by Finian Blake
“You have known her for all this time and all she gets is a kiss on the cheek!”
Laurita stroked his cheek, “He never hit on me, not even once. We have always had a reserved relationship because of Juan. ‘Hermes’ always loved me. That is why Juan called me ‘Mercury’ and Rich, ‘Hermes’.” Anna raised her eyebrow at the different name. “We were his twins. Juan always thought of ‘Hermes’ as a son. He liked to test us. I was very upset when he disappeared for all that time. When I wanted to find him, I knew that he had something special for Susan, so I pushed her hard. I am glad to see that he was with you. I know that he was safe with you, but what about your husband?”
“Gregory died in a riding accident, on the same day that Alex’s wife died. We comforted each other.”
Laurita smirked letting the bitterness seep into her voice, “How very convenient for the two of you it seems that there are always convenient accidents when ‘Hermes’ is around.” Laurita talked affectionately, but Anna sensed a predator ready to strike was just under the surface. Anna could hear the calculator spinning. Laurita knew Alex at the core level. Anna wondered what Juan was like when he was younger. She sensed that he was extremely tough and an astute student of human nature. Juan knew how to manipulate ‘Hermes’ loyalty and Anna knew that Laurita learned well from Juan. She was a true Amazon woman that was using up her men and ‘Mercury’ would use up her man discarding the shell when he was no longer of use just like a hermit crab.”
“Juan said that I should release you from your contract on the Russians, if you did this for him.” She smiled and stroked his cheek. “‘Hermes’, you are released from your contract. Anna has paid your price as all of your women pay the price.” Laurita said it with a touch of sarcasm with Alex feeling the dig.
“You know that he will never turn his back on Tony.” Anna jumped in the conversation. “He dumped the Generals in Tony’s back yard and we will take care of that item before retiring.” Laurita eyed Anna. She knew that she was an equal player and confirmed it when Anna pulled the trigger on Juan. There was absolutely no change of expression. Anna was a calculator too and Laurita felt the need to find out how much was love and how much was expedience?
Anna brushed Alex’s cheek lovingly dismissing him, “Alex why don’t you shower up I will be along in a few minutes.” Alex took the hint and kissed Laurita on the cheek. Anna gave him a sly smile and waved him out the door intentionally not giving Alex a kiss. Alex took his dismissal and left the pool house with only a quiet word to Laurita.
“I will see you in the morning. Try and get some sleep.” Alex walked out of the pool house and closed the glass doors. The two women watched him walk around the pool.
Anna gave ‘Mercury’ a wicked smile.
“‘Hermes’ is no more. You may still be ‘Mercury’, but he is no longer ‘Hermes’. We both know the Russians are not push over’s. We will need to get all of the key players in one pass.”
Laurita decided to show Anna part of her hand, “Yes, Ekaterina, I do know that and so do you. You are General Smirnov’s widow and you know them better than anyone.” Anna decided to take a shot in the dark.
“You know that I am Ekaterina Smirnov and I know that your real name is Laurita Garcia. Alex changed your history not your name. You can keep all of Mooney’s assets except for Alex. Edward is mine.” The last name broke Laurita’s poker face for just a second. Anna took a guess at ‘Hermes’ original name, since he pushed the name hard when it came time to name their son. The two women stared into each other’s eyes.
Laurita was the first to speak, “He told you!”
Anna smiled saying nothing. All of those silent hours sitting in the front seat of the General’s car had taught Anna that silence had a value.
Laurita knew that Anna had him and that she was going to be a true opponent. Was ‘Hermes’ an asset to Anna, like Juan was an asset to her? Laurita decided to go for the claim.
“‘Hermes’ is my asset. He belongs to me.”
“He was your asset, but I know his value. ‘Hermes’ has made a lot of money for you and he has made a lot of money for me. You had ‘Hermes’ and I have him now.” Anna wanted to test Laurita, to see if ‘Hermes’ was the battle ground. “Do you really want to go head to head.”
