Explicit Instruction (15 page)

More noise followed then a door closed. ‘Right, can we get back to the serious busine
ss? This bullshit pisses me off,’ Victor said.

‘I have seen her
, and I disagree with your assessment,’ Simone said.

‘I don’t want to hear from you,’
Victor said.

‘I am a very valuable part of your team.’

‘I think the guys would agree with that more than I do.’

‘You have always found use for me
, Victor,’ she seduced.

‘I got bored with you months ago,
’ Victor said. ‘I like variety.’

‘She’s been polishing Rushe’s sword,’
Skeeve said on a snorting laugh. Flick’s head came up.

‘I don’t give a fuck,’
Victor said. ‘We lost a shitload of cash when Jansen screwed us over.’

‘Yeah.’

‘The boys have figured out a way for us to get that back,’ Victor said.

‘
We’ve got enforcement.’

‘Yeah,’
Victor said. ‘We’ve been in the money lending game for a long time, but it’s small potatoes, selling on these lovely ladies is a lot more fun, and lucrative.’ Various guffaws went around the room. ‘We have other things to worry about right now.’

‘What are you worried about?’

Flick recognised Rushe’s bored tone and tears pricked her eyes.

‘I’m glad
you’re the one who asked that,’ Victor said.

‘Oh this is gonna be good,’
Skeeve spoke again, and Flick wished someone would smack him in the head.

‘You let one get by,’
Victor said. ‘That’s not like you.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Rushe asked.

‘Your little bit of fluff,’ Skeeve grinned.

‘If you can’t keep your mouth shut someone
will put a bullet in it for you!’

‘Yes
, boss.’

‘Boys did a check-up,’
Victor said. ‘Wanted to find out if the cops had been on your tail.’

Flick had made the anonymous call
about the dead girl’s car, but no one had been in touch with her directly so she assumed the tip hadn’t been traced back to her.

‘
Glen!’ Victor exclaimed, and the outer door opened then closed. ‘Do you know what this is?’

‘No,’ Rushe said.

‘This is salvation for all of us,’ Victor said. ‘Cash enough to get us all where we want to be, out of the country and up in the league.’

‘One card?’

‘We need your help on this,’ Victor said. ‘You’re gonna be point man.’

‘Fine,’ Rushe said. ‘What is it?’

‘You gotta be with us. No dicking around.’

‘You want me to walk
, I’ll walk. I told you that. I’m sick of the fucking—‘

‘You’re s
taying,’ Victor said to Rushe, and Flick wondered if this was why she was here, to keep Rushe working for Victor. Rushe would certainly be an asset to any team – criminal or otherwise.

‘Maybe.
’

Certainly, Rushe
wouldn’t be a man who Victor would want working for the opposition.

‘You got a chance right now,’
Victor said. ‘You pull this off and you’ll be my new number two.’

Flick didn’t want to ask what
had happened to his old number two.

‘What’s the job?’ Rushe asked
, and she’d bet his lips never moved at all.

‘John-boy!’
Victor shouted.

John grabbed her up
, and though Flick tried to pull away, he was so much stronger than her. Whatever else stood on the other side of that black curtain, Flick knew that Rushe was about to be blindsided.

Dragging her through the fabric
Flick registered five people in the room. But she fixed on Rushe, and the second his eyes touched her she saw the flicker of recognition, and her tears tumbled from her lashes.

‘You remember who this is, right?’
Victor said.

Flick kept her eyes on Rushe’s
, and Victor moseyed in toward Rushe. The pale brown of his skin glowed, but he had no smile in sight. Yet, something cunning in his tone made her wary.

‘Yes,’ Rushe said.

‘You said she ran off, and who cares, right?’

‘Right,’ Rushe said
, and Flick saw she’d been right about his stationary lips.

‘I agree,’
Victor said. ‘She’s the bitch who came into Dell’s.’

‘Right.’

‘Wouldn’t have wasted time on it.’

Flick saw that
Victor was holding a card that looked suspiciously like a driving licence. Then she saw her purse on the desk. The purse she’d lost at Dells; apparently the bad guys had picked it up.

‘But?’ Rushe asked
, taking the card from Victor.

‘The boys checked her
out; made sure her boyfriend wasn’t a cop or nothing... but they found out something else about your horny bitch.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Her father’s worth a couple hundred million bucks.’

Flick’s eyes closed. She hadn’t been brought here to coerce Rushe –
maybe that was just a bonus feature of the plot. The Hughes family had money. They were old money. But that hadn’t factored into her thoughts. The Hughes hadn’t been in her life for so long, and Flick wasn’t that person anymore. She’d learned to live without them, to separate herself. But her mental disconnect had left her vulnerable.

‘So?’ Rushe asked.

‘How much do you think they’d pay to have their youngest daughter back?’

‘The family aren’t interested,’ Rushe said pocketing her licence. ‘They want nothing to do with her.’

‘That what she told you?’ Victor asked with a grin. ‘Couldn’t hurt to drop her papi a line... you think? She’s here now, and you know the end of this.’

Rushe said nothing
, and she imagined that he cursed his forethought for not coming up with this scenario.

‘Ok,’ Rushe said. ‘I’ll deal with it.’

‘Put a plan together,’ Victor said. ‘I’ve gotta sort out this crap with Jansen.’

‘Yeah.
’

‘Breakfast.
Take John, and you know Shiv’s deal.’

‘Yeah.
Move.’

