Explicit Memory

by Scarlett Finn

  ‘What kind of evidence?’

  ‘His trade is investigation,’ Antoine said. ‘We should have realised that he would know the way to go about things. He compiled statements from other officers corroborating his story of the corruption within the ranks. Those statements implicate my family.’

  ‘Statements aren’t—‘

  ‘He had them notarised,’ Antoine said, with a snarl of disgust. ‘Apparently he knew a man who could help him.’

  ‘So he knows what he’s doing then,’ Flick said, with her own increasing satisfaction. ‘You can off as many people as you like, those statements are still admissible.’

  ‘Yes. He also collected video evidence of meetings between my associates and his colleagues. One of whom is dead and the other is missing.’

  The captains. ‘Why are you telling me this now?’ Flick asked. ‘Why tip your hand?’

  ‘I’m doing nothing of the sort,’ Antoine said. ‘When we discovered what Jansen was doing, we took action. We displayed how serious we were about protecting ourselves.’

  ‘By hospitalising him and kidnapping Serendipity.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And now? Jansen’s awake, so you expect Rushe to get that evidence, why? Why not just kill Jansen?’

  ‘The evidence still exists,’ Antoine said, though it evidently pained him.

  ‘You think that Jansen confided in someone, that the evidence is still a threat to you, even with Jansen out of the picture,’ Flick said.

  ‘It’s a possibility,’ Antoine said.

  ‘You want the evidence.’

  ‘Your boyfriend and his cohort will rescue Serendipity. He will quickly realise how easy the operation was and suspect that there is something wrong here.’

  ‘You had Flick arrested to separate her from Rushe,’ Liam interjected. ‘You needed them apart. You’re going to use Flick against Rushe. Make him retrieve the evidence from Jansen in exchange for Flick’s safety.’

  ‘Oui.’

  ‘We also knew that he would secure his pet,’ Simone chimed in. ‘He removed her from Silver’s, so he had to have her close. But both of you present? This is a coup.’

  Tawny. They had known that Rushe wanted to keep Tawny safe as much as he did Flick. Now the Merciers had what they considered to be both of Rushe’s women.

  ‘You’ve freed Serendipity, so there is no way for you to control Jansen,’ Flick said. ‘He’ll release the evidence to the authorities.’

  ‘He will not,’ Antoine drawled. ‘Rushe is not going to allow that to happen when his own women are in peril. Rushe will finish the job for us. He will retrieve the evidence.’

  ‘You think because he has Jansen’s trust, and they’ve worked together to liberate Serendipity, that Jansen will just hand over the evidence for old times’ sake?’

  ‘I am indifferent to Rushe’s method,’ Antoine said.

  ‘You let them have Serendipity. You knew Jansen would contact Rushe for help to free her. But now you plan to set them against each other.’

  ‘Rushe will do what is necessary if it means saving his pets...’

  ‘We are not his pets!’ Tawny declared, but Antoine only laughed.

  ‘He enjoys his women with... how you Americans say... spunk,’ Antoine said. ‘That is easily extinguished.’

  ‘This is a disgrace, Antoine,’ Charles Hughes piped up, and Flick could only imagine it was his shock at this turn of events that had kept him quiet for so long. ‘We trusted you. You are a criminal. Felicity told us of your deeds, but we did not believe... this is a disgrace.’

  ‘Ah, you were all too easily fooled,’ Antoine said. ‘It was not difficult at all. A show of wealth and sophistication, you looked no further than the superficial, a perfect capitalist family. You value money over that of your own children’s welfare. It makes you easy to take advantage of, Charles. I am sure I am not the first.’

  ‘I can assure you that you are. I pride myself on—‘

  ‘Foolish pride!’ Antoine snapped.

  ‘You will not think that when my own security team—‘

  ‘I am not a fool like you,’ Antoine said. ‘The fiancé of your youngest daughter contacted the security firm you hired to cancel the order. We shall not be disturbed.’

  ‘Our staff—‘

  ‘Have already been detained,’ Antoine said. ‘Just as you all shall be.’

