Kari looked at Alex. What now, she wondered?
“What is it?” Alex asked.
“We just got word from City Hall that the mayor is pulling all permits.”
Alex frowned. “Pulling permits? What the fuck for?”
“They’re claiming there was voter fraud at the polls and that’s why the referendum passed.”
Kari looked at Alex. Jordan even looked up from texting on his cell phone too.
Matt continued: “They’re claiming unreported, hidden ballots were discovered in some trash can somewhere that had ‘no’ votes three times our margin of victory.”
“Bullshit,” Alex said.
“You know it and I know it! But Lonnie Wilder’s acting as if it’s a natural fact. We are not allowed to so much as crank up equipment on site. He’s shutting us down, Boss.”
Alex let out a harsh exhale. “Keep the men onsite,” he ordered. “I’ll take care of it.”
Kari, and now Jordan too, were staring at Alex. “Can Mayor Wilder pull a stunt like that?” Kari asked him after Alex ended the call.
“Yes,” Alex said as he turned into Jordan’s school. “Can he get away with a stunt like that?” Alex asked, and then answered his own question: “Hell no,” he said.
When they dropped Jordan off at Arapaho Middle School, Jordan got out of Alex’s car inwardly smiling. All eyes were on him, and he loved it! He had even text the girl he liked and told her Alex Drakos was driving him to school, and she was hanging around to see too. Jordan was a smart kid. He knew all of this attention was as fleeting as wind, but he wanted to milk it this time. Not for himself as much as for his mother. They were doubting Alex really wanted her. She wasn’t good enough to them. But what man would boldly show off a woman he really didn’t want? Since Jordan wouldn’t dream of doing it, he figured no man would do it. He got out of that car as slow as molasses oozing out of a jar, and he milked it.
But after he got out, and as Alex and Kari drove away, they had Mayor Lonnie Wilder and his out of nowhere scheme on their mind. They headed straight for City Hall.
CHAPTER TWELVE
As soon as Alex Drakos, with Kari behind him, walked into the mayor’s outer sanctum, his secretary stood up from behind her desk. “Mr. Drakos, sir,” she said. “Welcome to City Hall!”
“Is he in?” Alex asked without breaking his stride.
“Ah, yes, sir. But I’ll check and see if he’s available to see you at this moment.”
“No, you won’t,” Alex responded, and he and Kari, without knocking, walked straight into the mayor’s office.
Lonnie Wilder rose to his feet quickly when they walked in. He never dreamed Drakos himself would handle this! He figured he’d get an angry phone call or two from Drakos, and maybe a visit from his team of lawyers. But Drakos himself came? And he brought Kari Grant with him? The mayor realized how ill-prepared he was after making such a monumental decision.
“Mr. Drakos,” he said with a big smile on his face. “I’m surprised to see you here this morning.”
If he expected a glad-handed shake and a good ol’ boy smile from Alex, he was badly mistaken. Alex walked up to his desk and didn’t mince words. “What the fuck is going on, Lonnie?” he asked.
The mayor swallowed hard. Kari could see the sudden fear in his eyes. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said. “My people discovered some voting irregularities that we must correct before construction on your project can resume. We found thousands of ballots that had been voted in the negative, but that had been discarded somehow.”
“Discarded my ass!” Alex fired back. “That’s bullshit and you know it!” Then Alex left Kari’s side and made his way around the mayor’s desk.
The mayor watched his every move. “If you have an issue with my decision, you can take it up with the supervisor of elections, Alex,” he said nervously. “I’m only doing what I’m mandated to do. When irregularities are brought to my attention, I have no choice but to halt everything and investigate.”
But Alex was beyond listening to what he perceived as rehearsed bullshit. He needed answers. “Who talked you into it?” he asked.
The mayor smiled what Kari could only describe as a nervous smile. “Who talked me into what?”
“No,” Alex said, staring at the mayor. “I take that back. Who threatened you?” he asked instead.
