Read FACETS (JAKE SCARNE THRILLERS Book 6) Online
Authors: Lawrence De Maria
FACETS (JAKE SCARNE THRILLERS Book 6) (21 page)
“Please talk to them. Tell them what we mean to each other!”
Alana was rushed out the door and placed in the back of a camouflaged Humvee between two burly men. She started to shiver. One of the men shrugged out of his tunic and wrapped it around her. Looking out, she could see that the compound’s courtyard was packed with several similar vehicles and was swarming with armed men. Moments later the “Capitán” climbed in and sat across from her. Taking off his own jacket, he wrapped her legs and feet with it. Then he reached into a compartment and brought out a thermos. He poured something into a cup.
“Brandy.”
Alana nodded and took a deep swallow, gagging slightly. The men laughed. One of them pounded her gently on the back and said, “Good girl.”
“Your grandfather would be proud,” the captain said.
“You know Grandpapa?”
“He sent us. It took us a while to find you. But he never gave up hope.”
They are interrupted by gunfire and screams from inside the bordello. Then silence. A gunman comes to the window. The leader looked at him.
“Meurto,” the man said.
Alana looked at the captain.
“Did you have to?”
“Your grandfather is not the forgiving kind, I’m afraid. Now rest. He waits for you.”
“And Mama?”
The three men exchanged glances. The captain gently took Alana’s hands.
“I’m afraid your mother…passed away.”
Alana Loeb has not cried in years. But now a lone tear rolled down her cheek. One of the gunmen patted her on the knee. The leader rapped on the window behind him with his ring finger and the Humvee started to move. His hand dropped to his lap and Alana’s gaze drifted to the ring. In its large oval center is a cross with two horizontal bars…the Cross of the Lorraine.
***
After her rescue, Alana was happy to be home. But things were different. It was more than the loss of her mother. Her presence was a suppurating wound in the community. She was coddled by her grandfather and other relatives, but the
y–
and their retainer
s–
watched her closely, lest she resort to “evil ways.” No longer the innocent child, she found herself scrutinizing every word, every gesture for a hidden meaning. She suspected that the boys who came calling knew everything, and wanted it all. Her grandfather treated all of them with barely concealed hostility.
It didn’t matter to Alana; mere boys no longer interested her. She took up with a series of powerful men, most married. She soon became an embarrassment to her grandfather and was shipped off to a private religious school in Europe, which she hated, but where she honed her facility for languages, math and science. Eventually, she declared her independence and moved to the United States. She studied the law, slept with all the right men and turned her back on her family, except for her beloved grandfather, who provided her with a liberal allowance and showered her with gifts. Her last sense of connection to her earlier life died when he did. She had no desire to run a winery or participate in any of the other family businesses, most of which had suffered from the neglect of her dispirited grandfather. His “empire” was crumbling and she knew her feckless cousins would finish the job. She sold her interests to them, as well as her beloved hacienda.
Alana Loeb, now free of any emotional restraints, would stay in America, where her innate intelligence, newfound sexual prowess and disdain for men were a sure road to success.
In both her personal and business life Alana now assumed everyone’s intentions were malignant or at best selfish. It was easy to deal with the world that way and certainly a good way to make a lot of money. If she had a soft spot it was for children, especially the youngest. But ever the realist, she knew she was just compensating for her own truncated childhood. Her relationships in the adult world were all business or sex, and often a mix of both. She enjoyed relationships with many men, some just to further her career, and some more casual. She was not against having fun. But as pleasant and charming as some of her lovers were she never considered that they might love or value her. She understood that their primary instinct was to bed her first and get to know her later. She often gladly allowed the first, never the second.
So it was with Victor Ballantrae, an Australian who made his shady fortune in the unregulated world of Pacific Rim and Caribbean banking and had expanded his criminal empire to the newly deregulated financial markets in the United States. He had indeed been impressed by her skills and did want her to set up a legal department to protect him from lawsuits and regulators, weak though they were. But he wanted to fuck her first. He made that quite clear early in the negotiations about her compensation. His approach was so direct and vulgar she told him bluntly he was risking a lawsuit. Never missing a beat, he said he’d make her rich. At the time, he had her pinned on the couch in his office. It was after hours; they were alone.
She thought about crippling him. Vera Pappas had taught her a few tricks. (“Remember, precious, it is you who will be using them. Make sure they always treat you well. And, if they don’t…”)
Alana knew she could leave any man – even one as powerful as Victor Ballantrae – writhing in pain. Briefly, she contemplated using the notorious “nut knot” on him. But she had done her homework. Ballantrae was the kind of man who could make her rich. So, Victor was pleasantly surprised when Alana’s resistance lessened and she became an enthusiastic participant to an activity that moments earlier had bordered on rape (not that he had anything against rape). More than enthusiastic. After they finished, a dazed and sated Ballantrae wondered if he had been raped. It was the most incredible carnal experience of his life. And Alana Loeb became his highest paid employee. He never knew how close he had come to being made a eunuch.
As their physical relationship progressed, Alana and Victor realized how much alike they were, and developed a real affection for each other, albeit one always tempered by self-interest. Victor amused her. He told her about his background and family’s criminal history. She smiled at his braggadocio, but approved. To her mind, no family worth its salt lacked ancestors, like some of Victor’s, who ended up on the gallows. She suspected that in his case the law missed a few.
And for all his faults, Victor was a real man, in and out of bed. For his part, Victor was astounded to realize that Alana ruined other women for him. Previously he had devoured them like burritos. After Alana, he still tried, but was invariably disappointed. She was the best sex partner he’d ever had; there wasn’t a second place. She was a different woman in bed every time, a trait that never failed to amaze him. As for the other women in his life; Alana tolerated them, unless she had occasion to meet them. Then it wasn’t pretty.
Victor was at one point so taken with Alana that he even broached – in the broadest possible terms and with the caution of a minnow approaching a bass – the possibility of marriage. He might as well have asked her to pass the ketchup. He never brought it up again.
Their partnership, such as it was, had proved incredibly lucrative. Alana Loeb had brought structure and order to the Ballantrae organization, solved the legal and other problems caused by Victor’s recklessness and penchant for larceny, and managed the flow of political contributions and bribes. With her financial acumen and common sense, she also vetted Ballantrae’s endless stream of new schemes.
And occasionally came up with her own.
***
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lawrence De Maria began his career as a general interest reporter (winning an Associated Press award for his crime reporting) and eventually became a Pulitzer-nominated senior editor and financial writer
The New York Times
, where he wrote hundreds of stories and features, often on Page 1. After he left the
Times
, De Maria became an Executive Director at
Forbes.
Following a stint in corporate America – during which he helped uncover the $7 billion Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme and was widely quoted in the national media – he returned to journalism as Managing Editor of the
Naples Sun Times
, a Florida weekly, until its sale to the Scripps chain in 2007. Since then, he has been a full-time fiction writer. De Maria is on the board of directors of the Washington Independent Review of Books.