Focus (5 page)

S
ophie
, Nikolai and I were still in the bar, and Sophie was preparing to tell me the story of CJ and her abduction. “As you know, I have many contacts in the Kazakov family,” she began. “And I hired one of them to trail CJ.”

“Trail CJ?” I asked her. “What the hell for?”

Sophie shrugged. “I wanted to get the real story on the two of you. You said that you were engaged to her, and she said the same. I didn’t believe it. So, I wanted to have her tailed. To see where she goes and if she was with another man.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “I’m always one step ahead of you, Asher,” she said. “And I wouldn’t put it past you to pay some woman to pose as your fiancée, just because you think that I might back off if I thought you were off the market.”

I nodded. Sophie was a wily one, that was for sure. There wasn’t much getting past her. “Why would I do that?” I said to her. “And, for the record, I’m absolutely in love with CJ.” I was being completely honest with her at that point.

“Well, it was a bit odd, to tell you the truth. CJ is clearly not in your league, in any way, shape or form. She doesn’t have breeding, she doesn’t have money, and she doesn’t have class. Plus, she’s a minor celebrity for what happened to her with her little brother. She definitely is not somebody whom you would be caught dead dating, let alone marrying.”

I drew a breath. Sophie wasn’t wrong. I
did
tend to date women who had money, because dating wealthy women made it less likely that they were dating
me
for
my
money. CJ was different, though. I made the exception for her, because I was so drawn to her, right from the very start. I also knew, absolutely knew, that CJ wasn’t with me for my money.

I sat up straighter in my chair. “CJ might not be wealthy, but she is everything that I’m looking for in a woman.”

“Even so, Asher, she wasn’t exactly an obvious choice for you. So, I had her tailed. Besides, even if your story about the two of you was true, I still wanted to see if CJ was seeing men behind your back. I would then tell you about it, and you would dump her over it.”

I didn’t really know what to believe. CJ and I hadn’t been together for weeks. How could Sophie not know this if she was having CJ tailed?

I kept quiet about that detail. I figured that Sophie would end up explaining that as well. I didn’t want to give her ammunition, even more than she already had.

“Yuri, who was my closest Kazakov connection, agreed to do this for me. He concluded fairly early on that you and CJ probably weren’t together, because he never saw the two of you together.” She smiled. “That was a relief, I’m not going to lie.”

I was quiet. There was no point in arguing with her. “You’re right. Marina managed to out me at the cemetery. I still think that you’re behind that, too.” Marina knew me in the old country, although she was better friends with Sophie in Russia. I was surprised that she was in America, but I soon found out that she had been here for a week. And that she and Sophie were still friends. I dismissed that as a coincidence, and I called Sophie on the day that CJ and I broke up to read her the riot act. I didn’t mention at the time, however, that CJ and I were no longer together. I certainly didn’t want to fuel that particular fire.

Sophie raised an eyebrow. “Asher, you can believe what you want. I had nothing to do with Marina showing up there. I have told you that more than one time.”

I shook my head. “Whatever. Please go on with your story.”

Sophie sighed. “I still had Yuri trail her, even though I was almost positive that you and CJ weren’t together anymore. And he reported to me that CJ was living on the streets.”

“She was. Scarlett told me that she was attempting to ingratiate herself with the homeless population, because she was doing a story for a new job with a major magazine.”

“I didn’t know that. I actually thought that perhaps CJ had become homeless.” Then she drew a breath. “And I was concerned about her.”

I shook my head. “Concerned about her? Concerned about her? Since when have you been concerned about anybody but yourself? And, occasionally, me. When?”

“Asher. I don’t have ice in my veins. Yuri tossed CJ and the other homeless people sleeping bags at my request. It’s cold out there, Asher, and it’s getting colder. I don’t like CJ, but I certainly don’t want her to suffer. I might be a bitch, but I do have a heart.”

I studied her, and I looked at Nikolai. He nodded to me, a sign that he thought that Sophie was telling the truth about her concern for CJ.

I finally shook my head. “Go on.”

“Well, one day, CJ was gone. Yuri talked to some of the people who she was staying with, and they all told him about the abduction. He figured out who has her, and he went to talk to them.”

I bit my lip. “Talk to them?”

“Yes, talk to them. And he ended up buying her from the group that took her.”

“Buying her.”

“Yes. Buying her. Yuri explained to me that was the only way to get CJ away from that group. The problem, of course, is that Yuri is out that money, and it was quite an investment, so he’s looking to make it back by selling her on the open market.”

“Selling her on the open market? Why would he do that? He was only hired to tail her.”

“Asher, he didn’t do that for charity. You know as well as I do that these things are just business. And he saw that CJ was abducted by a gang that is violent and would have drugged CJ and sold her to a low-life person, who would have beaten her and maybe killed her. Yuri figured that CJ was better off with him, as he treats his girls kindly until they leave his service, and he attempts to find much more suitable masters for the girls than does the Badha family.”