Laurita started to sniff out the possibilities, “It appears that you have talent too. Do you think that we need him?”
Anna gave Laurita a cold smile as she started to leave. “I think that I should join Alex now. I hope you will sleep well.” She walked out of the pool house leaving Laurita to wonder if the battle for Alex would be worth fighting. Juan taught her that the bet had to be worth the gain and Alex was nearly used up. She needed Anna’s help to win the next hand when she went to take over Juan’s operation since she was much smarter than the other Russians. With the right mix Laurita could eliminate the generals and take over their operation cutting Tony out and the other Diego bosses. Alex had taught Anna how to keep from losing track of the target due to distractions.
Alex was sitting on the edge of the bed still fully dressed when Anna walked in the room. Somehow he was expecting to see blood.
“I believe that she will recover nicely,” Anna smiled sweetly. “I will help you with the generals and we will be finished with both Zeus and ‘Mercury’. The only things those ancient gods produced were tragedies anyway.”
She kissed him passionately starting a seductive striptease in front of Alex. He was out of his blues by the time she was down to her panties. She lay back on the bed and placed her ankle behind his neck.
“If you do not get out of those clothes, I will tear them off you.”
He bit her ankle making no move to undress. Anna grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked with all her might. The buttons flew off his shirt when it ripped. She hooked her knee behind his neck pulling his face to her, and he eagerly attacked. They wrestled for position making love with passion. When they were finished she wrapped her arms and legs around him, whispering quietly.
“Good night Edward.” He stiffened momentarily and then moved back into her. It was a reaction, but much less than she anticipated.
Anna awoke early she dressed and prepared for the day. She walked over to the bed.
“Why don’t you sleep in I want to look around. Laurita and I will go shopping this morning. I believe that we need to get better acquainted.” She went down stairs and Constanza the housekeeper poured her a cup of coffee. Laurita came down stairs and took a sip from Anna’s cup.
“Anna, how do you keep Alex in check?”
“We have wild sex on a regular basis. He is decidedly kinky, so I screw his brains into jelly.” She opened her blouse and displayed her nipple rings under a lacy transparent bra. “Alex is very visual he likes lingerie, heels, and hose. I keep his attention by stimulating him often.”
“I noticed your clothes are very expensive and fit extremely well. They have a definite European design. Perhaps that is why we could not find you. We were looking in the states.” Anna refused the bait.
“Did you notice that his eyes stay on me? I have his mind and maintain his loyalty. If something distracts him, I distract Alex even more. When I give him what he wants I get what I want. We should go, now,” Anna said firmly. They left to go shopping with Paul driving. The Mercedes headed into Barcelona to Boulevard Rosa in the fashion district. Laurita started to talk first.
“Alex is…” Anna was not going to ignore the driver as so many people do.
“Alex taught me that you never discuss anything important in a car.” She closed off the conversation quickly. The Mercedes dropped them off and Paul agreed to meet them at a restaurant at three PM. Anna noticed that Paul’s voice was the same as the voice of ‘‘Mercury’” on the phone.
“You are as much a fanatic as Alex is.” Laurita started walking. “He absolutely refuses to break his own rules.”
Anna kept her eyes focused straight ahead as she talked to Laurita, “Alex is still alive and walking
free, so he has my total admiration. I wanted to talk to you without him around.” Anna went straight to the heart of the issue. “This last contract puts him into retirement as far as ‘Mercury’ is concerned. He will take care of the generals, but we will not clean up the whole mess. That mess started before the Generals came over. We will work with Mooney’s request, but nothing further.”
Laurita tried outrage, “He brought them to the states and he needs to clean it up.”
“He brought the three generals there, but did not create the whole mess.” Anna countered. “Anything above that is a bonus for your group.” Laurita stopped and studied her. She had a suspicion that Anna was not as loyal as it appeared on the surface and this woman was definitely not the retiring housewife. Anna decided to leave an opening in the conversation, “Are there other things that are worth cleaning up?”
