by Kimball Lee
Jorgen stood up, offered his hand, “Alexander Bly, it’s been a while, nice to see you. What are the odds, running into my little Chari and you in the same night? I was just telling her I’m playing in San Francisco tomorrow, the Forty Niners, and she might want to come along.” He noticed that Bly’s gaze never left Charlotte.
“I’m going with him Bly, go fuck the wicked witch, I’m sure she’s hot to keep her job.”
“Charlotte, you’re drunk let’s go to our room, please.” He stepped closer to Jorgen, they stood face to face, his was a mask of fury and his voice made her cringe, “Jorgen, she’s with me, do you understand? She’s not going anywhere with you ever again.”
Jorgen backed away and threw up his hands. He looked at Charlotte, smiled and said, “Well Chari, I believe he loves you, too, so you’re not in it all by yourself.”
Bly’s face softened then and he sat next to her in the booth. He held her against him and whispered, “Charlotte, you’ve put up a good fight to keep your feelings in control. The battle isn’t lost if you love me, we’ve both won. I love you Charlotte, truly, madly and very, very deeply.”
In the elevator, on their way to the room, she clung to him, but wouldn’t look up at his face.
He felt like he had been given the greatest gift of his life, she loved him and she’d even told Jorgen. He wanted to run his hands up the back of the tiny dress and cup her ass but he needed her to know it was more than sex. It was certainly mind-blowing sex, but it was much, much more.
In the suite they made love slowly, both saying, “I love you, I love you,” over and over.
He’d taken her again, against the wall of the shower, lifting her, her legs encircling him. He’d pulled her down hard on his cock and she felt that she would split open, but she trusted him and she clinched tightly around him as she reveled in the glorious ache.
Later, they sat against piles of pillows in the huge bed, the lights of the Strip casting bright patterns on the walls of the suite. They’d ordered burgers and fries from room service and laughed as they fed each other in bed.
He told her the reason he’d stared at her all those years ago at the photo shoot. That he’d fallen hopelessly in love with her then and he’d had the primal urge to take her without a condom and plant his seed in her. The need to possess her had been so strong that he intended to tell her, that’s why he’d called. He wanted her to meet him so he could say he knew it was crazy but she was meant to be his. That she should love him and have his children and they would have everything, especially each other.
She slept curled tightly against him, she was his and he loved her, she was safe with him and so was her heart. She rose early the next morning, dressed in jeans, t-shirt and sneakers and put her hair in a ponytail. She wanted to try her hand at gambling before they left so she grabbed her phone and her wallet and took the elevator to the casino. She played a few slot machines and it was up and down and it bored her. She walked out onto the Strip and breathed in the air. She felt a pinch at her neck and everything went black.
By late afternoon, when Charlotte couldn’t be found, Bly was in a panic, he had the entire hotel staff and the police looking for her.
West reviewed the security tapes and three of Jamey Huang’s men had been in the casino. The cameras showed that she’d walked outside after gambling and they had followed her. The trail ended there and her cell phone was going straight to voice mail. He alerted the highway patrol and the Las Vegas and L.A. police departments and airport security nationwide.
The call came the next day from Jamey Huang, he wanted to meet Alexander Bly face to face and make his demands. No law enforcement would be involved or Charlotte would die. It was arranged for him to come to Bly’s mansion with only one of his men. He felt that would be sufficient since he held all the cards.
*
Huang looked perfectly at ease sitting in Bly’s formal living room. He smiled serenely, sure of himself as he watched the powerful Alexander Bly sweat.
