“Why didn’t you go to the authorities yourself?”
“Because of his associates. Martin has been talking to this Vitali person constantly. I don’t want end up in pieces in an oil drum somewhere, Mister Amsel. I need protection. Help from somebody who can protect me. Not witness protection or something like that. I don’t want to destroy my life.”
“Alright. So what do you need from me?”
“I need your access code. There’s some stuff I can’t get on my own. I was hoping we could go through that now, see what we can find.”
“Okay.”
“The interior vault. We need your code.”
My code in fact opened a second vault door, into a smaller room where even more sensitive material was kept. That first day I mostly sat at the reading table while Brittany went over what she found, making notes, explaining it to me. I had a basic grasp of most of it, and some required explanation. I was carrying a B- average in business with a human resources concentration. This math shit was mostly there to be someone else’s problem. Dad always used to say there was no better problem than someone else’s problem. He also taught me to listen to my gut and trust my experts, let them do their jobs and reserve the high level decisions for myself.
“There’s so much here,” she said. “We can’t finish today and I can’t take any of this out of here.”
“So, I come back. When?”
“Martin goes to meetings every Monday, so every Monday?”
“That works.”
She looked up from the papers. “Maybe we could go over this tonight. Over dinner.”
I sat up. “No. Miss Andrews, look, let’s keep this strictly professional. I have a…” I almost said fiancee, “I have a girlfriend. That’s not why I’m here.”
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean,” she brushed her hair back, “Um. Right. So…”
“See you Monday,” I said. “If we’re going to take that kind of time to keep doing this, I want you to keep an eye on what he’s doing right now. Anything you can put together to prove he’s dirty.”
“I can do that.”
“You have my cell number if you need anything. Don’t hesitate to call for help. Be careful.”
“I will.”
“I should leave first. Let’s not be seen together. Wait twenty minutes. You have a reason to be in here? If someone asks?”
“Yeah. We just ran into each other, that’s all.”
“Okay. I’ll see you Monday. Don’t email or text me anything, do it all in writing or by voice. I don’t want somebody stumbling on what you’re doing. I think we should go to the police now, but if I can’t change your mind…”
“Not yet. I’m not ready. If I try and fail…”
I sighed. “Yeah, I read you. Fine, Monday.”
I left first, as I suggested. I stopped in a few offices and said hello to some family friends, to make it look like I was there for a reason besides ducking into the vault for no readily apparent purpose.
When I got back to school, Eve was waiting for me. I copied a key to my room for her since we were living together in flagrant violation of the college rules. Not like I cared.
The key even said “Do Not Duplicate” on it. I’m a rebel.
“Where have you been?” she said, looking up from her book.
“Who, me? I was just out getting some air.”
“It’s five o’clock. Your last class ended at three.”
I’d skipped class, but she didn’t know that.
I answered her by scooping her up out of the chair. Eve was light as a feather then, and I was very strong. I picked her right up and kissed her, hard, and I could feel her worries melt away. There was a little jealous streak in my Eve. I thought it was endearing, really. Her father beat her down and ground her into dust but that iron core remained behind and she was bouncing back. She smiled, she laughed at my dumb jokes. Once that barrier was broken I found out how clever and subtle she was. I lifted her onto the bed and rolled on top of her. She slipped her legs around me and I felt the softness of her breasts through her sweat and smelled lilacs in her hair, and tasted her warm sweet lips for what felt like hours. Her stomach rumbled and she broke from a kiss, touching my shoulders.
“Let’s eat, huh?”
We ended up ordering pizza out. I ordered a big bowl of boneless hot wings and split a double cheesy with Eve, a big cheese pizza with more cheese in the crust around the edge. She loved those, used to eat them backwards.
