my lungs, sweet cologne and spicy breath mints. My body cringed. My muscles bunched up. My lips smarted, but with that kiss, I made an important discovery: he still wanted me. It was sickening, but at least I had something to bargain with.
“What is it about you?” He dipped his nose in the crook of my neck and inhaled deeply. “Is it the way you smell? Is it the way you look at me with those huge Bambi eyes, as if daring me? Is it the way you move, like a thoroughbred filly, always in heat, craving the bit and the rider?”
He pushed my jacket over my shoulders and wrenched my shirt apart. Pop, pop, pop, the pearly snaps gave way one after the other. He perused me brazenly.
“What’s this?” He examined the obsidian charm at my throat. “Did I give you this?”
I gulped dryly. “No?”
With a brutal tug, he wrenched the pendant from my neck and threw it across the room, leaving me smarting with a bloody scrape on the side of my neck and a sense of total loss. I’d worn Wynona’s necklace for almost two years. It had always meant courage and freedom to me, but it had also come to mean love. It was Ash’s stone.
Red entwined his fingers into my hair and pulled my head back, until my neck was completely exposed. I flinched when his mouth landed on my body. His lips and tongue left a wet trail over my strained neck. His teeth nipped on my skin as he settled on a spot and suckled until it hurt.
I bit down on my lips. For all I knew, he could have been a vampire feeding on my terror. Horror quickened my breaths and left me panting at his mercy.
“I do like it when you do that,” he murmured hoarsely. “I like the way your chest heaves and your breasts strain against the cups of your bra.” His knuckles brushed against my rising and sinking breasts. “You look so tempting, querida. So seductive when you’re scared.”
His cold hand crawled beneath my bra and settled over my breast. His fingers cradled my flesh, toyed with my nipple and squeezed until it hurt. I straddled the edge of sanity, but I refused to scream or cry. That’s what he wanted. Instead, I fixed my eyes on the fresco on the cupola and tried to regulate my breathing. Cope and keep at it. The duct tape wasn’t yielding and I needed more information if I was going to escape.
When I spoke, my voice sounded even and flat, as if his touch had no impact on me whatsoever. “How did you dupe the monitoring device?”
“I’m still wearing it.” He stretched out his leg and, letting go of me, pulled up his fine trousers to show me.
It was such a relief to have his hands off my body. I slumped on the couch, covering myself as well as I could, glad that I’d managed to steer his attention away from me.
“Your friends forgot I’ve got access to resources they can only dream about,” he said. “The world’s foremost technology experts like their money and I pay top dollar. As far as the Feds are concerned, I’m still caged in my New York apartment. It was simply a matter of transferring the electronic signature from one device to another and presto, here I am.”
The signature transfer was probably the slight fluctuation that Will had detected, the one he and Ash had discussed. Ash had been right to be suspicious of the anomaly.
I probed deeper. “Did Steiner give me away?”
“I lost count of how many years Steiner spent trying to nail me,” Red said. “What a pathetic little man. He had no weakness, but he had no joys either, and nothing I could use to control him. Why would anyone want to live like that?” He shook his head. “I’ll admit he had some competencies. He did manage to get Adam out of Hacienda Dorada. But people on my payroll regularly sorted through his mail. That’s how I came to be in possession of this.”
He pulled a packet of Red Rush from his pocket. It had my handwriting on it. My will to live wavered.
“You didn’t like my new line of business?” he asked, tapping the fragrant packet against my nose. “Weren’t you impressed by my new venture? Why did you try to warn Steiner? What’s in it for you?”
“I’d explain it to you,” I said. “But you wouldn’t understand.”
“Watch your mouth.” He slapped me so hard that my cheek burned and my neck hurt from the whiplash. “See? You made me lose my temper again.”
I ground my teeth. If only my hands were free.
“You think I’m a bad man,” he said. “You think the world is black-and-white, that good and evil have clear distinctions. But the world is not simple, querida. In Colombia, I’m a national hero. I build schools, fund churches, feed thousands of poor families and sponsor great works of art. How’s that evil? Explain it to me. Come on, speak up. How can I be evil when I do so much good with my money?”
“You get people hooked on drugs,” I spat between clenched teeth. “Kids who can’t think of anything but their next fix. Men and women who get sick, overdose and die when they buy what you sell. You kill people for a living. You force others into lives of violence, dependence and misery. How’s that good?”
“Free will.” He pocketed the incense packet. “Supply and demand. It’s their choice to buy what I sell. I simply provide the product they want.”
“An illegal poison that destroys a person’s capacity to think.”
He scoffed. “Drugs have been used since the dawn of mankind. This moment in time is no different from, let’s say, Prohibition.”
“It’s not the same.”
