“He in bed, under the covers. He say, ‘come closer.’ I think he sick or something, so I go see what he wants. But he no sick. He naked. When he pull covers back, and I see, I start to run. But he grab me, and cover my mouth so I no scream. And he rape me. He pull down my panties, and force his way into me. I want to scream, but he no let me. I want to cry, but I too afraid. When he finishes, he pushes me away and take off condom. He say if I tell anybody, he will say I lie. He say he’s rich, and nobody believe me. But I know Mrs. Drakos, she will believe me. So I no go to my supervisor. I go straight to Mrs. Drakos. I know she will believe me.”
“And I do, Elena,” Kari made clear.
“What’s the room number?” Toker asked Kari.
“What room again, Elena?”
“4409,” Elena said. “I left him in there.”
Kari looked at Lee. “Do I phone the police,” she asked, “or you?”
“Wait just a minute there, Kari,” Toker said. “We will not be phoning any police,” he added.
But Kari frowned. “What are you talking about, Toke? We are absolutely calling the cops!”
“Kari, we cannot do that,” Toker made clear. “We will handle this in-house.”
“What do you mean in-house?” Kari asked. “A woman was just raped!”
“There will be a monetary settlement to your maid, of course,” Toker said.
“And what about her rapist?” Kari asked.
“He will be barred from ever coming to The Drakos Hotel and Casino again.”
“Barred?” Kari was floored. “And that’s it? We aren’t going to have his ass locked up?”
“He will be barred.”
“And free to go to another hotel and rape another innocent, defenseless maid? No way,” Kari said.
Toker whispered in Lee’s ear. “Get Mr. Drakos,” he said. “Now,” he added, with urgency.
Lee, knowing that Toker, not Mrs. Drakos, was her direct supervisor, made her way out of the office.
“We cannot call the police, Kari,” Toker said again. “I know you want to, but we cannot. That’s really out of the question.”
“Like hell,” Kari said and began walking behind her desk. When she picked up her desk phone, Toker spoke again.
“Mr. Drakos is being notified,” Toker said. He knew Alex was the only one who could tame Kari when she got on one of her positions. “We will let him make the decision.”
“Really? You sent her to get Alex? That’s what we’re doing now, Toke? I thought you respected me more than that.”
“I do respect you tremendously,” Toker said. “But I also know your husband and how he operates. I’ve worked for him for a long time.”
“And you think Alex is going to let this stand? Are you serious?”
Toker exhaled. “Yes,” he said with confidence.
Downstairs, Oz and Alex were still in conversation when Lee walked into the casino and began heading their way. Her tall elegance, and sleek body, not to mention her gorgeous face, immediately caught his attention. “Wow,” he said.
Alex looked too. And he nodded. “Yes, she is that.”
Oz looked at his brother. “You talk like you know her. Don’t tell me you’ve tapped that before, Alexio.”
“She’s my new hotel security chief,” Alex said. “And don’t be ridiculous.”
“Your new security chief?”
“For the hotel, yes.”
“Her? Get the fuck out of here! Her?”
“That’s right.”
Oz and Alex both watched Lee as she approached. Especially Oz. “Damn, Alexio,” he said. “Are you planning on being unfaithful to Karena? Is this why you hire her?”
Alex didn’t respond.
Oz looked at him. “I’ll break every bone in your body if you are unfaithful to Good Kari.”
Alex looked at him. “Don’t talk nonsense,” he said.
“Alex!”
Before Lee could make it to them, Bob Michaels had walked over. “I’m glad I caught you.”
“A conclusion?” Alex asked him.
“Yes. She’ll still perform.”
Alex smiled. “Good.”
“Her agent gave us some bullshit demands, like certain foods in her dressing room and stuff like that, but the big demands were squashed after you laid down the law.”
“Good. We start giving her special treatment, it will only open the flood gates.”
“Exactly,” said the Director.
“Excuse me, Mr. Drakos,” Lee said as soon as she arrived.
Alex looked at her.