“What I really need is you, Alex is burned out. It seems that you don’t need anyone to do your dirty work.” They reached a leather shop. The two women walked around the shop examining the wears. Anna continued the conversation while they shopped. As Anna walked around the shop she watched the other shoppers to see if anyone was listening to their conversation. Anna’s constant state of awareness did not escape Laurita.
“We are a team and you get us both. When this is done do not look for us to do more of your work. I will give ‘Hermes’ all of his messages. Alex and I have done very well working together and he could still produce millions if handled properly.” Anna had her own reasons for taking the contract. She wanted to protect her own people because the Generals were looking for them. They still claimed ownership over the girls even though they had been well compensated for their loss. “I am claiming him, now!” It was a statement of fact not a request. “If I were you, I would let ‘Mercury’ fade out. You are working for a bunch of two faced bastards.” Laurita could not argue that point. “Juan left you his Roman account which should be several million dollars. I can clearly see that you are not wanting for money. Even with an extravagant life style you will want for nothing for the rest of your life. Juan was running the show you were his messenger and now I will be giving the orders to ‘Hermes’.”
Anna continued, “I saw him. It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that you had to be running things for several years.” Laurita handed her a jacket and the two women kept moving. “Juan gave the orders but you were the operations end and we both know it. You did everything for these last few years.” Anna had been witness to too many deals to accept that dodge. She worked next to the power and watched the decisions carried out. All of a sudden she figured out why Nicaragua and Afghanistan were so screwed up. “With the way things are set up. You could continue and nobody would know the difference. ‘Mercury’ is the code name and Paul is the voice. If you know how to use it there never will be a difference that your customers will detect.” Anna put the jacket back in the rack and moved along. “I do not care what you do, but Alex belongs to me. You saw him and he is played out as far as this business is concerned, but I can use him just like you used Juan.” Laurita had to acknowledge the truth in that statement. She hated to lose somebody of his talent, but Anna had her hooks solidly into Alex. Over the past four years he had made millions for Juan and probably for himself.
Laurita decided to switch the subject, “What do you know about this Inn?”
Anna kept her poker face, “I know that it is a MI5 intelligence operation and Susan runs it for them. It is a high-end resort for the ultra-rich to act out their sexual fantasies. Alex stumbled across it and did a few jobs for MI5 over the last few years.” Laurita did not like the sound of that news. Intelligence from MI5 was responsible for busting several of her good customers including the IRA accounts. When MI shut the accounts down they confiscated millions and she did not want to get caught putting the strong arm on a government sponsored undercover operation. She decided to fish a little more.
“How strong are they with MI5?”
“I don’t know Alex had a few problems in the U K and Susan made them go away in exchange for a few favors.”
“You need to visit there.” Anna continued. “They have a seamstress shop that makes my clothes. They are geniuses with cloth. You would love it. There is equestrian area and a studio on the property.”
“Did you say a studio? We lost a film operation in the U K. They were shooting porno and somebody killed everybody involved. It was a massacre fifteen people died in one incident. We lost the whole top of the operation and some of our richest customers too.” Anna kept her poker face and continued to shop.
“I do not think they are interested in porn. From what I observed they were making a ton of money legally. They are making movies and doing advertising. They have a solid back ground in video technology and are producing in the new Beta and VHS formats. You could always pitch the idea. Why don’t you show me your file on the Inn? We might be able to add something to what you have already.” Anna decided to tease Laurita. “That type of an operation seems like it would be several steps below Mooney’s style. Alex made more in one month than one of those operations would have cleared in several years.” Anna could see the screw you look in Laurita’s eyes. Could it be that she was piggy backing Mooney’s operations and that it was her personal project?
