Nele Neuhaus - Swimming with Sharks

“Nice little room.” He didn’t let Alex out of his sight. “Did you run out of money? You could rent a suite at the Plaza with the fifty million that you stole from me.”

Alex couldn’t say a word. She was paralyzed with fear.

“You’re a sneaky little whore,” Sergio continued. “I truly misjudged you. I thought you were smart, but apparently you’re not. You’re quite stupid, actually.”

Without warning he punched her in the face. Alex stumbled onto the bed. Sergio reached her in one step and pulled her up again.

“Who was here with you last night?” he demanded. Alex just silently shook her head. His face looked distorted, and he rammed his fist right into her stomach. He pulled her up by her hair and hit her so hard that her lip burst open. Blood dripped down her chin.

The pain robbed Alex of her breath. She looked around at the four other men, who watched indifferently. She couldn’t expect any help from them.

“I asked you to tell me who you were fucking last night, you whore!” Sergio grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her. “Was it Kostidis? Tell me! Did you let that miserable little bastard fuck you?”

Alex’s body throbbed with fear. Sergio would kill her, and there was no one to help her. This realization brought her racing thoughts to a standstill. She didn’t want to die. Not here, not today, and not before she saw Nick again to tell him that she loved him.

“I could forgive you for stealing my money,” Sergio said, his voice gritty with anger, “and also that you ruined MPM and caused me all of this trouble. Even for the thing with the accounts on Grand Cayman I could forgive you, but one thing I’ll never forgive you for is…”

He stepped very close to her, but she didn’t back up an inch.

“That you went to Kostidis, of all people,” his voice turned into a hiss, “and told him everything. I won’t forgive you for that. You will die for that.”

She saw insane fury in his eyes.

“But before that, you’ll tell me everything that I want to know. My guys have some pretty nice methods for bringing out the best in people. Just like your friend from Boston. First he pretended not to know anything, but then he suddenly remembered.”

Justin! What had they done to him?

“And your fat little friend from your office,” Sergio laughed derisively. “He ratted you out by the way, the coward.”

“What did you do to them?” Alex whispered.

“Nothing compared to what I’ll do to you,” Sergio countered. “You did it with the fat one, right?”

He grimaced again. Alex could hardly believe that such a powerful man was tormented by childish jealousy.

“You let all of these guys fuck you! That shaggy computer nerd and that dumb journalist—and now even Kostidis !” Sergio spat out his name in disgust. “I thought that you had good taste in men, but you’re completely indiscriminate. It’s a downright insult that my name is on a list with scum like Kostidis!”

Alex followed his every movement and backed slowly away from him. Sergio wasn’t just a ruthless criminal. A crippling inferiority complex and ruthless contempt for humanity were concealed behind his charming facade. This man—whom she once thought she loved—was a psychopath.

He stood in front of her. She felt his breath on her face and saw the glint in his eyes.

“You’ll pay for what you’ve done, you whore!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Alex saw the champagne bottle that she’d bought yesterday standing on the table. After all this tension of the past days, she decided to go all or nothing. She wouldn’t surrender to Sergio without a fight.

“Boss,” Luca urged, “we should get out of here.”

“Yes, we will,” Sergio replied. He issued a short order to his men. One of them pulled out a roll of duct tape, and at that moment Alex got ready to fight. She grabbed the bottle and smashed it on the head of the man standing closest to her. She saw his surprised look before he went down on his knees and collapsed. Then she spotted the revolver he wore in his waistband. Taking advantage of the moment, she bent down and grabbed the weapon. Alex felt more energy pulsing through her body than she knew she had. She aimed the weapon at Sergio.

“You won’t get out of here,” he whispered as his voice trembled with rage.

“Yes, I will. And you’re coming with me,” she replied. “You’ll take me to Mark and Justin. If you don’t try to trick me, I’ll tell you everything you want to know once both of them are safe.”

“You’re not in a position to make demands,” Sergio said, grinding his teeth.

“Yes, I am,” Alex countered. “I’m the one with a gun.”

“You won’t shoot me.”

“Maybe not,” she said, not taking her eyes off his. She smashed the champagne bottle against the edge of the table and it burst with a hiss. “But I will cut your throat.”

The broken bottle neck was at least as deadly as the loaded .38 caliber in her other hand, and Alex was resolved to defend herself down to the last drop of blood.

“Boss,” Luca said emphatically, “you should do what she says.”

“Never.”

With a quickness that Alex didn’t expect, Sergio charged her and grabbed her right wrist. From the impact, she lost her balance and fell to the ground. She had underestimated his hatred and vengefulness. Now it was clear to her that she might not have the slightest chance of escaping him alive. His fist hit her in the face, and stars exploded in front of her eyes as she heard an angry wheeze.

“Nobody leaves me,” he whispered hoarsely, “nobody betrays me. And nobody makes a fool out of me. Do you understand?”

It was a vicious fight, and Alex had lost. Luca leaned over her and pressed a cloth drenched with an acrid smelling liquid over her nose and mouth. She felt them tie up her arms and legs. She heard Sergio’s voice from a distance.

“I have an appointment in the city now,” she heard him say. “Do with her whatever you want, but make sure that she doesn’t die before she tells us everything.”

Alex heard her cell phone ring. In desperation, she thought about Nick and then lost consciousness.

Nick called repeatedly but kept getting Alex’s voice mail.

“Strange,” he said as he hung up, “she’s not answering.”

“Maybe she’s taking a shower,” Lloyd Connors remarked.

“Yes, maybe. I’ll try again in a minute.”

The men sat in Connors’s office at the US Attorney’s Office building. Tate Jenkins and Alan Harper, the head of the SEC’s investigation unit, would arrive from Washington DC in three hours to interview Alex. Nick longed to see Alex again. He should have told her this morning what she meant to him and what he felt for her. He didn’t just like her. He had fallen in love with her a long time ago, but this had become absolutely clear to him after last night.

“Try again,” Connors said, jerking him out of his thoughts, and Nick dialed Alex’s cell phone number again. It rang and rang, and no one answered. An uneasy feeling crept up inside him.

“Maybe she changed her mind after all and took off again,” Connors speculated. “That would be quite an embarrassment for us.”

“No way,” Nick said, shaking his head. “She promised me that she’d speak with Jenkins and the people from the SEC. After all, that’s why she returned to the city.”

“Try again,” the deputy US attorney suggested.

“I think it would be better to go there.” Nick’s uneasy feelings were turning to fear.

“So you do know where she is.” Connors threw him a sharp look.

“I had to promise her I wouldn’t tell anyone.”

“So?”

“The Portland Square Hotel on Forty-Seventh Street.”