  Antoine must have given a silent instruction, because each of the allied group were grabbed by two opposition security guards. The remaining men held the perimeter around them as they were all manhandled toward the formal drawing room.

  On arrival they were each thrust into a seat on one of the couches arranged in front of the fireplace around a low table. Their hands were strapped together at the wrist with cable ties.

  ‘This is your big plan?’ Flick asked, when Antoine came in with Simone. The pair traversed toward the window. ‘You’re going to keep us here.’

  ‘Yes,’ Antoine said. ‘Rushe will come for you, of that I am certain.’

  ‘So am I,’ Flick said. ‘But he won’t do your bidding.’

  ‘He will have no choice, if he plans to keep you and your family alive.’

  Antoine and Simone went to the chairs arranged in the large window to face into the room. Simone actually supported her cousin as he descended to sit. Such a show of weakness would irritate him, but from how he sat awkwardly in the chair, keeping his body as level as he could, Flick knew his discomfort was great.

  ‘I should’ve removed the organ altogether,’ she strutted. ‘I’d have saved women all over the world from the displeasure of having you attempt to force it on them.’

  ‘You are in a minority, ma chère, even in this very room there are women who crave me.’

  Flick didn’t want Antoine’s dalliance with Lucia to become public, not in front of her parents, so she didn’t push.

  At this moment their greatest hope was her brothers in-law, Roger and Martin. If they contacted the police before Rushe returned, then it was possible that they could all be saved without this going forward.

  ‘It can’t be your plan to hurt us,’ Lucia said. Flick wondered if her sister understood just how dangerous Antoine was. ‘You would never hurt us. We’re your friends.’

  ‘We are not friends,’ Antoine said.

  ‘We have shared each other’s company,’ Robert said. ‘Lucia is right, this situation is out of hand. Mercier, you cannot—‘

  ‘Calme! You snivel, all of you.’

  ‘Action would be reckless. Rushing you won’t make a difference,’ Flick said. ‘You have too many men for us to take on alone.’

  ‘So you will sit quietly, and wait,’ Antoine said. ‘This is my wish. My men will keep you in line. You will remain here, all of you, and we will wait.’

  ‘Where is her husband?’ Simone asked, and Flick noticed how the Frenchwoman peered at Vivian. ‘What is his name? Where is he?’

  ‘He left here earlier,’ Charles said, when Vivian remained silent. ‘He will realise that there is something wrong, and—‘

  ‘Oui, c’est une possibilité.’

  The cousins continued their conversation in their mother tongue, but if they were hoping to hide their intentions, then they underestimated the education of this family. Flick picked up their concerns about being discovered by Martin. But what was more telling was their lack of concern about Roger. He’d been with Lucia tonight at the police station and had dropped them off outside the house. No one had seen him since.

  ‘Where’s Roger?’ Flick asked, suddenly concerned for his wellbeing. ‘What did you do to him?’

  ‘You will call your husband on the telephone,’ Simone said, ignoring Flick’s question.

  ‘Who?’ Lucia asked. ‘Neither of our husbands are here.’ She too had to be worried for Roger.

  ‘No one has spoken to you,’ Simone said. ‘Bring her the phone!’

  A security man went to the phone in the corner and took it to Vivian. ‘Phone him,’ Antoi
ne said. ‘Tell him to come here to retrieve you. Ask him to come inside.’

  ‘You plan to trap him here with us,’ Vivian said, finding her voice. ‘I will not be a party to—‘

  The thug who had brought her the phone lifted his hand and brought it across Vivian’s face, much to the audible dismay of the family. Vivian clutched her cheek and looked up into the blank face of her attacker.

  ‘Phone him,’ Antoine said.

  The beep of phone buttons being pressed pierced the dense air, but Flick maintained her gaze on Antoine. After only a few seconds, his eyes crept around to hers as though he had sensed her assault. She would not let him see any weakness, and as Flick imagined all the things she wanted to do to this man, all the hurt she wished him to experience, the corner of his lips curled.

  ‘You wish me harm,’ he said. ‘But it is I who will inflict harm on you Miss Hughes.’