Laurita was clearly unhappy. “I wanted to put Alex on that one, but Juan wanted to keep him for other projects. Juan did not want to go head to head when he did not know who or what we were up against. Mooney was much too conservative when he was sick.” Anna was having some serious fun with her and decided to dig her spurs in a little deeper.
“It doesn’t sound like it. Mooney died a free man and not in a jail cell. Did you ever find out who it was?”
Laurita could not hide the bitterness. “No, there were too many influential people involved. Scotland Yard put an iron clad clamp on any information. It almost sounded like a military hit. They couldn’t even find one shell casing. The slugs were all nine millimeter NATO ammo, but other than that we were not even able to get the names of all of the victims. All of the records disappeared or were sealed. Shit, I got more out of the tabloids than I did from paid informants.”
Anna decided to offer some interest, “Alex does have some connections he might be able to find something out after all one cannot hide forever.”
They walked out of the leather shop and down the line to a lingerie shop. Anna switched the topic. “As close as you two are I was surprised to hear that Alex never hit on you. He never gave you more than a peck on the cheek?” Laurita was a beautiful Latina. She had wide hips and a narrow waist. She had a youthful angular face and took excellent care of herself. Living in a fashion area like Barcelona she had access to fashionable clothing. She tended to the brighter colors which looked smart with her dark olive skin and raven hair.
Laurita took the opening, “‘Hermes’ respected Mooney and refused to show anything, but polite brotherly affection toward me. Other than you, I never saw him even kiss another woman. I thought that he was gay at first. After a while I realized that he was just private. I only heard Mooney use his name twice. Mooney even set up a hooker and Alex refused. Later, when Mooney had me arrange something for a wedding present, I found out that he was engaged at the time. Nothing personal happened when Alex was on a job. When he was working it was all strictly business. It was three more years before I learned that his name was never Rich Buck or Noah Body. I have to admit you have made real progress with him on that point. He never played around, or did drugs. The one thing that I do remember is that he liked to smile even when he dropped the hammer. Alex always had a warm smile. He could deliver a ton of goods and look like he was going to a picnic or a church social. He was Tony’s star for delivery. There was a rumor that he was a bootlegger back in his past.”
“You mean white lightening.”
“Hell no, he bootlegged cigarettes. There was a twenty cent a pack tax on cigarettes. Alex would run them down in a forty-foot trailer. They said that
he pulled doubles full of bootleg cigarettes and that is a shit load of dimes. Alex would deliver booze, cigarettes, drugs, guns, cash and people.” Laurita waved her hand down her body for emphasis. “Tony was his mentor and he started Alex out when he was sixteen. Tony was off to the side of Mooney and he worked for all of the families. He had a talent for being a mediator and was highly respected because he always found a way to prevent open vendetta. Mooney claimed Alex’s services, but he always had a soft spot for Tony. Alex was twenty-five when he took care of us and Mooney picked him up from there, so he owed Tony a big debt for that claim.”
The next stop was for shoes. They selected several pair of shoes to try on. Anna found two pair with metal stiletto heels. One pair was a stylish pair of spaghetti strap sandals and the other pair was an ugly red pair with thick ankle straps.
Anna laughed, “Alex says that he has steel wheels and I have steel heels. I must have eight pair of shoes with steel heels. They seem to be a turn on for him. You know how everybody has their little quirk.”
“I never saw that side of him because he always stuck to business. I showed him tits, ass and bush and he never so much as blinked.” Anna smiled at her.
“I will have to show you the other ninety percent of the ice berg.” She picked out a pair of maroon shoes with four-inch steel heels for Laurita. Anna walked back to the lingerie shop and made a few daring selections for Laurita in maroon with Anna paying for them as a gift.
Anna laughed, “Since Juan is dead Alex will not have to worry about showing any disrespect. He will love these because Maroon is a target color for him. It drives him mad.”
Laurita said reflectively, “Dianne the madam for the porno operation had a passion for maroon and she would have driven Alex absolutely nuts. That was just before you came out of Russia.”