“You don’t quite understand, Mr. Bly. It would be simple if all I wanted was your money or your life or only to fuck your gorgeous girlfriend. Even as extraordinary as she is, none of those things fill my needs. I suppose it was a lucky twist of fate that your case brought Charlotte into my sphere of consciousness. Oh, it took a lot of digging. Perhaps your own sources overlooked the connection. You see, I want to kill a man, a man who has become a serious thorn in my side and he will only come to me in order to save her. I will put your mind at ease by telling you that she ended it with him long before she knew you. The good news for me is that he has never been able to move past his love for her. So you see, Mr. Bly, she is the perfect bait. He has nearly ruined my nice little arms-dealing business, he has ruthlessly killed my men and my foreign clients and he has been impossible to stop. I want him to surrender himself to me so that I can torture him for a good, long while before I kill him. Your job is to convey my message that his beloved will remain untouched, although she will also be naked and drugged just to take the edge off her hell-cat tendencies,” he touched the deep scratch marks that marred his face. “She will be returned to you, Mr. Bly, you can ride off into the sunset with her and live happily ever after if that is what you wish. However you must to come to Hong Kong to collect her. Here is the address where we will make the trade in two days’ time.” He handed a slip of paper to Bly. “An easy trade, Mr. Bly, I’m sure he’ll agree to it quickly when he knows that I have her. If you want her alive and… intact, you will bring me Finnegan Hale.”
Bly was shocked beyond what he thought was possible. He was livid that West had failed to discover that Finn had been the man from Charlotte’s past. He felt it was his own fault that he’d kept her away from her friends so that Finn didn’t know she had come in contact with Jamey Huang. He’d felt powerless in the face of his love for Charlotte and now he felt powerless to do anything to save her, other than to hand over a man who would be tortured and murdered.
How would Charlotte be able to live with that? Bly knew she loved him as he loved her but he also knew she cared for her former lover, was still his best friend. The thought of her, drugged and on her way to China made him want to cry for the first time since he was a little boy. Imagining Jamey Huang’s young thugs gathered around her, seeing her naked… he couldn’t stand to think about it.
West used all his connections to locate JP and give him the news. JP, it turned out, was in charge of organizing the details of an operation once a target was located, but Finn was unparalleled at stealthily and cleanly eliminating, ‘the bad guys.’
JP arrived at Bly’s mansion in the middle of the night and he looked badly shaken. He sat down with Bly and West and told them what he knew.
“I talked to Finn on a secure line and he’s gone out of his mind that they have her. I’ve never known him to come undone over anything before. I’m in shock, to be honest; I never suspected there was anything more than friendship between them. I did know Finn loved someone but it had been over for a while and talking about it was strictly off limits. What matters is getting Charlotte back and the fact that Finn is not thinking rationally. He’s not going to fight them and put her in harm’s way. We all know they’re not going to let him live once they have him. He’s been ruthless at taking out Huang’s connections and let me tell you they are some bad motherfuckers. Huang isn’t just dealing in rifles. He got his hands on long range missiles and nuclear warheads. He’s supplying terrorists. Finn’s valuable to the government but they’re not going to get involved and risk blowing the covers of an entire group of operatives. Of course, he knows that, and he intends to go it alone, I can’t figure out anything we can do other than let him give himself over to them.”
*
Charlotte opened her eyes and everything was blurry. Her vision began to clear but she couldn’t figure out where she was. She heard the roar of jet engines and remembered bits and pieces. Someone had jabbed a needle in her neck and she’d awakened to see Jamey Huang’s sad
istic face above her. He’d moved his face close to hers and she’d scratched the hell out of him. He’d slapped her so hard her face was still throbbing.
She heard men’s voices talking and laughing and she sat up. She was on a bed in only her bra and panties; one wrist was handcuffed to a metal bedpost. She yelled at the top of her lungs, “Jamey, you worthless coward get in here and unlock me!”
He came in and sat next to her on the bed, he ran his hand over her lacy bra, then up to her swollen lips. She grabbed his hand and bit it and he backhanded her again.
“Bly will kill you for touching me.” She said, her voice shaking.
