“Well you wanted excitement,” she muttered out loud to herself.
“Don’t worry Laura, it ends here!” he said just as the door behind him burst open hitting him in the back.
Jason stumbled forward and Laura turned away towards the table as his gun went off. She heard someone scream as she fell over the table when Jason fell into her. The table collapsed under them both. He rolled off of her and she rolled the other way in a panic. She heard shouting and cursing as many people seemed to swarm into the room. She saw Mr. Lander, Detective Avery as well as four more security personnel.
Then she saw Jack come in. He saw her and came over helping her up. He took her hand and she had to unclench the fist she had made to grasp his hand. She trembled in Jack’s arms as Detective Avery arrested the three Tortelli brothers. Harry was the one who got shot and the medics had been standing by. Jason was cursing and claiming to have discovered a plot. Mark, James and Harry were yelling about him pulling a gun on them. Jack quietly led her out of the room’s other door to where Brock was waiting. Once out of the room she felt her fear slowly begin leaving her and took several deep breaths to calm herself.
“Are you okay Laura? Damn I did not expect things to go sideways like that. I am so sorry to get you into this girl. I do not even know what to say,” he said.
She could see the strain and worry in every line of his face, and Jack’s as well, and that was all she needed to see.
“I am alright. You were cutting it a little close, but everything is fine. Right Jack?” she asked him.
He gave a shaky smile and held up his closed hand.
“We got it,” he said.
Laura was relieved she had managed to palm the coin as she fell across the table. Brock shook his hand as if thanking him and then turned and walked down the hall. A minute later Detective Avery found them and wanted to go over what happened.
*****
Epilogue
Laura smiled at her reflection in the little mirror. She did look good in fine clothes, she thought to herself happily. Leather and silk were wonderful things. She left the little airplane bathroom and went out to take her seat. Jack poured her a drink and they toasted.
“Nice job darling. I have never met anyone who, on a first job, would have remembered to grab the coin when a gun was pulled on them. With the scattering of the chips there was no way to tell where it went,” he praised her.
The word on the street was that the Tortellis had made a deal with Jason and it had gone wrong. Between them the coin had been lost. Her name was not even coming up. From what they had learned, the Tortelli’s organization thought Jason had screwed them, so again, Laura’s name was clear. Detective Avery got the bust of a lifetime and the gratitude of Mr. Lander, so everyone was happy. She felt the humming of the engines change pitch and put on her seatbelt like the others were doing. She had never flown before and her first time was going to be on a private jet.
“I am surprised everything went so well,” she admitted.
“We got lucky. Once the job was in motion we could not get a hold of you to tell you what we learned. The detective told us that the reports on the break in at your place showed that witnesses claimed it was done by one man, one American man. The Tortellis do everything together so it wasn’t them. After that I remembered you saying that Jason gave you your tip box. I wasn’t sure how he had anything to do with it, but knew he did. Once we got a hold of Mr. Landers he checked security and we found several cameras down and Jason gone. Bingo. He had probably heard about the auction and wanted in. Stupid of him, but then again, it is Vegas,” Brock said and sipped his drink as the plane started moving.
“So even if the Tortellis had not attracted attention to themselves by assaulting me, Jason would have tried something anyway. I was just at the wrong place, at the wrong time, or right time depending on how one looks at it,” Laura told them with a smile as the plane lifted off. She looked out the window loving the feeling in her stomach as they gained altitude quickly. These little planes really moved, she thought to herself.
“How do you look at it Laura dear?” Brock asked softly. She glanced at them and saw them both watching her closely, looking concerned. She smiled for them and looked back out the window. The view from that height was amazing she decided.
“Where are we headed again?” She asked.
“Paris, France,” Jack answered.
“Then I think I was in the right place at the right time,” she told them happily. Whatever happened, she knew her life would never be boring.
THE END
Bonus Story 22 of 40
The Date
Enrico
“No dad,” I answered firmly, determined to stick to my guns with this one. My father might be the powerful sort of man that can boss the rest of the world around, but I’m not having it. I flatly refuse to. “I won’t do it.”
“Son, don’t be so ridiculous. It’s just one date – a few hours. If you do this right, it will secure things between me and Mr. Bellingham.” Then he landed the final shot. “This is your future we’re talking about here, your inheritance. Don’t you want to work towards that now, to make it great before you even get it?”
This was what it always came down to – the business that my father ran, the one that he wanted to pass onto me. The one that I wasn’t even sure that I wanted.
I knew that my father’s company was a well-established front for something more – he was pretty open about that with me, but I’d made it clear for a very long time that I wasn’t even slightly interested in anything he did that involved breaking the law.
He kept telling me that I needed to grow up, that I couldn’t escape it forever, but I wasn’t certain that I actually wanted to follow in his footsteps. I was secretly harboring a secret desire to make a better life for myself. One as an artist, but of course I couldn’t tell him that.
