"You mouthy egghead bitch." He said. "Come on get movin'. You better keep praying I don’t change my mind and end this shit here and now on that island."
"She comes with us." Mayweather's girlfriend grabbed the other girl's hand. These women certainly had character. Lindsay couldn't wait to get them to agree to interviews. Their stories would be even more fascinating than the men's, especially with the kind of fearlessness and attitude they were displaying.
"Whatever." Mitch said. They certainly had some power over him despite the circumstances.
"Hurt Mayweather again, any member of his flight crew or any of these people," Boyevik's daughter turned to Lindsay and Nena, "and they'll bury you and everyone you share blood with in frozen wasteland a thousand miles East of Moscow."
A mafia girl with a heart? Lindsay felt some measure of relief that she might be protected by this incredible woman, but God, the story was just getting better and better.
"Jesus Christ Nadia," Mitch feigned hurt, "it was enough with just the death threat already. Frozen wastelands? For cryin' out loud. Come on. Mayweather stays here. He won't be hurt if your old man pays up."
Mitch was obviously on the back-foot now, intimidated by these two sharp and courageous women.
Nadia Boyevik, daughter of the Russian mob, beautiful, smart and unafraid of any man in the fierce hierarchy of organized crime. Lindsay was relishing every moment.
She watched as Mayweather looked towards the woman who had risked her own death by crying out in his defense. She looked back at him and Lindsay felt tears well up inside her out of nowhere. This couple were clearly out of this world, head over heels, love conquers all, crazy in love. She would mourn them if they didn't make it out of this alive, even though she hardly knew them.
A shadow passed over her as she watched them. What if she and Nena didn't make it out of this alive either? Who would cry any tears for them?
********************
Lindsay tried to play games with Nena to keep her calm but time seemed to stretch endlessly in the hostage area where upwards of thirty people were being held in captivity. There were three people guarding them on the inside but she had unable to count how many there were on the outside. Not that it really mattered; it wasn't like she could make a break for it with an eight year old child in tow anyway, but still she tried to stay alert. She watched the guards' every movement and kept an eye on the members of the island security staff who were hostage with them just in case anything went down. She would be ready to play her part if she could.
A harsh voice crackled over the radio of the guard who was closest to her.
"This is Mitch. The mission is complete. We have Boyevik. Time to get the fuck out of here boys."
Boyevik. Looked like he would slip through her fingers. She would have given anything to see and speak to this man who she had learned so much about and who was such a paradox; the ruthless Mafioso who was also an ex-college professor and engineering genius.
"Don’t waste fuckin' time you moron, get the fuck out of there now. These rich pricks have back up on the way. We need to get Boyevik off this rock. I'm on the runway outside, now just fuckin' do it."
"What about hostages?"
"Fuck 'em. We got all we need. Over and fuckin' out."
She watched as the three guards made ready to leave and positioned herself and Nena near to them. As soon as they left the room she followed behind, pulling Nena with her. It was a bold and ridiculously daring move, but she was determined to get a glimpse of Boyevik for herself. Once the island security staff took charge of things her chance to get away and nail this story would be gone.
She followed unseen at a distance and soon they were back out again on the runway. Leaving the guards to continue on she took shelter with Nena behind a stack of cargo crates. The Mafia soldiers regrouped on the runway. She counted seven in total. She hadn't been able to keep an exact count of them but this seemed too few.
Something was definitely up.
"Get down Nena, stay out of sight. We're nearly at the end of this game, you just have to be really quiet a little while longer. Nena sucked in her lips and shut her mouth tightly.
"Good girl." Lindsay smiled but her heart was wrenched with guilt and fear. Nena had no-one else in the whole world to care for her. If anything happened to her then the little girl would be completely alone.
She turned away and took a deep breath.
Don't think about it. Stay alert. Keep calm. Follow the story. Everything is going to be just fine.
The seven Mafiosi on the runway looked profoundly disoriented. They slowly realized they were down four men in total and there was no sign of Mitch Albstrom anywhere. They were all staring up to the sky where a Gulf Stream jet was preparing to come in for a landing.
After this things got very confusing. There were gun shots, tazers, darts, death threats and then, from what Lindsay could make out, the girlfriend of this remarkable Mayweather man had sacrificed herself to save everyone else by insisting on leaving with Mikhail Boyevik and his men as their hostage. She watched as the Mafiosi began inching their way towards their parked jet. They were shadowed by Ruben and his team until they climbed the stairs, locked the doors and their pilot fired up the engines. In minutes they were building speed for takeoff and those left on the ground stood looking as the plane lifted away from the ground.
The stern woman in charge of Mayweather's security team walked over and took her boss's hands into her own. Their eyes met and for the first time since the beginning of the tense runway standoff, this heroic man looked vulnerable, shaken. His head of security wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly. After a moment he wrapped his arms around her too.
Lindsay watched, spellbound, as the remarkable group of people just barely held it together during what was a crushing moment of absolute failure. She would have to find out who all of these people were and tell their story. This was too moving, too heroic to remain a secret to the world. Already they were beginning to regroup with the commanding figure of Mayweather giving orders to all around him. Then out of the blue the second tall and incredibly good looking man who had emerged from the plane caught sight of her.