He laughed and produced the key to the handcuff, “Charlotte, my beauty, you’re not really my type. Wrong equipment, if you get my drift. Although that succulent mouth of yours is probably incredible to fuck and I’ll be tempted to make use of it if you cause me any problems. My men are extremely needy right now and rather bored, so you’ll want to stay quiet and out of sight unless you want the rest of your body to end up like your poor bruised face. They’re animals, the men who work for me; they’d tear you to pieces with their cocks and their fists and enjoy every minute of it. I’ll unlock your wrist and you can use the restroom, but if I were you, I would stay in the relative safety of this room. By tomorrow your beloved assassin will trade himself for you and you can go home with your billionaire and forget this ever happened.”
An old Chinese man walked in and with a tray of medical instruments and as she watched he filled a syringe.
“What assassin, what are you talking about?” she tried to back away and Jamey wrapped her tightly in a blanket and held her as she struggled against the needle.
“Sweet dreams, princess. Be sure to dream well about your old lover, this is Finnegan Hale’s last night on earth.”
The drug was dragging her down, down, faraway, and she remembered.
Seven
After the first year of law school, JP, Finn and Charlotte moved into a tiny house together. They did it partly for financial reasons but mostly because they were a threesome. Not where sex was concerned, Charlotte had avoided men after her divorce and men left her alone when Finn and JP were around. They lived together because they loved being in each other’s company, they laughed at the same jokes, they drank but didn’t smoke, and they didn’t do drugs. Both men had gone into the military straight out of high school; they’d finished their bachelor’s degrees online and had become bad-ass Special Forces operatives. The threesome moved into a 1930’s Craftsman cottage not far from campus, it had three small bedrooms and only one bath. That had been difficult for Charlotte at first, since the men never thought to close the bathroom door.
“It’s a military thing!” Finn yelled as she ran back down the hall one morning after she’d walked in on him humming as he sat on the edge of the bathtub jerking off. He laughed and told her he’d heard her battery operated ‘boyfriend’ hum often enough.
Finn grew up in Manchester, England and his family moved to California when he was seventeen. He’d gone into the navy, been recruited for SEAL training and had become a U.S. citizen.
Charlotte knew that no matter how close they’d all become as friends, both men still secretly lusted after her, but they were well oiled military machines. They knew how to resist enemy interrogation and torture, so they lived with and resisted her. Then, one night the sound of JP and some girl really going at it sent her to the bathroom in the dark, and there was Finn.
He stood in the shower with water pouring over him, his eyes were closed. He was all gorgeous, rippling muscles, tattoos and battle scars, his long, stiff cock in his hand.
She stood still and watched him, it was so fucking sexy and his hard, sculpted body was so splendid it didn’t look real.
He wasn’t quite as tall as JP, but he was powerfully built, he trained as a boxer and it kept him incredibly strong and ripped. He’d said his tattoos told secret stories of missions he’d been on as a SEAL and there were knife and bullet wound scars all over him. He had dark, closely cropped hair and lips that made women stop and stare.
Charlotte, too, was mesmerized by his mouth. Any woman would have paid good money for those lips, the top one was as full as the bottom and they were a luscious red.
He was deep in to what he was doing and had no idea she was there, for some reason he let go of his cock, covered his face with his hands and murmured, “ah, Charlotte.”
She stepped back then and a floor board creaked, he looked at her and she didn’t move another muscle.
He stepped out of the shower dripping wet, he didn’t even turn off the water. He held her with his large, grey eyes and walked slowly toward her, she could’ve walked away but she waited for him.
He took her face in his hands and she had never known such a kiss. His lips were amazingly succulent. The kiss was hot and wet and powerful.
She’d only ever slept with one man, strange as that seemed for the woman who’d been every man’s sexual obsession thanks to the magazine layout. But she’d worked hard and avoided boys to get through school, then she’d married briefly for the wrong reasons. Her divorce had been final for nearly a year and she hadn’t had sex in all that time.
He picked her up and he was still wet from the shower. His eyes never left hers as he laid her on her bed then locked the door and climbed in with her.
“Are you sure?” he asked her. “It could change things.”