“But it is,” he said. “Listen and learn, querida. When you met me, I was but a local warlord who couldn’t even speak good English. Look at me now. The world is changing again. Yesterday’s vice is today’s virtue. The unacceptable has become commonplace and complete acceptance is the only standard of morality.”
“Murder is murder.”
“I’m a businessman,” he said. “There are plenty of opportunities for legal business ahead. Uncle Sam likes his share and as long as he gets it, he’ll square off with us. People today prefer settlement to war. The drug lords of yesterday are today’s entrepreneurs and tomorrow’s senators and presidents. The voters are generous. I’m the tax base of the new economy.”
I shook my head, rejecting a world ruled by drug lords, murderers, sex traffickers, kidnappers and psychopaths whose crimes were ignored for the sake of the almighty dollar.
“I know what you’re going to say,” he said in his silken voice. “You had to warn Steiner in order to keep the Feds happy. But don’t worry.” He twirled a strand of my hair in his finger. “I have some ideas on how you’re going to redeem yourself. As to Steiner, he was incorruptible and he had good habits. He never gave us anything much.”
“Then how did you find us in Ohio, when you had Adam killed?”
“Ah, that.” He smiled, happy to torture me by showing off his competences. “Steiner’s assistant was very helpful with that. She also helped with his mail. Poor lady, she had a disabled son who needed pricey special care. I was the answer to her prayers. But she had to be careful. Steiner kept a tight watch on his staff.”
I remembered the truck running over Steiner. Tears came to my eyes. He’d been a difficult person, bitter, unfriendly and cold, but he’d died for me. I said a silent prayer for his soul. We’d never trusted him and yet he hadn’t betrayed us.
“No way you traced that package of Red Rush to the cottage,” I said.
My defiance stung him into the type of reply I needed. “You forget who you’re dealing with,” he said. “The postmark on the packet narrowed my geographical search and then, about three days ago, my technology associates discovered someone trying to hack into my devices.”
Three days ago? The timing seemed wrong. Will had hacked into Red’s devices weeks ago.
“My technology experts were able to track the hacker all the way back to his computer.” Red gloated. “He was quite good, but no match for my experts. e was quiThey hacked the hacker and were able to deliver his files to me.”
They had gotten into Will’s computer?
“There were some interesting files in the hacker’s computer,” Red said. “I found out, for example, that the Feds had set up a decoy safe house to try to nab me. So I stayed away from the trap. The info also told me this guy was for real. He knew stuff no one else knew.”
I tried to wrap my mind around that one. Nothing made sense. Why would Will have such sensitive information available in his computer?
“But it was one particular file that convinced me to expedite my plans,” Red said. “I can be patient. I was prepared to meet you at the courthouse. I can put up with a lot and, in your case, I have. But there are certain things that a man of principle can’t tolerate.”
A man of principle? Is that how Red saw himself?
“Watch.” Red grabbed the television’s remote and clicked on the screen.
The dark screen gave way to movement. The paused movie resumed. The theater room’s superb acoustic design enhanced the sounds, lusty groans, intimate moans and lots of whimpering. The clip was a grainy, single-angled compilation. It started with a man sitting on a bed. I couldn’t see his face, but he was commanding someone to get naked. A few moments later, a woman stepped into the screen, wearing nothing but a pair of panties. I didn’t recognize her until the man stripped her panties off, pulled her down on her knees and put his penis in her mouth.
My face ignited. I tried to look away, but Red clutched my chin and forced me to watch.
“You liked it, didn’t you?” Darkness ruled Red’s eyes. “You weren’t so eager when you were with me. You balked as if I put out rancid milk. But you sure seemed to like his come.”
Part of me was angry, mortified and humiliated. The smarter part of me was baffled. Think. My mind traveled back to that night. I recalled how Ash had set the laptop aside on the night table. The lid had been opened. The camera had been pointing in the direction of the bed. A game, that’s all it had been, therapy. Had Ash recorded our lovemaking on purpose? Why?
It struck me then. Red’s experts hadn’t hacked into Will’s computer. They’d hacked into Ash’s laptop instead.
I knew precisely what would come next on the TV screen: me, on all fours on the bed, while Ash took me from behind. My mouth open with soundless pleas, my body rattled with the pounding, my breasts flailed with the force of Ash’s strokes.
“You cried when your lawfully wedded husband did that to you,” Red said. “What was it he gave you that I couldn’t?”
Love, friendship, trust, encouragement, empowerment, confidence, pleasure...the gifts were too many to list. But these notions didn’t fit in with Red. He favored pain and anguish.
To be fair, the clip on the screen showed no evidence of the tenderness and affection that had defined my game with Ash. It featured none of the kinder words he’d had for me, or his therapeutic approach, or the earnest ways in which he’d pleasured me.
The clip had been edited to show only selected parts and to eliminate any semblance of tenderness between us. The man on the screen was forceful and commanding. The woman was lewd and obscene. And yet there was something fascinating about the way he claimed possession of her body and the way in which she granted him tenure.