"Who are they?" He said instantly, and suddenly, from being an invisible spectator Lindsay now found the entire group's attention focused onto herself and Nena who had come out from behind the cargo crates to stand next to her, half hidden behind her leg.
"Go back inside. " Ruben Mayweather ordered her. "It's not safe out here."
"Please." Lindsay said. "We need to get back home. We need to let our families know that we're safe. We were taken from the street days ago."
She was thinking on her feet. If she went back inside then she was just a part of the general group and would be treated as such. She needed to get inside this story. These people were the missing key to the Boyevik story and were pretty fascinating characters all by themselves.
Especially the man who had drawn the group's attention to her and Nena.
"My people will take care of you. Now go back to the main building." Ruben said.
"Don’t be such an asshole Ruben." The rugged man interrupted. "You come here kid." He said to Nena. "You too ma'am."
This was it; her chance to get the inside story. There was always a way, always an upside to every situation.
Lindsay took Nena's hand and walked over to the group, she shook her long dark hair and approached the man who had taken their side. He would be her ally on this story, whether he knew it or not.
And what an ally.
He was dressed casually but even to the untrained eye this was a man of wealth, presence and power.
And God was he something else again when you got up close to him.
Lindsay's eyes climbed higher, taking in his broad chest, his powerful shoulders, a neck that she wanted to sink her teeth into and then those eyes. My God those eyes. Ruben Mayweather was obviously an intimidating individual and seemingly the boss of everyone here, but this man al
one clearly had no fear of him.
He hunkered down slowly in front of her and the act took her by surprise. She looked down at the seductively tousled mane of hair in front of her lower abdomen and a crazy fantasy flickered before her eyes. It involved him being on his knees in front of her, just with less clothes on. It was so visceral and unexpected that she almost gasped.
"Don’t worry kiddo," The man said to Nena. "I'll give you and your mommy a ride out of here."
Mommy?
She looked down saw that this bear of a man had effortlessly transformed the anger and tension that had been on his face into the most lovable big-brother, playmate smile for the little girl.
"She's not my mommy." Nena said.
Dale looked up at Lindsay and it was as though she felt the full force of his undivided attention for the first time. The craziness of the last hours seemed to disappear as he rose up slowly in front of her and extended his hand.
Holy fuck. He is totally, totally….
"Dale Hargrave." He said and relaxed into what could only be described as a wouldn't-it-be-so-easy-for-us-to-just-fall-into-bed-together smile.
Stay focused Lindsay, stay focused. Report the story, don’t be the story.
She extended her hand without a trace of a smile on her full, beautiful lips.
"Lindsay Day." She said very simply and felt the strength of his hand close around hers. His grip was powerful but indescribably gentle at the same time.
Her heart began to race, her tongue began to tie itself up.
She hadn't felt like this in forever, maybe not ever.
Not that she was short of boyfriends and interested guys, but with her kind of work relationships had to take a back seat. In fact usually they ended up further than the back seat, stuffed in the trunk or left behind her on the freeway mangled up like road-kill.
This is work Lindsay, this is still just work. She glanced around to break the spell they seemed to have fallen under and saw that everyone else had already drifted away leaving them alone together.
"They seem to have forgotten about us." She said.
"Huh?" Dale Hargrave looked around. True enough - Ruben continued on organizing the mission without them. "Whatever." He said without hesitation. "Ms. Day, you’re flying with me. You too little princess." He winked down at Nena who smiled shyly and disappeared behind Lindsay's leg again.
"Are you sure you sure the boss will let us tag along?" She nodded in Ruben's direction.
"Leave it to me. Ruben's not the boss, he's just the asshole and very old friend who handles our security. If I say you're coming, you're coming. Don't worry about that."
Lindsay smiled. Somehow she had found her way to the key person in this whole mess, the alpha male among alpha males. It looked like things were going to pan out for her and Nena after all.
She looked down at the little girl who smiled back up at her and silently mouthed the words 'your boyfriend'. Lindsay shook her head rapidly and scowled at her niece who just widened her grin even more.
********************
Dale sat down opposite to Lindsay and looked at the little girl next to her, staring out the window with the hugest, widest eyes. Despite his lifelong disinterest in children, he was almost warming to Nena. Although kids tended to love him with his big bear personality, he usually considered them to be nothing more than a nuisance to be eliminated while the real business of making money or getting laid was being conducted. He had to admit though, that there was something infectious about this little girl's curiosity as to everything on the plane and in the sky.
She was just like him when he had been about that age; full of questions and excited about everything that went up in the air.
Maybe not all kids were such pesky little rug rats after all.
He looked at her auntie again and felt his pants begin to stretch.
The little girl might be a cute kid, but she was still a speed-bump on the straight road leading into her auntie's bedroom and she would have to be 'neutralized' with toys, activities, whatever it took to get her out of the way when the time came.
"She is one hell of a little lady." He said.