“Mr. de Bergeron would like to see you in Mrs. Drakos’s office, sir,” she said.
“Okay,” Alex said, and he turned and continued talking with Bob.
Although Lee was terrified, she had a job to do. “Now, sir,” she said to Alex.
“Well damn!” Oz said to her, and grinned.
But Alex and his talent director turned to her as if she’d lost her mind.
“Now, sir,” she said again. “They, that is, Mr. De Bergeron and your wife, wishes to see you now.”
Oz and the director looked at Alex. Nobody, they knew, dared come at him that way. But Alex saw the urgency in Lee’s beautiful eyes.
“Talk to you later,” he said to Bob, and walked away.
Oz was surprised, as Lee hurried behind Alex. Bob, surprised too, leaned toward Oz. “He’s fucking her, right? Is that the reason?”
Oz was still staring at Lee. “Watch your mouth,” he said.
But then they both heard a commotion and looked behind them. And there were two grown men brawling at the blackjack table. They were brawling to the point that they had disrupted the game.
“In my house?” Oz said in his loud, booming voice.
When he stood up and saw what he thought he saw was actually taking place: that they were fighting in his casino, he hurried to them. “Not in my house!” he declared loudly.
With his cigar between his teeth, Oz grabbed one man and punched him so hard he fell out cold from that one hit.
Then Oz grabbed the second man and punched him equally hard, and knocked him out cold too.
“Where’s security?” Bob was demanding to know.
But Oz didn’t care. By the time Security made it over to where the brawl had taken place, both men were laid out and ready for removal.
“Get these bums out of here!” Oz ordered.
“Yes, sir,” said security and they grabbed up the two unconscious men.
The casino, especially those that had been playing at that blackjack table, began applauding Oz for his take-no-prisoners, quick action. “Bravo, bravo!” said a few of the men at the table.
Oz, loving it, grinned and bowed.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The doors to the private elevator closed, and Alex leaned against the back wall and watched Lee as they rode up to Kari’s office. Lee was so nervous all she could do was stare up at the numbers as they changed.
But when they arrived at the designated floor, and the doors opened, she was surprised when Alex stood at the door, and blocked her exit. Was he going to hit on her? Was that why he was staring so hard at her in the elevator? Was that why he had stopped her now? She was about to lose her job because she wasn’t about to go down that road with him.
But the look in his eyes made her wonder if she was reading him all wrong.
She was. Alex didn’t hit on her, he admonished her. “When I am speaking with someone,” he said to her, “you do not interrupt me.”
Lee’s heart dropped. She was about to be fired, alright, but not because of him hitting on her, but because of her own actions. She needed this job like she needed air to breath. She was having one of the hardest times in her whole life. Had she blown it already? Was he ready to fire her on her very first day? “Yes, sir,” she said.
“The only time you will interrupt me,” Alex added, “is if it is a dire emergency. Is that what this is?”
Lee realized what was happening. He w
anted to test her judgment. And she thought about it. A woman had been raped in his hotel. His wife wanted to call the police, but the GM was against it. She knew she had to own her decision to interrupt him. And, given the circumstances, she felt she could. “Yes, sir,” she said confidently. “This is a dire emergency.”
Alex stared at her. “In that case,” he said, “you did the right thing. But it had better be what you say it is.” And he walked off of the elevator.
Lee, feeling vindicated, at least momentarily, walked off too.
When Alex and Lee walked into Kari’s office, Elena was seated in a chair beside Kari’s desk, still wiping her eyes, while Kari sat on the front edge of her desk. Toker sat beside her. Both of them, and Elena too, stood to their feet when Alex walked in.
Alex immediately looked at Kari. “Is everything alright?” he asked her.
“Not really, no,” Kari said, still upset.
Alex glanced at Elena. She appeared upset too. He decided, then and there, that whatever happened concerned Kari’s purview of housekeeping, and Kari didn’t like whatever decision Toker had made. “Tell me,” he said.
“Elena, one of my maids,” Kari said, clarifying since she knew Alex didn’t know one maid from another one, “was raped.”