The mayor stared at Alex. Would he protect him? “Who says anybody threatened me?”
“I say it,” Alex said. “Who?”
The mayor knew he was defeated. He knew he was between a rock and a hard place. And although Fleck and Brown were big deals around Apple Valley, they weren’t shit compared to Alex Drakos! But they weren’t legit businessmen like Drakos, either. They were dangerous thugs. “They think that casino you’re building will run them out of business,” he said.
“Run who out of business?” Kari asked.
The mayor looked at her as if she had some nerve asking him a question at all.
Alex already was annoyed with the way the mayor’s people positioned Kari at that groundbreaking ceremony when they put her and her friends all the way in the back of the crowd. He wasn’t letting him get away with another slight. “You heard her,” he said. “Answer her.”
The mayor swallowed hard again. “Cal Fleck and Josh Brown. They own Star Fleet.”
Alex frowned. “They own what?” he asked.
“Star Fleet,” said Kari. “It’s one of those cybercafes popular in Florida where people can go and gamble online. It’s very popular here in Apple Valley too.”
“They say if that casino gets built, they’ll be out of business that next day,” the mayor said. “They tried to get the votes to stop the referendum, but they failed to carry the day. When they realized the groundbreaking had arrived and that monster casino would soon be a reality, they panicked. And came to me.”
“When will you be announcing this voter irregularity bullshit to the public?” Alex asked.
“I’m issuing a directive at my press conference at noon,” the mayor said.
“Pull it,” said Alex.
“But I can’t,” said the mayor.
“Pull it,” Alex said again.
“But they’ll kill me if I don’t make that announcement!”
“And I won’t?” Alex looked at the mayor with a chill the mayor hadn’t seen in Alex before. “Pull it off of your agenda items for your press conference. Notify your people to stop pulling permits from my construction site. Notify your people to stop threatening my workers.”
“And what about Fleck and Brown?” the mayor asked.
“I’ll handle them,” said Alex. “You think I can’t?”
After receiving reassurances from the mayor that he would cancel his ill-advised move, and once out of City Hall completely, Alex called Jimmy Hines. He ordered him to get a man over to Star Fleet to clandestinely take some real-time video of the place, and then to upload it back to him. He also ordered Jimmy to send blueprints of the place to his car’s monitor. Alex’s company had a database filled with blueprints of every company in Apple Valley, for security reasons, and he was relying on that very expensive technology that morning.
But Kari wanted in too. She knew he worked alone, but she felt she could assist him somehow. Besides, after that scene yesterday, where she nearly lost her life, she had an outsized concern for his wellbeing too. “I’ll go with you when you go to see the owners of Star Fleet,” she said.
“Oh no you won’t,” Alex said with a smile, but very firmly as he opened his passenger car door for her. “I’m dropping you off at your office. You’ll stay there and work, under heavy security, while I go and see what these people are up to.”
“But I know how these local yahoos operate, Alex. Take me with you. I can help you.”
“And you will help me by going to your office. You’ll help me if I don’t have to worry about your ass in addition to my own. So, thank you for your offer, but no thanks. Now get in,” he ordered.
&
nbsp; Kari wasn’t accustomed to being ordered around by anybody, but she knew Alex had that domineering streak deep within him. He suppressed it most days. But some days, when it mattered, it surfaced like a sledgehammer that knocked her back in her place.
She and Alex were partners, and made a powerful team, except when it involved people who would do them harm.
In those situations, Kari understood an unspoken truth: that Alex’s rule was absolute.
She got in the car.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Star Fleet looked like a fleabag to Alex as he parked his Maybach behind the building and studied, on his car’s computer monitor, the blueprints and video his people had sent to him. There were no windows in the back of the rundown establishment, nor any security cameras, which was why he had parked back there, but the place, inside, was loaded with eyeballs.
