Arielle Immortal Fury (The Immortal Rapture Series Book 6) (26 page)

RAINER HEINRICH
was sitting in his office feeling a sense of deep agitation. Focusing on the documents that were spread across his
desk, he knew that he would have to come up with a valid
explanation for the failure of his last assignment.
Damn. It’s not going to be easy.
He thought dryly.

He stifled a groan and drew a long breath. He hated
collaborating with the big boss. He had spent the last ten years serving the Russian mafia’s top man, Nikola Vasilovitch, but the man was unreasonable. Rainer had coordinated all the important assignments because of his expertise in dirty schemes and ruthless undertakings.

Raking his hand through his hair, he stood up and walked
around his desk to the walnut table that held several bottles of alcohol. One
hand on the whiskey decanter and the other cupping a whiskey
glass,
he suppressed an inner struggle. Pouring a generous amount, he
gulped it down, wincing appreciatively. The stern, oaky liquid
burned its way down his throat, and irritation plucked at him again.

He groaned and slammed the glass on the table. He brought
both hands up and covered his face, pressing his fingertips against his
temples. He had no doubt that Nikola would find a way to humiliate
him.

Pouring another glass of whiskey, he fixed his gaze on the amber
liquid inside the glass and focused his mind on the next day’s
meeting. Glass in hand, he walked back to his desk and took a seat behind the mahogany desk, muttering with contemptuous disdain. Setting the glass aside, he started to shuffle through the papers once again.

The ring of his mobile startled him, and he snapped out of his stupor. He drew breath, picked it up, and flipped it open in
unadulterated frustration.

“Rainer here,” His voice crackled with anger.

“Hey, Rainer, it's Jorrit. Bad time to call?”

“Hey, Jorrit. No, not at all. I’m just a bit on edge with this
assignment.
I’m getting a lot of pressure from the top. I hope you have some
good news for me.”

“Yes, as a matter of fact I do. We just finished the background surveillance on the people close to Gaulle, and I’ve all the details for you.”

“Go ahead. I’m listening,”

“Would you rather I fax it? It’s quite a lengthy list.”

“That’ll be fine. Did you have any trouble?”

“We had no glitches. Like I said, we finished the background
surveillance. We discovered that Gaulle has a very important person
in his life, his fiancée Arielle Lloyd. I had a couple of my agents
following
her. They are still in Brighton. We took several photos of the girl throughout her daily routine.”

“Excellent!”

“Earlier today, I had an anonymous envelope delivered to
Gaulle’s office, but he was in a meeting. I had my guy place it into his private secretary’s hands. She was told that it was of the utmost importance that it was delivered to Gaulle and nobody else. She wanted to know
if he was expecting it, and my guy advised that it was private
information
that he had requested. Inside the envelope, I included several of the photos and a note directing him to cooperate if he wanted to keep her alive. I said we would be contacting him with our demands at a later date. I want him to sit and stew on that for a while.” He snorted
arrogantly.

“Good work. What else?”

“We’re going to get more photos, but this time in closer
proximity to the girl. We’ll send a second envelope showing how easy it is for us to get close to her. And we’ll include our demands.”

“Good job,” Rainer exclaimed.

“I told you not to worry. We’re moving along, and I’ll keep you posted. I’m faxing the details right now.”

“Thanks, Jorrit, You’ve done good.” The phone went dead, and a ghost of a smile highlighted Rainer’s face. It was but a few minutes later when he heard a soft knock at the door.

“Come in.”

Georgiana, his secretary, walked in with a wide smile on her face and the fax report he was waiting for in her hand.

“This just came in for you, sir,” she said with a soft voice. She walked around his desk and handed him the papers. His breath held in his throat, and his mouth went dry. His eyes rested on the sheer blouse that hugged her beautiful body. He reached out reluctantly to
take the fax, and their fingers touched. He felt a strong jolt like
electricity surge through his muscles, and he tensed. One of the sheets fell to
the floor right in front of her feet. She bent down to pick it up, and
his
gaze followed her movement. The low cut of her blouse gave him a
clear view of her soft alabaster skin and a beautiful white lace bra
that made him shiver. With the paper in her hand, she lifted her eyes and
met his blistering gaze. Her lips curved up to a soft smile of
approval, and he lost it.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, gathering her to him. He was not thinking as he lowered his head and took her mouth,
locking
them into a fevered kiss. His head was spinning with desire, but something was telling him to stop. This was wrong. He reluctantly
pulled back from
the kiss. Georgiana’s eyes were closed, lost in the heat of the
moment.

“Georgiana, you shouldn’t be here. This is a very bad idea,” he
said, gasping for air. But he didn’t move to release her. She opened her eyes slowly and blinked. A smile grazed her lips. Reaching up,
she pressed
her lips to his with hunger one more time, letting a soft moan escape
her.

“I know, but I can’t help feeling the way I do,” she said against his mouth. She moved into him, causing ripples of desire to creep up
and invade his body and mind. He pushed her softly away and
coughed, trying to catch his breath. He rested his eyes on her pretty face and felt a chill running through his skin. She was stunningly beautiful, standing unmoved and watching him. She ran her tongue over her moist lips as if trying to taste the remainder of his kiss, and his eyes
powerlessly followed the movement. He was completely
mesmerized by her presence. He couldn’t believe that he had never experienced a feeling like this in his dismal life. He was also shocked to realize that there was a part of him that was decent and moral. His life was filled with crime and murder. She definitely shouldn’t be there and most importantly not involved with someone like him.