With a sideways nod Rushe
went for the door and John dragged her along too. Whatever Shiv’s deal Flick knew it couldn’t be good. Any hope that she might have about Rushe’s leadership giving her a fighting chance wasn’t corroborated by the tension he carried in his angry shoulders, which Flick followed down the hallway; she wouldn’t put money on his leniency.

Rushe
stopped next to a door that John unlocked, and only then did Flick realise that the two bulky black guys that had escorted her and John had followed them. Having four men covering her seemed excessive, but maybe she should consider it flattering.

John gave her a shove back into the bedroom she’d spent the night in. No one came in immediately after her
, but the door remained open an inch. Flick sat on the bed, and a second later Rushe marched in, closing the door at his back.

H
e didn’t speak; he paced back and forth in front of the door balling and flexing his fists.

‘It would serve you right,’ he said
, and stopped pacing. ‘You’re a magnet for trouble. I told you that you wouldn’t get out of this alive. I should’ve known getting rid of you wouldn’t be that easy.’

Flick still had her hands cuffed and her mouth taped. Rushe wasn’t this vocal when they’d first met
, but she recognised those bullet black eyes.

‘Do you know what they do to women in this building?’ he asked
, stopping in front of her. ‘Do you?’

Whether the question was an attempt to find out what she’d already been through, or to scare her
, both had the same answer, more tears.

‘Stop crying like that,’ he said. ‘I can’t get you out of this one. It doesn’t matter if your daddy coughs up. You’re going out through the back door.’

John had alluded to that too, but Flick still couldn’t speak. Rushe snatched her arm and hauled her to her feet. Freeing her hands, he threw the key and the restraints aside. Flick took her hand toward her covered mouth, but Rushe intercepted it to stop her from removing the duct tape.

‘This is my fault,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t clear in my instructions. I told you to walk away but I didn’t tell you not to walk back.’

Rushe now ripped off the gag himself causing her own hand to leap up to the stinging pain.

‘Speak,’ he growled.

‘I missed you.’

His chest rumbled but he
stole her up, right off her feet, and flung her down onto the bed. Rushe appeared over her as quickly as he had that first time they’d kissed. His tongue delved into her mouth, and her nails dug into his tee-shirt, her fingers clenching into such tight fists in the fabric that she wished they’d merge and never part.

Then the mouth that offere
d her salvation vanished and Flick was left cold.

‘Where are you going?’ Flick
asked, supporting herself on her elbows.

‘You want me to fuck you?’ he asked. ‘Right now, you want me to fuck you?’

Flick hadn’t meant for them to go that far. But he’d vanished so suddenly, she wanted to know what was in his mind. ‘You don’t?’

‘Your pussy been left hungry
, Kitten? Your little boyfriend not doing it for you anymore? You come all the way out here to open your legs for me?’

‘I was brought here,’ she said
, kicking off her shoes and walking on her knees to the end of the bed where Rushe leaned on the footboard. Flick snagged her hands into his jeans pockets. ‘I was brought here to help you.’

‘You’re a stupid
bitch, you know that?’

‘Am I now?’ she asked.

‘What did they tell you? That I needed help, or I was in trouble?’

‘Yes.’

‘What kind of trouble?’

‘I didn’t ask,’ she said.

‘And you thought y
ou could bail me out?’

‘He threatened to start shooting in my workplace, what w
as I supposed to do?’ Rushe growled at her. ‘Do my motives matter?’

‘Take off your clothes,
’ he leered.

Flick shrugged her bolero from her shoulders
and Rushe growled again.

‘What?’ she asked.

‘Are you this easy for other men?’

‘
What?’

‘I snap my fingers and you bend over to be shafted. There are plenty of men in this
house who’ll tag team you; do you want me to line them up?’

‘No.’

‘When did your boyfriend last fuck you? Last night? This morning? But you’re still a hungry little whore.’

‘I’ve been here all night
, Rushe,’ she said. ‘And you’ve been screwing around with the French chick.’

‘What of it?’

‘Have you had all the women in the basement? Is it tradition that all men here sample the prisoners?’

‘I’ve fucked my way through plenty of honeys in here,’ Rushe said. ‘None of them have been as easy as you.’

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘All of them put up a fight.’

‘I meant I don’t believe you’ve been having sex with any of the women in the basement.’

‘
You trying to find a fairy tale ending?’ he asked.

‘No.’

‘Then—‘

‘Consent,’ she said. ‘You need consent. You would never force—‘

‘Fuck! Felicity, you’re going to die! Worry about that!’

He had never s
houted at her, not like that. Rushe had never shouted at her with nothing but the naked truth.

‘Are you supposed to be in here asking for my parents
’ phone number?’

All he could do was inhale and step back. ‘Getting in touch with your father is easy. I’ll make sure that you get a chance to talk to
him, you know, to prove that you’re alive. During that conversation you have to impress upon him the importance of not handing over the money until you’re safe.’

‘My father doesn’t know
if I’m alive now,’ she said. ‘Just how much money are you going to ask for? He’ll think twice about paying it, I’ll tell you that now. He’s a superior individual who really believes he’s smarter than everyone, including you and your buddy Victor.’

‘
Victor is not my buddy, and the money isn’t an issue.’

‘The money isn’t an issue,’ she said. ‘They cut me off. I had to hock my jewellery to get a deposit for my apartment. I don’t have a car, or—‘

‘Kitten, the money isn’t a problem.’

‘Are you going to tell
Victor my family screwed him over?’