You know, it’s the simple things. She wasn’t looking at me when it hit me. She was chewing on a wad of mozzarella and dough and working on some complicated expected value problem, her blue eyes burning with concentration. The fading afternoon light made her hair glow, the way it did. I just stared at her for a while, and realized that Eve was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me. I hated her father’s guts but I couldn’t hate him for bringing her to me. I should have done something sooner. I should have done something about the wedding. I should have found a way to protect Eve and protect my mother and protect all the people he was going to hurt in my name, prevent all the evil he was going to do.
The three worst words in the English language are I should have.
None of that mattered, now. I was going to shut Martin down, pull his hooks out of my birthright, and get him away from my mother. I was going to save the princess and live forever with her I my tower.
Dad would be proud.
She looked up from her meal and math. “What?”
“Nothing. I was just looking at you.”
The next day I went to shop for engagement rings.
Chapter Sixteen
Victor
That damn ring burned a hole in my pocket. Figuratively, I mean.
It took me two weeks to pick out the right one. I decided to combine trips. It made a good excuse. Lots of jewelers in Philadelphia, most of them, as you would expect, on Jeweler’s Row. It took three trips before I settled on the one I wanted. A big diamond in the middle, cut in a square shape, flanked by two sapphires on either side, and two more diamonds, all on a white gold band. The sapphires sparkled like her eyes. On the fourth trip into the city, I picked up the ring and carried it in my pocket while I was working with Brittany. That was the biggest mistake I ever made, I think.
If I’d gone to the police, if I’d used my head, but I didn’t want to involve Eve until I knew it was lock tight, until I knew Martin would go down.
The detective work was boring as hell. After listening to an hour of Brittany explaining the intricacies of a IPO and what Martin was doing with this tire company was illegal, I was ready to stab out my own ear drums with an ice pick. I leaned on my hand and thought about the look on Eve’s face when I took a knee before her. Dad told me I should never ask a girl until I already knew the answer. I was pretty confident Eve’s answer would be yes. I fingered the ring box in my pocket and tried to decide when to ask the question, and how. Should I just do it, right then when I got back to the room? Take her out? Where? We ate at McDonalds once a week. Billionaires do not propose to their girlfriends at McDonalds. I should do something fancy, I decided, something memorable. It needed to be something important.
School was almost over. I’d do it at home, at the house. In the library, I think. I needed to talk to Mom, first.
“We have enough here to make a case,” said Brittany, “what do we do?”
“Put it all together,” I said. “Take some vacation. We’ll set up a meeting. I think you need to meet Eve.”
“Okay. It might be tough for me to sneak all this out. I think you should do it.”
She never took her eyes off me.
“Yeah, good point. You’d be in a world of shit if you got caught walking out of here with this stuff.” So would I, but that was beside the point. Or maybe it was the point.
Victor, you asshole, you picked this day to be chivalrous.
I put the files in my attache. It was actually my father’s, a hand me down from his father
, old and supple and soft. I used to play with it when I was a kid, and beg my father to let me have it. Then when it was mine, I didn’t want it anymore. I didn’t want any of this. I just wanted to work on cars.
Get rid of Martin and I could.
I left first, as we usually did. No one searched me, of course, as I left.
Graduation was the following week. I would walk, get my diploma, and step onto the football field one of the one hundred richest men in the world. All my dreams were coming true. I never dreamed about the money. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what to do with it. Materially, I already had everything I could possibly want or need, and soon Eve would, too, and our kids. I wanted kids with her, I was one hundred and ten percent sure, and she was coming around. She would finish her degree. We’d live off campus for her last year. I was already looking at houses. I was going to surprise her with it. We both liked the town, and I was thinking maybe we’d move there. I could shutter the house, turn it into a museum, maybe we could winter there or something. It was a long drive back. I had a lot of time, a lot of dreaming to do.