“You’re mine,” Ash said. “Say it. Who do you belong to?”
“You,” I rasped. “You!”
I squirmed. I’d pay for this. It was very possible that, despite Red’s intentions to deliver me to that courthouse, the end of the clip would coincide with the end of my life.
Red’s stare was glued to the screen. White droplets of saliva pooled at the corners of his mouth. He was furious, I could tell, but his crotch bulged with the shape of his erection and his body was abuzz with arousal.
I scrambled to make sense of my situation. A crazy idea began to coalesce in the back of my mind, too reckless to be rational, too calculated not to be logical.
“The most effective defense is an intelligent attack,” Ash’s voice echoed in my mind. “Most fights are better fought sooner, rather than later. If all the intelligence suggests that an attack is coming, then it’s coming. I’d rather fight on my own terms and turf, than when it suits the other guy best.”
Had Ash baited Red’s technology experts by making them think that he—not Will—was trying to hack into Red’s computer? Had he lured them into his files only to give them access to the clip he knew would provoke Red into action?
It was inconceivable, dangerous, daring. It was the kind of complex, intricate strategy that only a highly confident, top-notch professional with extensive combat and intelligence experience would consider, someone trained in the harshest and most hostile environments in the world, someone exactly like... Ash.
But if Ash had gone to all the trouble to bait Red—in the only possible way that Red could be baited—why then had Red’s attack on the cottage succeeded? Ash was skilled, careful and calculating. He understood Red’s capabilities. Where had he gone wrong?
The clip ended. The screen went suddenly dark. I could smell the fetid rage puffing from Red’s pores. He turned to me. I braced for a hit. Instead, he put his hands on my shoulders and planted a chaste kiss my forehead.
“See what happens when you go out into the world without me?” He drew my stiff body into his embrace. “You’re weak, Rose. I’ve always known that, since the first time I saw you across the fire, trembling in fear. You’re fragile. You need me. You must be supervised, trained and disciplined in order to achieve your potential.”
Was that really how he saw me? No, this was the rationale he used to justify his dark cravings. I wasn’t nearly as weak as he thought I was.
“This really upsets me.” He shook the remote in the direction of the screen. “I feel as if I’ve shirked my responsibilities, as if I failed you and let your father down.”
I swallowed a full-blown sob. “You killed my father.”
“One thing doesn’t belay the other,” he said as if his twisted logic made perfect sense. “I should’ve kept better track of you. I should’ve been tougher on you, stricter. I should’ve found you earlier, before you trespassed on our vows.”
“I never swore you anything.”
“But you signed the papers, remember?”
“You made me.”
“Rosa, Rosita.” He caressed my hair. “I know what’s best for you. I also know you missed me a lot. This video? It’s not your fault. That jackass took advantage of my absence and your weakness. He wanted to take my place. He thought he could own you like I do. That’s not something I can tolerate.”
I stared at Red, horrified by the depths of his delusions.
“What he did to you?” Red ran a finger down the center of my body, along the line of my undone buttons. “That’s what I’m going to do to you. Only better. Oh, yeah, so much better—”
A knock on the door interrupted his lust fest. I let out the breath I’d been holding.
Red adjusted my shirt and buttoned up a couple of snaps before he yelled. “Come in.”
The door opened and a group of four men came in, carrying a bundle between them. Red got up from the couch and watched as the men placed their load on the ground and left without making eye contact.
Another man came into the room, a tall, droopy-eyed fellow with a luxurious head of blond hair, dressed casually in a leather jacket, but with a weapon clearly bulging from his holster. I recognized him right away. His name was Samuel, and he’d been third in command when I escaped Red. I guessed he’d moved up in the ranks since.
“Boss,” Samuel said tentatively. “This might not be the best time for this sort of thing. We need to get back to New York before the Feds notice.”
In a blink, Red had Samuel by the throat and against the wall. “Don’t ever presume to tell me what to do. You work for me. My buck pays for that spurt of piss that just wet your pants. Understand?”
“Sure, boss,” Samuel croaked.
Red released his grip and gestured with his chin to the bundle on the floor. “Get to it.”
Samuel straightened his collar, cleared his throat and pulled out a knife. He cut off the ropes and rolled out the tarp. A beaten-up body tumbled out, covered in blood and torn clothing. Samuel prodded him with the tip of his boot. After a harsh poke the man gulped in air and broke into a coughing fit.
I tried to make out the face beneath the crust of blood. His eyelids fluttered, and all of a sudden, the blue eyes that had pierced through my life’s darkness fastened on Red like a pair of laser range finders.
No, no, no, a voice keened hysterically in my mind. My heart dropped into a bottomless canyon. The broken man sprawled at Red’s feet was Ash.