If only my mother hadn’t died in childbirth. I often found myself wondering how different my life would have been had she been around.
“But dad I don’t even know Bella…” I protested a little further.
“Don’t give me that.” He gave me a wry smile. “You’ve been on plenty of dates in your life young man, you know how to treat a lady.”
He was right of course. Girls seemed to go wild for my dark skin, my hazelnut eyes and my tall muscular figure. It was safe to say that I was a bit of a stud in high school – but that was just something else that I’d been changing as I’d grown older, and of course dad hadn’t noticed. He only saw what he wanted to see.
“But…”
“There are no buts,” he finally commanded, ending the conversation. “I need you to take her out, and I need you to show her the time of her life. I don’t know what is holding her father back from this merger, but I need you to either find out, or give such a damn good impression that she goes home talking you up to him.”
“Do you really think that this will work?” I asked doubtfully.
“Of course it will,” he replied, waving his hand dismissively at me. “I trust you.”
And there it was. Those words sending daggers through my heart once more. How could he trust me, when he didn’t even damn well know me?
“Here’s her number, text her now.”
As he handed me the slip of paper, I noticed a little something in his eyes. Something that showed that maybe, just maybe he didn’t quite trust me after all.
“Okay, okay.” I muttered, feeling more and more like a petulant teenager the more I spoke.
I quickly wrote, feeling stupid the entire time, and hit send before I could talk myself out of it.
Hi Bella,
It’s Enrico Abattelli. We briefly met around Christmas time when our fathers were meeting, I’m not sure if you remember?
Anyway I just wanted to know if you’d like to go out for a drink sometime?
E
I felt like an idiot as I re-read my words, but then I forced myself not to care. I wasn’t actually trying
to impress this chick – in fact, it would get me out of it if she said no! It would save us both a big hassle.
I mean, it wasn’t like she wasn’t very good looking with her long auburn hair, her violet colored eyes and her rocking body – but I wasn’t interested. I wanted my next date to be serious, to be with someone I actually wanted to be with. I felt like I was done fooling around with everyone that walks. I felt like I’d moved on from that version of me – and that this dumb date would push me backwards.
Plus, Bella was a prissy bitch.
When I met her, she seemed to stick her nose up at me, almost as if she knew that I was beneath her. Sure, she came from old money, whereas my dad earned his money recently… in his own unique way, but that was no reason for her to pass judgment on me!
I would just have to hope that she refused, because the more that I thought about it, the more a night in her presence seemed like a bad idea.
One that would not end well.
*****
Bella
“Urgh, daddy no,” I whined, praying for him to look at me. “He’s dreadful. I don’t want to go on a date with him. I only told you because I thought you’d instantly see how inappropriate it is, and that you’d finally realize that the Abattelli family is not one that you should be going into business with.”
I wasn’t even sure why my father was giving these vulgar people the time of day. They were crass, rude, and had a terrible reputation in the community. Sure, we’d been losing money recently, and I knew that he was worried about what the future held for us, but there had to be another solution, surely?
“Bella, I just want you to spend an hour with the guy, find out more about him and his family. I’m not asking for the world. You’re very perceptive, and I know you think that they are bad news – if you can prove that to me, then I’ll halt what we’re doing.”
Even as he said that he was hesitant, like he really didn’t want to give up this merger – it was the only thing that would keep his business afloat in his eyes.
“Why can’t Pru go?” I whined. “She loves going on dates,” I finished cruelly. My sister was famous for her… open behavior, but of course daddy didn’t want to see that side of her. He wanted to believe that she was sweet and innocent, his little princess.
“Your sister is engaged,” he snapped back, causing me to roll my eyes. Engaged for the third time in as many years wasn’t something to celebrate as far as I was concerned. “Enrico obviously wants to go out with you. Come on Bella,” he pleaded. “Just do this for me?”
And then he killed me by giving me the puppy dog eyes – the ones that showed me that if I didn’t do this then I was never going to hear the end of it.
“Fine,” I finally replied. “Whatever.”
Thanks Enrico,
That sounds lovely. Friday at 8pm?
Bella
There. At least if I did it early on a Friday, I’d be able to go out afterwards. This shitty ‘date’ wouldn’t have to ruin my entire evening.
“Done. Happy?”
But of course daddy didn’t answer. He was involved in his paperwork once more, so I stormed out of his office and stomped up into my bedroom.
Of course, I wasn’t going to get the privacy that I so badly needed, because I could hear mum and Prudence arguing in her room, just across the hallway from mine, and I had to find out what was going on.
“…I just can’t understand why…”
“What’s going on?” I went around the door with a gleeful look on my face. Me and my sister had been raised by an army of nanny’s – which it seemed that mother had finally started to feel bad about (nineteen years too late in my opinion), and because of this she kept trying to instill discipline. Pru was twenty-three, she was an adult now, she’d already been everywhere and done everything. There was no way my mum was going to win this never ending battle with her.