My mind cleared, and I relaxed. I knew what I had to do. “Okay, then, I guess it’s just a matter of my buying her from Yuri.”

“Yes, unless he’s already made a transaction for her. Then, it would become much more complicated.”

“Then I need to leave immediately to find her. Tell me where Yuri keeps his girls.”

Sophie chose that moment to try to shake me down for more. I wasn’t having it, of course. She already told me who had CJ. It would take me longer to find this asshole’s address if Sophie didn’t tell me, but I would find it.

“Asher, I’m thinking that you need to sweeten the pot. If I give you this address, you have to guarantee me that you won’t see CJ ever again.”

“Nothing doing. We made a deal. Now, tell me where to find CJ, or I’ll tell the wife of your lover that you’re carrying his child. I would imagine that you would end up dead after that revelation.”

Sophie raised an eyebrow, obviously contemplating what to do. One of us was going to blink. Both of us had high stakes.

Finally, she just said “Okay.” And then she gave me his address, which was a home on Southampton.

“You mean he keeps these girls at his home?” I said to her. I didn’t really believe that.

“Yes. He has an enormous mansion, and the girls are in a wing.”

“Thank you.”

And, at that , Nikolai and I got into the my car and sped to Southampton.

I prayed that I wasn’t too late.

“
O
kay
,” I said to the girl next to me. I still couldn’t remember her name, and I was embarrassed to ask her again. “Now please calm down. We need to think of a simple plan to get out of here.”

“We won’t get out of here,” she said. “I’ve seen
Criminal Minds.
It’s only a matter of time before that man gets rid of us, either by killing us or…”

“Selling us,” I finished her sentence. “Maybe there’s a way around that. I don’t know how that works, of course, but I think that sometimes girls in this position end up working in a brothel. We could run away from there.”

“No,” she said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. We’ll probably end up with some Middle Eastern sheik, being part of a harem. That’s if we’re lucky.”

I shuddered. I had no clue on how to get out of this. “Um,” I said to the girl. “I’m so sorry, I forgot your name.”

“Marisa.”

“Marisa. Are you blind folded?”

“No.”

“You’re not? Why aren’t you?”

“I was, in the car on the way over here. But he took off the blindfold when he brought me in here.”

“But I’m assuming that you’re bound to the bed, like I am.”

“Yes,” she said. “Why?”

“I was hoping that you could possibly take off my blindfold.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” she said. “If that man comes back and finds out that I did that, he probably would hurt me.”

“Good thinking.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I wish that I could help you.”

“That’s okay. I just thought that it would help if I could see my surroundings. See what I’m up against.”

“It’s dark in here, anyhow,” she said. “You can’t see much.”

“It won’t be dark in the morning,” I said. “Can you see any light coming in through the windows?”

“No,” she said. “The window is blacked out. I don’t know if it’s day or night right now.”

It was difficult to even think with that blindfold on my eyes. It was so disorienting to not be able to see. It felt like all my senses were dulled because of this. Which was strange – I would have figured that my other senses would have been heightened if I ever lost my sight. But this wasn’t the case.

I realized that I probably wasn’t entirely sober. I still felt, for all intents and purposes, like I was in a dream. I wondered if the morphine I was given at the last place was still dulling things for me. That would actually make sense.

“You can’t see anything at all?” I asked Marisa.

“No. Nothing at all.”

I took a deep breath.

Then the man came back into the room.

“Hello there, little one,” he said to me. “I’ve brought you something to eat.”

“I can’t eat,” I said. “I can’t see anything. How can I eat?”

“I’ll feed you.” At that, he asked me to open my mouth, which I did. I was starving, which is the only reason why I didn’t try to protest. I tasted salty chicken noodle soup, which, at that point, was delicious. Anything would have been delicious, though, because I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten anything.

“Um,” I said, after the man fed me. “When am I going to get out of here?”

“Soon,” he said.

“How soon?”

“Soon. Don’t ask so many questions, little one,” he said. “You know that I cannot answer them.”

“What about Marisa?” I asked him. I heard her start to cry again. “When will she get out of here?”

“That might be a little longer than you. She’s a little bit more difficult.”

“More difficult? What do you mean?” I prayed that he didn’t mean what I thought he meant, which was that Marisa was somehow more difficult to find a buyer for than me. That could only mean that this man already found somebody for me, and I soon would be shipped off to a permanent home. Like a dog.

“Little one,” he said. “Stop asking questions. I beg you. If you keep asking questions that I cannot answer then, I’m sorry, I’m going to have to silence you some way.”

I wondered how he would silence me. Maybe with a gag, maybe with a drug. Maybe….I didn’t want to know.

“Okay,” I said. “I won’t ask anymore questions.”

“Thank you.”

I heard Marisa still crying, and the man turned to her. “I have some food for you, too, Misha.”

Misha? Who was Misha? Was that just his nickname for Marisa, much like his nickname for me was “little one?”

“I don’t want that food. I want to go home.”