Technically, we could have lived in the dorm until my graduation, but I packed all of mine and Eve’s shit in the back of the car, filling up the trunk and seat both, and we drove home. The only thing missing was a just married sign and some cans to rattle behind us as we drove. I was giddy with excitement. I’d already talked to the kitchen staff. We were going to eat on the terrace, have a big fancy meal and then I’d pop the question at sunset, drop to one knee before her and wait for her to answer. The idea made my palms sweat. When I was shopping for the ring I was sure she’d say yes. Now that she was sitting next to me, sleeping with head propped on my shoulder as I drove the back way up the country roads, I wasn’t so sure. It was a silly kind of worry, like checking the stove three times before leaving the house, or running around looking for your keys when they’re in your hand.
Reminds me of something my Dad told me once. Love is giving someone the power to hurt you terribly, and hoping they don’t.
I didn’t wake her until we were almost home. I nudged her with my arm and she stirred, yawned, and stretched, folding her arms behind her head and cracking her back.
“Hey,” I said. “We’re back.”
She looked a little sad, but then she always did.
“I’m going to talk to my mother,” I said.
She looked at me sharply, drawing in a quick breath.
“Eve, in a week it won’t matter what anybody says. We can do what we want.”
She nodded. “What about… I mean, legally. I never looked it up. I was afraid.”
“What, because our parents are married? It means nothing legally, Eve. I talked to a company lawyer about it. People might think it’s weird or tacky, but fuck them. I do what I want.”
She always flinched when I used a curse word casually like that.
“My father…”
“Can go fuck himself. We’re adults, Eve, and there’s nothing he can do. If he tries, my lawyers will blot out the sun.”
Besides, there would be no need to worry about him, soon. Maybe she’d want to visit him in prison.
Eve settled into her seat as I pulled around to the garage. I wanted to carry my own stuff but Mom insisted the servants do it. I never liked having servants. It felt so silly, to have people paid to carry my crap. Eve felt the same way, but we went along with it.
Mom looked healthier than she had for a while. She picked up a bad cough over the winter and lingered for months, all through the rest of the school year. She’d been pale and drawn, but looked bright and healthy today. She gave me a big hug, then gave one to Eve, squeezing the life out of her.
“My father?” said Eve.
“Away on business,” she sighed. “He’s been so distant lately, I…” she looked at Eve. “Nevermind about that. Come in. I haven’t seen either of you since Easter.”
It took an hour of talking to pry her away from Eve. We went to Dad’s old study. I thought it was the best place.
When she hacked and coughed into her hand, it worried me. She was carrying around a hanky to cough into.
“Hey,” I said. “Have you been to the doctor about that?”
“It’s nothing. So what’s the big secret?”
I leaned back on his desk and fiddled with his magnifying glass. “Eve and I have, um,” I started. How do I put this?
“You’re in a relationship, Vic. I’m not blind. Did you really think anyone bought your excuses to get away from here with her? I’m not that slow.”
She smiled warmly at me.
“Yeah. I”m going to ask her to marry me. Tonight.”
“Good. I hope she says yes. She loves you, you know.”
I thought I was going to fall through the floor. “Yeah. Thanks, Mom.”
“Of course. Martin isn’t going to like this.”
My face must have hardened, because she raised her hand.
“You know, you were right. Marrying him was a mistake.”
My hands tightened around the edge of the desk and the wood dug into my palms. “Why? Did he-“
“Hit me? No. He just grew less and less interested in me as the years went on. It’s been, what, three years now? The closer we came to the day the trust passed to you, the less interested in me he became.”
Another coughed wracked her tiny body, and I felt my stomach sink. Maybe it was just the lighting in the office, but Mom looked old. She’d never looked old. Not like that. She swept at her lips with the hanky and tucked it into her pocket, and folded her arms.
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. What should I do? I’ve been thinking about a separation.”
“There’s stuff I haven’t told you about him. About the way he raised his daughter.”
“I knew there was something strange about it,” she sighed. “The homeschooling was… odd. It almost sounds like he had her locked up, isolated from the outside world, doesn’t it? I thought he was just overprotective. He can be very intense.”
“He used to hit her. Badly. He left scars, Mom.”