He collected his thoughts and reluctantly sat back down as he
thanked her for her help. She turned around and walked away
slowly, never taking her eyes off of his face until the door closed behind her. He gasped out loud and leaned forward. He put his elbows on the desk and rested his face in his hands in distress. This had to stop, he thought. He couldn’t allow himself to get involved with an innocent young lady. His life was too dirty and dangerous, living in a world of crime that had no room for innocent people.

He took several deep breaths, stood up, and started pacing back and forth. Suddenly, he felt the room closing in as he was unable to
breathe; he needed some air. He gathered the papers that were
spread across the desk and folded them. He put them in his coat pocket and
walked out of his office. He knew that she would be sitting at her desk, and he was determined to avoid eye contact. He crossed the
long hall, taking large strides, and pushed the button for the elevator. He stood facing the wall, avoiding looking in her direction. His heart raced, preventing him from getting enough air into his lungs. He couldn’t remember this type of anxiety, not even during the occasions when he had faced death.

When the elevator doors opened, he found himself practically running to the exit. He stepped onto the sidewalk and let the cool air caress his face as he filled his lungs with fresh air. He looked around and decided to walk across the street to the park. Half an hour later,
he finally sat on a bench to gather his thoughts. He couldn’t lose
sight of the fact that he needed to be totally involved in this assignment and not let personal issues get in the way. He sat there for almost an hour before removing the papers from his coat pocket. He started to read.
It was the fax from Jorrit with the details he was waiting for. He
read:

Rainer,

Here is detailed surveillance on the people that are close to Sebastian Gaulle. I have included all the particulars about each one of them, their relation to each other, and where they reside.

Sebastian Gaulle
: I know that you are aware that his family fortune
goes as far back as the 16
th
century and that he is the sole heir. He is
considered to be one of the wealthiest men in the world, and he doesn’t have any blood family alive. He seems to be very close to the Dillon family. They consider and treat him as their real son. He is engaged to twenty-one-year-old
Arielle Lloyd
from Brighton. They live together off of W Parade at 3425 on the beach. He attends the University of Brighton with Arielle while running one of the most successful companies in the world despite holding several degrees already. Arielle’s parents live in Brighton at 16 Sillwood St, a few miles away from Sebastian and Arielle.

The two of them have a very tight group of friends, and we did a
background check on them as well. I figure the more people in the pot, the more we can bargain with.

Nathan Shilton
is a business associate and one of Sebastian's closest
friends. He practically runs the company in Sebastian’s absence. He was
recently married, and he and his wife reside at 4238 Longstreet Lane. He is a very important person in the IIRL Company.

Troy Vasser
is Sebastian's best friend and president of security at IIRL. He has no family either. He is the owner of a huge company in Italy that
goes way back to the 16
th
century, and like Sebastian, he is the only heir to
the Vasser fortune. There is something strange about both of them, but nothing that I can put my finger on.

Gabrielle Taylor
is Arielle’s best friend and is engaged to Troy Vasser. They live together at Glover Dr 1216. Her parents still live in Brighton at 34 Spring Rd.

Eva Winters
is best friends with Arielle and Gabrielle. The three of
them
grew up together. Eva’s mother is still in Brighton at 41 Weldon St., but
her father was killed in a car accident a few years back.

Ian Bristow
is a German-born citizen who moved to England as a
student,
but his parents still live in Germany. He is engaged to Eva Winters, and
they live together at 11 S River Rd.

Paul Winfield
is another one of their friends. He comes from a wealthy,
well-known family in the English movie industry. He is engaged to Loren
Dillon. He lives with three roommates a couple miles from the university at 78 Northbound Rd.

Loren Dillon
is considered to be Sebastian’s sister and lives with her parents. The Dillons are a noble family and very well-known in England.
They socialize with the upper class of London. Their estate is located in Canterbury.

All the kids attend the University of Brighton, and they are extremely
close to each other. This list gives me a large number of people we can work with. If he doesn’t cooperate, I will send all this information to Vasily, and he can start with the fiancée before moving on to the others systematically. I don’t think he has much choice but to cooperate. I will keep you posted.

The fax was unsigned. He folded the papers and put them back in his pocket, hoping that the plan would work and he’d get Nikola
off his back. He leaned back, lit a cigarette, and closed his eyes, thinking of how much he’d love to just walk away from this terrible job and disappear. He had worked hard to get to the top, but he was
tired and
didn’t want to do this anymore. He had committed unthinkable
crimes, and he was sick of it. He wanted a normal life with someone to love and someone to love him back. He wanted to build a family, but he knew that would never happen for him. He chose his path,
and there was no way out. He felt dread whirling in the pit of his stomach and was shocked to sense moisture in his eyes. With a quiet curse under his breath, he threw away the cigarette and rose to his feet.

The walk back to the office seemed twice as long as he felt the weight of the situation pressing down on him. His thoughts whirled
wildly in his head as he realized that he was actually jealous of
Sebastian, the girl, his friends, and the man’s life in general. He cursed again as he entered the building.

Sebastian pushed on the gas, his eyes locked on the road as his mind filled with questions without answers. He had to concentrate on the task at hand, knowing that going to Brussels right now wasn’t
crucial, but he had to find the person responsible for putting
Arielle’s
life in danger. He remembered the moment that he pulled those
photos out of the envelope and felt his blood boiling one more time.

Dylan provided information that Sebastian needed to get to the starting point. He was sure that his intelligence agents in Brussels were experienced, but he knew that he, along with Nathan and Troy, could definitely do a better job at intercepting and destroying the system hackers and extortionists.