  ‘You have no intention of letting any of us go,’ Flick said. ‘Rushe will know that.’

  ‘Oh contraire,’ Antoine said. ‘Your family may go free. I have no use for them and would not wish to complicate matters for myself.’

  ‘So you get your evidence and go? I don’t believe it.’ Vivian was talking into the phone now, but Flick maintained her focus.

  ‘Believe what you will,’ Antoine said. ‘But it matters not. Once we have the evidence and have destroyed it, we will proceed as originally planned.’

  ‘You expect me to testify against Rushe? You plan to try and frame him again?’

  ‘He will go to jail for his crimes,’ Antoine said. ‘But your testimony will be impossible. Your statements to the police will be sufficient. My cousin here will be sure to highlight Rushe’s involvement in your violation.’

  ‘Rushe didn’t violate her! He wouldn’t violate anyone,’ Tawny called.

  ‘He’s trying to upset you,’ Liam said. ‘He’s trying to upset us all, just ignore him.’

  Flick knew that Liam was right. But Antoine’s plan was enough to infuriate them. Her family would be held captive long enough to force Rushe to get the evidence Antoine sought from Jansen. Once he had what he wanted, Antoine would eliminate her and her family, of that she had no doubt. Keeping any of them alive made no logical sense.

  Rushe would realise that too, but he would have little choice except to agree to Antoine’s plan. If nothing else, it would buy them time. Flick couldn’t see a way out of this. There were too many men here, and if they truly had kept the two on-premises staff members hostage as well, then there would be no one to get them out of this.

  Now that Vivian was off the phone, Martin would be on his way, and he would have no idea what he was walking into.

  All of that paled to insignificance when Flick thought about Rushe. When he and Jansen liberated Serendipity, it would be immediately obvious to him what was going on. He would speed here. He would want to get to her, but it would be beyond daylight by the time he returned.

  As of now, he’d be in his car still driving toward Serendipity. He’d probably be worried about Flick and about her getting out of jail. He didn’t know yet that she was stuck, just like the rest of her family, and what was worse was that – she’d gotten them into this.

  If she hadn’t walked into that bar, Dell’s... except even now she couldn’t regret it. Rushe had become integral to her existence in such a short space of time that she couldn’t imagine life without him, she wouldn’t imagine it. She trusted him, and if anyone could figure a way out of this, it was her love.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The clock ticked through the silence in the room. Conversation had been abandoned long ago, and though uncomfortable, they weren’t mistreated. Held on these couches, facing each other and without the freedom to move or talk, all they could do was wait. Flick sat nearest the fireplace with her back to the door and next to Robert, who had Lucia on his other side.

  Liam was in the centre of Tawny and Vivian on the couch opposite Flick’s, and her parents sat on the head couch, facing toward the fireplace. None of her group said anything; they spent most of their time staring at the floor. But Antoine and Simone had spent the last half an hour growing more frustrated in their private conversation.

  ‘You two, go and see,’ Antoine said to two of his guards, who nodded and disappeared from the room. The rest of the guards stayed around the edge of the room.

  From what Flick had picked up from the cousins’ foreign language conversation, they were expecting the group who held the staff to report in. But they had not. Antoine’s arrogance was their friend, because he hadn’t been initially worried about the delay in the guards’ report. Rushe and his cohorts were hundreds of miles away, so for now they were safe here… at least they were supposed to be.

  ‘We’ve been here for hours, and we’ll be here all night,’ Lucia said. ‘You can’t expect us to—‘

  ‘Don’t start talking,’ Simone said. ‘No one wishes to hear you.’ She and Antoine sat removed from the group, looking into the room, in the seats flanking the window seat.

  ‘Antoine,’ Lucia said. ‘Please, I know you care about me and the family. You don’t have to do any of this. You can still let us go. You can still be a good man, the good man I know that you really are.’

  ‘You are naive,’ Simone sneered.

  ‘But so eager to please,’ Antoine said, enjoying every moment of Lucia’s public humiliation. ‘She was easy, the easiest of them all to win over.’