He searched for that sweet spot. Every business had one. In this case, he wanted to figure out where the owners were hanging out to keep an eye on their customers. There wouldn’t be cameras there. They wouldn’t want their shadiness recorded.
His man onsite had already confirmed that the two owners had arrived at the establishment, but they went behind a curtain that led down a back hall. Alex’s man had no idea where exactly they were down that hall. Wherever they were, Alex knew, would be the sweet spot.
And he continued to searched for and eventually found that spot on the blueprints. In the back where he was parked, in the far-left corner. The only private office in the building. It had to have a dummy wall. And it did. It had an entrance from the side of the building: an entrance that looked like a wall.
He studied the real-time video first. From what he was being shown, there were two bodyguards inside the joint where the mostly middle-aged crowd were gambling that early in the morning, and one guard was out front. When Alex saw the layout, he phoned Jimmy Hines.
“I’m going in,” he said. “Make sure our men keep those bodyguards up front.”
“I’ll give the order, sir, for more men to go inside,” Jimmy said, and Alex ended the call.
Already armed, he got out of his car and made his way along the side of the building, where he knew the door masquerading as a wall was located. Since such walls were standard issue in safe houses he’d operated in his time, he knew exactly how to operate that one. He made sure nobody was around and then carefully felt his way around until he hit the spot, and it popped open like the door it actually was.
He entered what was the storage room of the building and peeped out of the room’s door. When he saw that the hall was clear, he made his way next door: to that office. He heard voices; two distinct voices that remained in line with what he expected. He wanted no surprises. He wanted to get in and get out. That was why he didn’t delay. As soon as he made it up to that door, he leaned back, and then kicked it open.
Cal Fleck and Josh Brown were the two men he heard in that office, and as soon as the door flew open, they both flew to their feet.
Josh Brown immediately grabbed his chair and threw it at Alex, which Alex knocked away, while Cal Fleck attempted to reach inside his desk drawer and retrieve his gun. That was when Alex pulled out two guns. He pointed one at Cal Fleck, and the other one at Josh Brown.
“Compared to me,” he said to them, “you two are play-play gangsters. Don’t fuck with the real thing. Everything you hold dear, including yourselves, will die if you do.”
Cal removed his hand from his desk drawer.
“Come around where I can see your ass,” Alex said to him. “Close the door,” he said to Josh.
With guns still on both of them, they did as they were told: Cal walked around the desk, and Josh closed the almost broken door.
Alex leaned against the edge of the desk with both men right in front of him. “Talk,” he said.
But neither one of them said a word.
“I said talk,” Alex said again.
“I’m no snitch,” Josh said.
“Me neither,” said Cal.
Alex smiled. “You’re no snitch? Is that what you think you would be if you talked to me?” Alex stood up quickly and walked up to both men. “No, gentlemen, you wouldn’t be snitches if you talked to me. You’ll be providing me with information. But if you don’t talk to me, you’ll be dead.”
And then, without any warning, Alex tripped Cal down onto his back, and then tripped Josh down onto his back, and then quickly knelt down between them and forced the barrel of each gun into each man’s mouth.
Their eyes became so enlarged that they looked as if they had pop-eyes, as both men never dreamed this billionaire businessman could be this thug. But there it was. He was even worse than they were!
“I will blow your motherfucking heads off,” Alex said to them, “if you don’t tell me what I need to know. Now do I pull the trigger, or do you assholes stop wasting my time?”
“We’ll talk,” Cal said in a muffled voice given what was in his mouth. “Please.”
Alex gave them an additional second to squirm in fear, and then removed the guns from their mouths.
He stood up, and then leaned against the front of the desk again. Both men, true believers now, stood back on their feet too.
“Now tell me what I need to know,” Alex said.
“We didn’t want to do it,” Josh volunteered, “but we didn’t have a choice. Tell him, Cal. We didn’t have a choice!”