“I’m very sorry, but that cannot happen.”

“Why can’t it?” she demanded.

“I’ve invested too much money in you and little one here. I’m very sorry. It’s only business.”

“Only business? These are our lives, here. How can you do this to us?”

I wondered if this man would make the same threat to Marisa as he did to me. That she would either shut up or he would shut her up. But he didn’t.

“There is often suffering in commodities. It’s not just you. Think about all the animals around the world who suffer because of our consumption. You have a life, and so do they. Their life is really as valuable as yours. Think of it that way.”

This man wasn’t making any sense. Of course our lives were more valuable than that of an animal. Not that I wasn’t sympathetic to animals, because I was. I just didn’t think that it was an appropriate comparison.

“Please, please, let us go,” she said. “I don’t know where you are. I couldn’t identify you. I won’t send the police over. Just please, please, please let us go.”

“I can’t. Now be quiet.”

She cried more, and I heard him smack her hard. I suddenly heard a different tone of voice from him. “Stop,” he said. “Just stop. Nobody can hear you. I’m trying to find a suitable man for you, but it’s been difficult. I cannot find somebody who is willing to take somebody as defiant as you.”

But Marisa cried even louder. At this point, she sounded like she was hysterical, and I silently prayed that she would stop. I didn’t want to her to get into trouble, even more than she was.

Finally, her wailing settled down to a whimper.

“Thank you,” he said to her. “Thank you for quieting down. Now, I must leave you girls. It seems that I have a visitor.”

A visitor. I wondered who that was.

I prayed that this visitor wasn’t a man who was going to try to buy me.

“
S
low down
, Alexei,” Nikolai was saying to me. I was in my Audi, going maximum speed down the street. I had to get to my helipad, so that I could take the helicopter to this home that Sophie told me about.

“I can’t. Every second counts. That bastard might sell CJ, and then there’s going to be a huge problem. If I can get there on time, I can just pay that man the money he wants for her, and everything is going to go smoothly.”

“Alexei, if a cop pulls you over, you’re going to be even more delayed.”

I had to smile at his logic. Here was a guy who had killed in cold blood, and he was worried about my getting a speeding ticket. Yet, he had a point. I didn’t care about getting a ticket, of course, but I didn’t want to be further delayed.

“Okay. I’ll slow down.” We were about a mile away from my helipad.

We finally got there, and I went to the roof, where my helicopter was parked. We climbed in, and took off.

“When did you learn how to fly this thing?” Nikolai asked me as we lifted off the ground.

“Years ago. I don’t typically fly this helicopter myself, but I know how. This is an emergency situation, so there’s no time to get my pilot out of bed to come and fly this for us.”

I pulled on the throttle, and the city disappeared beneath us.

A
bout a half hour later
,
we landed on the lawn of the home.

“Okay, now, Nikolai, we’re going to do as we talked about. I’m going to go in there and negotiate with Yuri. I pray that I’m not too late. You stay out here. I have this button that I’ll push in my pocket if there’s a problem, and then you can come in there and back me up.”

“I know,” he said. “Good luck.”

I nodded my head and rang the doorbell. A tall man answered the door. “May I help you?”

“Yes,” I said. “I need to see Yuri Kazakov.”

“Who may I say is calling?”

“My name is Asher Sloane. I need to negotiate with him about a girl he has.”

The man looked like he didn’t quite know what to think about me coming there so late at night. “I will tell Mr. Kazakov,” he said, “that you’re here.”

The next thing I knew, I was being frisked by a much larger man. “Who sent you?” the man demanded.

“Sophie Jameson,” I said. “She also goes by Sofia Ivanov,” I said, giving this man Sophie’s birth name.

“I see,” the man said. It was obvious that he felt less hostility and suspicion towards me. I was quite sure they were afraid that I was a cop. “I’ll tell Mr. Kazakov to call Sofia to make sure that you are who you say you are.” Then he brought out a gun. “In the meantime, please have a seat in the den.”

I went into the enormous den, and sat down on the leather couch. I knew that Sophie would vouch for me. She had to. She had too much at stake in this situation. If she slipped up, then the deal would be off, and she would have to face her married lover, as well as her married lover’s wife, on her own.

I heard some talking, and then the man came into the den. “Okay. It appears that you are who you say you are. Let me lead the way.”

I followed him through the maze of the house, into an office that was a typical office. There was a cherrywood desk, several couches, a floor-to-ceiling lamp, and a grand piano in the corner. The grand piano was the only thing that seemed out of place in an office, however.

Behind the desk was the man in question. I would guess that this man was Yuri. He stood up, and he was as tall as me, with blonde hair, scars on his face, and crooked teeth. “Mr. Sloane,” he said. “Come, come, sit down.”

I sat down, and faced him. “What can I do for you?” he asked me.

“You have a girl. Her name is CJ Parker. I would like to purchase her.”

He shook his head. “I’m so sorry. She has already been sold.”