Startled, she blinked. “He never raised a hand against me. Why haven’t you said this before?”
I wasn’t sure I could be rid of him before.
“I talked to him once, made sure it wouldn’t be a problem with you, or with Eve anymore. Did he tell you he came to our school the first year she was there and tried to kidnap her? He was going to force her to transfer because I transferred there to join her.”
Another sigh. It turned into a fit of coughing again.
I could have sworn I saw a spot of red on the handkerchief.
“It’s nothing,” she said, before I could ask. “Just a damned cough, it’ll go away.”
It worried me, but lots of things worried me. I had the ring in my pocket. I was giddy with excitement, more alive than I’d felt in years. I never thought I could possibly be this happy. Mom hugged me.
“I hope everything goes as you have planned. Go get yourself cleaned up and get ready. You’ve had a long drive. I’ll keep Eve busy until it’s time for you to eat.”
Gleefully, I rushed to my room and cleaned myself up. I’d arranged to eat at dusk, giving me plenty of time to relax. The sun would set after eight tonight. Eve, I knew, was getting settle in herself, and would want some time alone.
Sleep came easier than I thought, but it was fitful and harsh and I spent the whole time tossing and turning, waking every hour or so to check the clock. When it was finally time, I dressed. Nothing fancy, just clothes. Eve was already outside. Somebody lit a pair of taper candles on the table on the terrace, the one where Mom and Martin ate lunch with Eve the day I first set eyes on her. Dinner was nothing fancy, either. Grilled chicken and rice. We ate quietly, enjoying each other’s company and the warm air. The breeze behind the house always smelled like the woods, deep and earthy and ancient, but when it picked up just the right way I could smell the lilacs. Eve. When she finished her portion her
silverware clinked softly on her plate.
“Desert?” I said.
“Yeah.”
“I have something to ask you first.”
Here we go.
I got up and walked to her side, and dropped to one knee. A grin spread on her face and that was all the answer I needed. I took the ring in its little box from my pocket.
Then the spotlight hit me, blinded me, and Eve screamed.
The world went crazy. It sounded like thunder, whup whup whup, but it was the blade of a helicopter. The blasting wind blew out the candles, and knocked them over, and sent napkins flying from the table. I fell back on my ass, covering my eyes as Eve kept screaming, covering hers with both arms. All of a sudden men in black were everywhere, and they had guns. I started to get up but there was a knee in my back and all of a sudden two hundred plus pounds was pushing down into the middle of my spine and someone was yanking my wrists back. I thought they were going to break my arms. Mom came running out of the house, screaming at them. One of the black-clad men grabbed her arm and she went down hard on the terrace, and I saw blood on her lips and bellowed in fury, trying to buck loose, almost tearing my own shoulders out of joint as they cuffed me.
It was only then that someone barked, “Federal Bureau of Investigation!”
I went still.
What? What the absolute fuck?
There was a gun pressed to the back of my head.
“Stop moving.”
I looked around. Jesus, there had to be fifty of them on the lawn. Where did they all come from?
Hysterical, I looked around. I dropped the damn ring. It was sitting on the stone floor of the terrace.
Eve picked it up, and opened, and looked at me.
“I don’t know what this is about,” I shouted, “I’ll take care of it. Go inside with Mom.”
“Shut up,” the FBI man barked.
They pulled me up by the arms, painfully. They dragged me through the house, where they were ransacking everything. There was a van waiting out front, one of a dozen black vehicles. They dragged me inside and sat between two guys with rifles dressed up like ninjas, like I was going to do something terrible if they didn’t watch me every second. It was only then that a man in a suit stepped into the van and the doors slapped closed behind him. He was the stereotypical G-man, right down to the mirrored aviators and the chewing gum. He chewed loudly, stared me down. I stared right back. I didn’t know what this was about, but whatever it was I was innocent, I’d done nothing wrong and I was absolutely certain I could prove it.
Blackbird Page 15