He knew how to hold himself in check but he was struggling with his need for her. He wanted her more than he wanted his next breath, but he didn’t want her to know he was in love with her.
“Let’s just not let things change,” she said as she wrapped her legs around him and used her own hand to guide him inside her.
Maybe it had been so burning hot because it seemed taboo; they were breaking their vow to never let sex ruin their party of three. Now they were both cheating on JP. They decided it would be the only time it would ever happen, so they stayed up all night until they were both so raw they could barely walk or pee. They’d finally fallen asleep sometime the next morning and when they heard JP in the kitchen making coffee she made Finn go out the window naked.
He didn’t care, he walked back through the front door as JP was handing Charlotte a cup of coffee. He stood there butt naked and said, “Did you realize that if you go out early enough you can steal the neighbors newspaper?” He threw the paper on the kitchen table, said good night and slept the rest of the day.
JP stuck his head in Finn’s bedroom later in the day and said, “Hey, next time you sneak down the street to fuck Mrs. Kravitz come back with your clothes, numb nuts.”
Finn gave him a thumbs up and went back to sleep.
Charlotte was still on the couch in her nightgown and JP turned to look at her and motioned toward Finn’s room.
He shook his head and said, “Can you believe that pervert? I think he nearly fucked himself to death!”
*
Alexander Bly, West and JP stood in a small garden in Hong Kong waiting to see how it was going to go. JP had word from Finn that he would be there and turn himself over to Huang. He’d told JP that he and West shouldn’t bring weapons, he didn’t want to provoke a conflict, they only wanted him and he wanted Charlotte to go free.
Jamey Huang and five of his men walked into view, the men carried rifles and Jamey held Charlotte next to him.
She was barefoot, in jeans and a man’s dirty blue dress shirt. She looked drowsy and one of her cheeks was badly bruised and her bottom lip was split open and blood seeped from it.
Bly exhaled sharply and started toward her. West held him back telling him to not show anger, to wait if he wanted her back.
Finn appeared from a narrow alley between two buildings and walked toward Huang and his group and everyone got quiet. He looked completely calm as his eyes quickly assessed Charlotte’s face.
“Let her go,” Finn said, his voice was dark and dangerous, “and I mean now, Huang, or you’re not going to
like what I have planned for you.”
Huang’s men aimed their weapons at Finn, except for Jamey who just smiled and pulled Charlotte closer. He ran his fingertips over her bruised faced and dragged them through the blood on her mouth, smearing it onto her chin, then put his fingers to his mouth and tasted it.
“Any last words for your beloved?” Jamey asked, watching Finn’s jaw twitch slightly.
“A good bye kiss,” Finn said, as he leaned forward. He kissed Charlotte lightly on the mouth and knocked Jamey out with one blow of his powerful fist. “Go,” he told her, staring into her eyes, she was crying hard and clinging to him as four of the men attacked him. They pushed her aside and dragged him away, beating him with the butts of their rifles.
A single man stayed behind aiming his weapon at JP, Bly and West. He shoved Charlotte forward and continued to point the gun until Bly collected her and pulled her to a waiting car as she cried and screamed for Finn.
On the jet, Charlotte curled against Bly, relieved to be safe in his arms, but completely miserable. She couldn’t stop crying as she pictured the way Finn looked at her for the last time, and she wouldn’t be consoled. He’d kissed her then smiled as if there was nothing to worry about before he was attacked and dragged away. Her head was on Bly’s chest and he stroked her hair, his heart beating against her cheek. There was a doctor on board the jet and he deemed her completely sound and gave her a Xanax. Still, she was shaking as and miserable as she mourned Finn’s death. The world continued its journey through space, but he was gone forever, and because of his sacrifice, she was alive. She would be happy with Bly; they would have a beautiful life. But, Finn wouldn’t survive and the thought of his eyes, still as alive and defiant as the men beat him, made her weep again and again. He’d been her best friend and she loved him like family.
JP was on his satellite tablet searching the Hong Kong news stations.