“We were just minding our business,” Cal said. “Yeah, we were making noise about that casino, and we started a campaign to make sure that referendum didn’t pass. But when it passed, and you were given the greenlight by the state to begin construction, we let it go. That shit was bigger than us, what were clowns like us going to do? But then she got in touch with us. We didn’t get in touch with her. She got in touch with us! And that’s when it seemed possible. That’s when it seemed like we might just be able to pull it off and stop construction.”
“Who got in touch with you?” Alex asked.
“That lady,” said Josh. “She had shit on us that would put us away for life. We had to do what she told us to do! We had no choice.”
Alex frowned. His patience with those two bozos was wearing thin. “What lady?” he asked.
“Courtney Tyson,” Cal said. “The one that drove her car through Lucinda’s yesterday.”
Alex was floored. “She got in touch with you?”
Cal nodded. “She told us, if we didn’t fill out fake ballots and get the mayor to overturn the referendum results, she would go to the Feds on us. She knew all about every crime we ever committed. She had book on us!”
“It was blackmail is what it was,” said Josh.
“How did you know her?” Alex asked.
“We didn’t!” said Josh. “She came to us like Cal said. We’d never seen her or heard of her before in our lives.”
“What about the muscle behind her? Did you know who was putting her up to it?”
“She was putting her own self up to it!” said Cal. “We didn’t know about anybody else.”
Alex exhaled. What the fuck was going on? Courtney wouldn’t have the kind of reach to get crime books on two backwater thugs like Fleck and Brown. She wasn’t involved in that life. At least not as far as he knew.
But then again, he also knew, she wasn’t in Chapter 11 bankruptcy when he knew her either. She wasn’t desperate for money when he knew her either.
But something else didn’t make sense to Alex. “She died yesterday,” he said to Fleck and Brown. “Lonnie Wilder started pulling permits this morning. Why wouldn’t you stop him if the person who had book on you was dead?”
Cal and Josh looked at each other. Josh spoke up this time. “Because we figured, since that casino is going to run us out of business anyway, and since it was already in the works, why stop it? It just might work.”
“But in hindsight,” said Cal, “we were just being dumb and dumber. We made a mistake.”
A mistake? If the mayor would have started that b
all rolling, their little mistake could have cost Alex millions of dollars and could have caused him to lose months of time to get all the permissions he needed reinstated. If that woman they were assisting had been a half-second faster on that gas pedal, Kari might have been taken away from him. And they consider all that shit a mistake?
Alex stood up, put his guns away, and then knocked each one of them out cold. With one punch each.
Maybe they were going to call that a mistake too. But Alex didn’t. He meant to do it. He meant to incapacitate those assholes.
But it wasn’t a dying offense. They were only being the shady business people they were. The muscle behind Courtney Tyson, and Alex was convinced there was plenty muscle, were the bad guys he wanted.
He left the way he came.
“Open up,” the driver yelled as he stopped at the security gate. “Open the fuck up!”
The security gate opened, and the Peugeot 308 sped through the gates and traveled all the way up to the entrance doors. The driver didn’t hesitate. He immediately jumped out of the car, and then ran inside the stately mansion.
The main person he wanted to see, Manny, the security chief, was walking up the hall toward the foyer when he hurried in. He hurried up to Manny.
“What’s the matter with you?” Manny asked.
“She’s dead,” the driver said breathlessly. He said as if he couldn’t hardly wait to tell it. “She’s dead.”
Manny stared at the driver. “Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes, yes! We just got the word when she didn’t check in. She is dead. Courtney Tyson is dead!”
“And Kari Grant?” Manny asked anxiously.
“Alive,” said the driver.
Manny exhaled. “Oh, boy,” he said. “Oh fucking boy!”
“You’re going to tell him, or will I need to?” the driver asked.
The driver’s insinuation that Manny couldn’t do his job brought him back to himself. And he frowned. “What do you think?” he asked. “Just get back to your post. I’ll do the telling.”
Alex Drakos 3_What They Did For Love Page 6