Alex had not expected to hear that. “Raped? Here?”
“Yes! In room 4409.”
“He’s still there?”
“No, sir,” Toker said. “I had Security check after I told Lee to go get you. He checked out already. He’s gone.”
“What’s the issue?” Alex asked, knowing both Kari and Toker very well.
“He doesn’t want to call the police, Alex,” Kari said. “A man just raped one of our employees, and Toker doesn’t want to phone the police. I told him that’s crazy!”
Alex opened his suit coat and placed his hands on his hips.
Kari expected him to leap to her defense. But he remained quiet.
“Alex?” she asked. “Did you just hear me? Elena was raped in your hotel today. And you have nothing to say?”
Alex looked at Elena. “I’m sorry what happened to you,” he said to her. She nodded. “It was wrong and it should not have happened. You will be compensated, that is, we will take care of you financially because it happened in my hotel under my watch. But you will have to sign an NDA.”
Kari was floored. “An NDA, Alex? Really?”
But Elena looked confused.
“An NDA, Elena,” Toker explained to her, “is a non-disclosure agreement. Once we pay you, that will be the end of it. You won’t be able to tell anybody about what happened to you, or even how much we paid you or if we paid you at all.”
Kari was shaking her head. “I don’t believe this. We’re going to silence her. We’re going to let that man get away with what he did to her. And you’re going along with this, Alex?” She looked at Alex as if she still couldn’t believe it.
But Alex looked at Elena. “Are you willing to sign such an agreement, Elena?” he asked her.
She nodded. “Yes, sir. Whatever you think is best, sir.”
Lee stared at Elena. She was on Kari’s side on this one. Because she knew that poor maid would have agreed to do whatever Alex told her to do. She was terrified of a man of Alex Drakos’s power and stature, just as Lee was.
But Toker and Alex seemed satisfied with their resolution. “Good,” Alex said. “I want you to go with Mr. de Bergeron. He will go over the details of the agreement with you,” Alex said.
“Do I no have a job no more?” Elena asked, looking at Kari.
Kari’s heart broke for Elena. “Yes, Elena, yes. You will always have a job here.”
But Elena looked at Alex. He wore the pants in that family, it was obvious even to her.
But, again, Alex remained noncommittal. “Mr. De Bergeron will discuss all of that with you,” he said. Which, Lee knew, meant they were going to pay her off, and be done with her.
“Right this way, Elena,” Toker said, smiling, and motioning with his open hand for her to come with him.
“Yes, sir,” Elena said, her hands folded over her lap, as she followed Toker, and Lee followed Toker, out of Kari’s office.
When the door closed, Kari didn’t say a word. She was too busy staring at Alex.
“We cannot call the police,” he said to her. “It will affect the hotel’s reputation, and I won’t have that.”
“That’s all that matters to you?” Kari asked. “The hotel’s reputation? A woman was just raped in this hotel, and all you care about is its’ reputation? What about what you said at your club yesterday, Alex? About standing up for the little guy?”
Then she shook her head, it was so unbelievable to her. Alex, the man she married, the man she thought she knew so well, was showing a side of himself she’d never seen before. It was all about the business. Really? He was more concerned about the hotel’s reputation than getting a rapist off the streets? She began walking out.
“Kari, listen to me,” Alex said, attempting to grab her by the arm, but she snatched away from him. “Kari!”
But she opened her office door and walked out without looking back. He hurried behind her. “Kari!” he yelled, as her staff of assistants, who had desks outside of her office, looked at him. And they also looked at the fact that their boss, Kari Drakos, was not even thinking about turning around.
Alex, realizing it, too, angrily slammed her office door behind him, and left.
Kari’s staff looked at each other and smiled. “Dark clouds in paradise,” one of them said.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Instead of going straight up to the penthouse, where she was originally headed, Kari went to room 4409 instead. She didn’t know why. A skilled rapist like she was willing to bet that man was didn’t go around leaving clues all over the place. Especially not in a hotel room. But she still had to go.