  ‘We had a connection,’ Lucia said, but Flick heard the croak in her sister’s tone.

  ‘Your husband was tired of you, and you do love attention, Lucia. Your loose morals gave me the opportunity to gain an ally and gave me an avenue into your family confidence, which was exactly what I wanted. I did delight in enjoying your body.’

  ‘You are lying,’ Charles insisted.

  ‘I am not,’ Antoine said. ‘I have been intimate with your eldest daughter. Ask her to deny it.’

  A few seconds of nothing passed and Flick’s gut clenched, because his claim was true. Antoine had no reason to lie to Flick about it. She had also seen for herself just how besotted Lucia was, and had flagged the attraction to Rushe.

  ‘Lucia?’ Beverly said, when Lucia didn’t issue a denial and Charles’ silence gave his grave verdict. ‘Is it true?’

  ‘One child at least had the courtesy to take her debauchery away from your family home. Though it seems she returned with it... Rushe was quite a scare for this family,’ Antoine drawled. ‘Bringing him back here, Felicity, scared your parents so much that they were in desperation. My gracious offer to return you to them, out of his clutches—‘

  ‘And into yours,’ Flick said.

  ‘You were needlessly difficult. We could’ve been a team and helped each other. The offer of our union was yours, ma chère.’

  ‘I offered you my name, not my body. My body is for Rushe alone.’

  ‘As you proved in his bedroom. You made a fatal mistake there, Flick. Had you done as I requested, none of your family would be threatened.’

  ‘You already tried to blame this on me,’ Flick said. ‘This is about your family and about the crime you—‘

  A bang interrupted Flick’s words, and all the faces in the room began to look left to right, searching the other occupants for the source of the abrupt sound. But it had come from somewhere else in the house, and there was no mistaking that noise as anything other than a high-calibre gunshot.

  ‘What was that?’ Vivian asked.

  ‘I believe your husband must have departed as quickly as he arrived,’ Antoine said, and Simone laughed again.

  Vivian wailed, her mouth opened wide and her eyes squeezed shut against the declaration made by this despicable man holding them hostage. Any remaining doubt as to Antoine’s intention in this situation was erased. If Martin had been shot, then he had been killed.

  ‘Is that what you did to Roger?’ Flick asked.

  ‘Oh Roger, oh, non, non,’ Antoine said.

  Vivian continue
d to cry in great hulking sobs, but all of their hands were tied, and so little solace could be extended to her. Liam sat at Vivian’s side, and all he could offer was a pat to the knee. The brief contact was enough to encourage Vivian to turn her face against Liam, who lowered his cheek to rest on her hair as she bawled.

  ‘Where is he?’ Lucia demanded, hissing through her teeth and displaying a rage Flick had not witnessed in her before.

  ‘Restrained, with the staff,’ Antoine said. ‘We will not eliminate him until this situation is under control. We may need...’

  ‘Another scapegoat,’ Flick said. ‘If he was unhappy in his marriage, then maybe it was enough to murder his in-laws, is that your game?’

  ‘Non, but now that you come to mention that idea, it may have merit.’

  Antoine was already in a precarious position with Rushe. The European’s plan and his actions here tonight guaranteed he would receive no mercy. As Antoine went back to benign conversation with his cousin, Flick narrowed her eyes on the Merciers. Rushe always got his man, and as much as she didn’t know how it would play out, she trusted that Rushe would get them through this. After he did, she’d let Rushe follow the trail of figurative blood until Antoine didn’t have a drop left. In fact, she’d insist upon it.

  Flick didn’t know for how long she’d been staring at the clock on the mantle, though she should have, because it was the second hand that had her mesmerised. Flick knew it had been at least an hour since the gunshot, and she thought about Rushe on his journey. He’d have reached New Jersey already for sure. By now they probably would have liberated Serendipity, so there was a chance that Rushe was actually on his way back to her, and Flick knew he’d be frantic.

  ‘You three, take that phone,’ Antoine barked, and pointed to the three guards closest to the device. ‘Go and check on the others; I will call you in sixty seconds.’