Luckily, Pru was terrible, so much worse than me, which meant that she needed much more attention than I did, leaving me to live my life in relative peace.
“Just fuck off Bella,” my sister snarled, shooting me an evil look, which just made me happier. Sure, she was my sister and I loved her because of that, but our disjointed childhood, plus my underlying jealousy because of how much prettier and smarter than me she’d always been, had led to an extremely competitive relationship between us.
One that simply grew nastier as we got older.
“Don’t speak to your sister like that,” mum snapped, starting to grow weary. “And Bella, keep your nose out.”
“But mum, I need to talk to you,” I improvised. “Dad’s being really unreasonable again.”
“What is it this time?” she asked, sounding like she wished that she’d never started any of this.
“He’s making me go out with Enrico to find out information…”
“Oh good lord!” Pru jumped in. “He’s making you go out on a date! Shock, horror. Although I suppose for someone as frigid as you…”
She smirked, sending humiliation burning through my body. She was referring to my status as a virgin, which pissed me off more than anything else. I’d confided it to her one night when we’d actually been getting along, and we’d been drunk on peach schnapps, and she’d held it over me ever since.
I just hadn’t found the right person, that was all.
There were so many things that I wanted to yell back. But I wouldn’t. I might make snide comments about Pru’s slutty behavior, but there was no way that I’d just drop her in it in front of mother. Even if she did do it to me. I would remain classy, always.
So instead, I turned and stalked from the room.
*****
Enrico
I rolled into the bar at twenty past eight, knowing that turning up fashionably late was going to piss off this stuck up bitch, but to my surprise she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I ended up searching the place high and low, before sitting at the bar and ordering myself a drink.
At first, I was a little put out – I’d never been stood up before in my entire life – but then I quickly realized that this was actually good news. It wasn’t like I had any interest in my dad’s end game, so at least I could say that I’d turned up and that she hadn’t bothered.
But just as I was getting to the end of my beer, just as I was about to leave at quarter to nine, she breezed in under a cloud of sweet, floral smelling perfume.
Urgh, what a posh, annoying cow!
“Oh,” she said, shocked as if she hadn’t expected me to wait this long for her. Clearly she didn’t want to do this either – I wondered if she’d been talked into it too. Both of our dads keeping an eye on one another, through us. I thought the game playing stopped when you grew up, but clearly not. Adults were still just as bad. “Hello.”
“What can I get you to drink?” As I asked her this, I could see her eyeing the joint with distain. It wasn’t a rundown, shit hole, it was actually a really nice establishment, but she clearly didn’t want to see that. She just wanted to be a bitch as always.
And that was the exact moment that I decided if everyone around me was going to play games, then I would too. I was going to tease and rile up this chick, make her mad and horny, see how far I could push her, then I would leave her all alone. Crazed and by herself.
“Cider?” I teased. “A lager?”
“I think I’ll have some champagne,” she replied snootily, looking me up and down. If she wanted to look at me with disgust too, then she failed miserably. I could see the familiar spark of desire behind her eyes – one that I was very used to seeing – and I realized that she didn’t want to admit it, but that she did actually like me.
Hmmm, that was interesting.
“So…” I handed her a drink, about to ask her something about herself before she jumped in, interrupting me.
“Look, I’m not going to beat around the bush here, I don’t want to be here – and I’m pretty sure that you don’t either.” Okay, she was perceptive. That was good to know. “So ma
ybe we should just finish this drink, and head home. Then we’ve both performed our obligations without ruining our entire evening.”
“Performed our obligations?” I found myself exclaiming. “Wow, that’s real nice for me – the guy who just wanted to get to know you a little better.” I wasn’t sure why I was arguing – she was basically offering me exactly what I wanted – but the way she went about it just got my back up.
“Oh come on…!” she tried to respond, but I was having none of it. I’d affected her now, and that was too much fun to back off from.
“No, do you know how hard it is to work up the courage to ask someone out on a date?” I started to really get into my role. “And then for you to treat me like that… well, it’s just incredibly hurtful.”
“I…”
There was no way I was allowing her to get a word in edgeways now. This was far too much fun!
“And now I don’t even… if you don’t want to be here…” I could tell that I was actually getting to her, that my stupid little speech was cracking her ice cold veneer, so I decided to land the finishing touch. “I had such nice plans for us too…”
A girl like her, one that had the entire world handed to her on a plate from the moment that she was born, she wouldn’t be able to resist my offer. I knew that she’d be intrigued, and if I combined that with the desire she felt for me, then it wouldn’t be long until she was putty in my hands.
I grab hold of her fingers, noticing a spark of electricity flowing between us, and I turned my tone to sincere. “But if you want to go, I completely understand.”
She was conflicted. She’d spent all week wanting this date over with as quickly as possible, and now that I’d told her to leave, she was too intrigued to do so.
Endless Abduction Page 74