She used her master keycard to unlock the door. And then she entered. The maid hadn’t cleaned the room yet, since it was Elena’s room to clean and she took off as soon as that rapist let her go. And despite his threats, she went straight to Kari.
But Kari felt as if she failed Elena. She chose Alex over that poor woman’s misery. She chose Alex over doing the right thing herself and calling the police.
But when she went into the bedroom of that suite, and saw the disarray, she was stunned. Not that she was surprised. Elena put up a mighty struggle just as she should have. But what stunned Kari was that the man didn’t even clean up the mess before he checked out. He just left. Like he was just that bold and bad.
And when Kari pulled back the covers on the bed, and saw so many droplets of blood on the sheet, her heart sank. That was undoubtedly Elena’s blood. He didn’t just violate her, but he violated her in such a horrific way that he could have killed her had she not fought back.
And Kari pulled out her cell phone right then and there to call the cops. Fuck Alex! No woman should have to experience what Elena experienced and have it all dismissed with a little hush money as if her worth wasn’t that man’s worth.
But Kari had a problem, and she knew it as soon as she pulled out her cell phone. She couldn’t just fuck Alex. It wasn’t as easy as that. She’d never defied him before in their relationship, and she couldn’t defy him now. She trusted his judgment too deeply. She was totally devoted, and loyal, to Alex. If he said she couldn’t call the police, and involve them in his hotel, despite what happened, she wasn’t going to call.
Now she knew how Dezzamaine felt: torn between love and duty.
Kari, instead, left suite 4409, took the elevator to the penthouse. She hurried upstairs, to her bedroom. She wanted to soak in her tub. Because of her complicity, she, like Elena, felt dirty too.
Twenty minutes later, as Kari was still soaking in her tub in the master bathroom, Alex entered their master bedroom. For a brief moment, he saw her, through the massive mirror in the adjacent bathroom, and she saw him, through those same mirrors, enter their bedroom. She continued soaki
ng and drinking her wine, and he continued to the bed. He sat on its’ edge to wait on her. Tired, he laid back, his feet still touching the floor.
Before he could doze off, however, his cell phone rang. When he pulled it out, looked at his Caller ID, and saw that it was Hotel Security, he answered. It was Lee.
“What do you have?” he asked her.
“His name is Oscar Milner. He’s a very wealthy owner of a chain of car dealerships in Pensacola.”
“Any priors?” Alex asked her. He could hear Kari finishing her bath and getting out of the tub.
“Although he was picked up and questioned numerous times in his youth regarding assaults on various females almost every single year for many years,” Lee said, “his very wealthy family always managed to get the charges dropped, or no charges filed at all. He has no priors, sir.”
“Where is he now?” Alex asked as Kari entered the bedroom with a towel around her body. “Back in Pensacola?”
“Yes, sir. Apparently, he planned to spend a weekend gambling at the new spot, your casino. But he changed his plans. I wonder why?”
“Yep. So do I. Text me his address.”
“Yes, sir,” Lee said, and Alex ended the call. And then he sat up.
“Feel better?” he asked Kari as she walked over to her lingerie drawer.
Kari was loyal to Alex, and completely devoted to him, but that didn’t mean she was going to pretend she wasn’t upset with him. She opened her lingerie drawer, and was about to pull out a pair of panties. But then Alex spoke words she thought she’d never hear him say. “I’m disappointed in you, Karena,” he said.
Kari dropped the underwear. She couldn’t believe what she’d heard. He was disappointed in her? She turned around and faced him. “What did you say?” she asked him.
“You heard what I said.”
Kari walked over to him and folded her arms. “One of our employees was raped. Raped, Alex, and you refuse to call the police and won’t let me call them. You refuse to do anything about it. But you’re disappointed in me?”
“We have a brand new business here, Karena,” he said. “And in business, your reputation is all you have. If this hotel’s rep gets sullied in any way, especially by some guest who doesn’t give a damn what they do, that’s a problem. It’s my job, and yours, too, to make sure it doesn’t become a problem.”
Alex Drakos: For My Lover Page 11