"She sure is." Lindsay flashed a smile at the him. Hardnosed investigative journalist or not her head was still spinning from the events of the last three days. Not to mention the growing electricity she was feeling between her and the gorgeous hunk of a man in front of her. It was almost too good to be true except that he was still 'story' not personal and it would have to stay that way. A good reporter gets inside the story, not inside the story's pants.
She had had a chance to Google Ruben Mayweather and the Hargrave brothers in the airport hotel Dale had chosen for them in Pape'ete, French Polynesia. Despite her protests he had been inflexible and insisted they remain behind in safety while he, Ruben and his brother Clayton took care of 'business'. As far as she could tell they had hunted down Boyevik and were going to stage a rescue of the woman who had offered herself as a hostage, Ruben's love interest. It galled her to miss out the action but she had no choice.
She had been left to conduct research on the maddeningly slow internet connection at the hotel. After several hours of watching pages download pixel by pixel on the screen all she had gleaned was that the Hargraves and Mayweather headed up security and technology related companies with many government defense contracts and that all three were incredibly, breathtakingly rich. Beyond that and a few gossip column write-ups, she hadn't been able to learn all that much.
"So explain to me again what you two kids from DC were doing all the way out in Australia. Talk about the wrong place at the wrong time."
Dale had started to ask questions since he had returned from the 'business' on one of the islands, that he refused to discuss. Lindsay was determined to keep things vague while extracting as much information from him as she possibly could.
"I told you that already Dale, Nena's my niece and we were on vacation. If I didn’t know better I'd say you didn't believe me."
"I'm sorry if I seem a little doubtful Lindsay, it's just that in my position I can't afford to be overly relaxed about the people I keep company with."
"Keep company with? Is that what we're doing? I thought you were just giving us a ride home."
"It's a ride home on my personal transport from the South Pacific to Washington DC, don’t you think that kind of service deserves a little honesty?" He looked at her with the stare he reserved for rival company CEOs. Grown men and women had been known to wilt visibly under that gaze - even Ruben and Clay knew enough to respect that look.
He waited for her to fold.
Lindsay gazed back at him and took a leisurely deep breath. She might have the appearance of a scatter brained college freshman but she had already earned her stripes as an investigative journalist interviewing high level politicians, diplomats and powerful underworld crime bosses - this full of himself billionaire pretty boy wasn't going to faze her in the least. She let him stare a few seconds more and then broke off the contest of wills with a giggle.
It was her secret weapon. The ultimate defusing of this inane alpha male, top dog battle of wills bullshit.
Dale continued to hold fast to his gaze but when the giggle didn't subside and instead began to grow louder he knew he was beaten.
I am going to bone you so hard you little tease. His thoughts were going out of control, his cock stiffened between his legs, hemmed in tightly by his pants and then he cracked.
"And just what the hell is exactly so damn amusing to you?"
"I'm sorry, it's nothing, really it's nothing. Forgive me. Now what was your question again?"
The question is, how hard are you going to beg for it before we hit terra firma. You're not the first smart ass, sexy little cutie to think she can outplay Dale Hargrave.
"You better tell me what's so funny or I'm gonna drop you and Nena off on Easter Island."
"Wonderful, I've always wanted to pay a visit. Is it nearby?"
She craned her head to lo
ok out the window and the sight of her slender neck straining upwards from her blouse to take in the view sent another thrill right down the center of his cock.
Maybe he didn't need the truth from this one so much as just a promise from her to keep her mouth shut about everything she had seen happen at Point Nemo. His people were already checking her out and they would find something to motivate her silence - they always did. Everybody had something, whether they were hauntingly beautiful or not.
"Do you really want to go there?" He said.
Lindsay looked back at him.
"Sure, let's spend the week there, we were on vacation anyway." She joked, but the look on his face shut her up. The guy was serious.
Holy shit, he's totally into me. It hit her like a slap in the face. I've totally got this guy. Why the hell didn’t I see it before?
The shocked realization of what should have been staring her in the face since they met on the airstrip at Point Nemo sent a massive uncontrollable flush to her face and a giant irrefutable signal to the man sitting opposite her.
That's right baby. He noted with smug satisfaction. You are so mine you sexy little tease. This tough cookie was as good as his already. Just keep the little lady out of the way for a while. Shit. Nena… ah fuck it. No, it wouldn't be cool to do her auntie on the plane, not fair to that sweet little girl.
"I'll tell the pilot to take us in, we're not too far off that flight path now."
"No! No, no, don’t do that. Please. We… we really need to get back to DC, my boss… I mean my family needs to know I'm okay."
The comment put a serious look back onto Dale's face.
"Have you contacted people back home about this Lindsay?" His message was loud and clear.
"Is this what the ride is for? To keep our mouths shut?"
"If that was all I wanted I could easily have left that up to Ruben Mayweather. However, I'm absolutely sure that you understand the importance of you and the little lady keeping everything you saw back there--"
"Back where exactly?" It was true she didn't know the name of the island. But would he even believe that?
His Strict Requirement: Billionaire Secrets - Book Five Page 2
