Escape, a New Life (11 page)

“Agreed.”

“Good.  Then let’s get them in here and sign off on things right away – before his attorney figures out that waiting could be a much bigger payday.  What is the attorney’s name?”

“Ian Greene,” Seth called from the next room.

“Never heard of him.  He’s probably some local the husband came out here with.  Either way, let’s get on this right now.  Every second we wait is time that she could take a dive off a cliff or run into that lunatic, Tom.”

Olivia laughed
. “I wouldn’t worry too much about Tom.  This girl can handle herself.  Wait until you see the show tonight.”

“That good?”

“If I could, I’d put it on the line in Vegas for her to win this whole thing.”

“Can’t wait to see it
,” Mike said, then paused. “So what do you think about Bobby?  Do we get him in the loop on this?”

“Bobby?”

He looked at her as if to say, “Really?”

She rolled her eyes,
“You know if he finds out you call him that, you will be out the door before you even know what hit you.”

“Well, he’s not here now, is he?  I figure I can get away with it
when we’re alone.  It’s our secret,” he said with another wink.

“Sure,” she said.  “
That’s a good question, does ‘Bobby’ need to be involved?”

“I
don’t think so, no,” Mike said, thinking about it.  “We will get everything documented, make sure the show, the network, everyone involved is released from any exposure if she does die.  Separately, we will have them sign away any claims to holding him personally liable, too.  No need to get him all worked up over nothing if we’re going to settle.  We can fill him in after the fact.”

“They will be here after lunch.”  She changed her posture, leaning forward and looking at him lazily.  “How about you
? Would you like to grab some lunch?”

“I was thinking we could eat in,” he said with a smile.

“Seth!”  Olivia shouted. “Hold my calls and lock the door.”

IAN HUNG UP the phone and turned to his client, “Perfect.  They want to meet this afternoon.”

Ian Greene was a short, pudgy, balding, bearded fellow who fancied himself to be the top-notch legal protection of organized crime in the Midwest.  In reality, he was in way over his head with the wrong people, but he was too dumb to realize it.  His current client was a complete sociopath whose motives were near impossible for any sane person to wrap his head around, yet he had boarded a plane with him and flown to the West Coast anyway.  It was just another in a lifetime of bad decisions.

Of course, people like his client tended to do well in his particular line of work, so it was more of an asset than a hindrance in this particular case.  Ian stood proudly grinning with his hands on his hips, the front of his cheap suit jacket open, and his sizable gut straining the buttons on his white button-up shirt.

“Good.”  Bryce had been pacing the large hotel suite that they had occupied for the past day.  He stopped to study himself in the mirror.  His efficiency was only exceeded by his meticulousness.  He ran his hands through his short blond hair in frustration, then produced a comb from his pocket and smoothed the loose strands back in place.  He had the intense face that a man in his line of work should, though the average person on the street would just assume he was a miserable person who never smiled. 

He had been happy once.  As a young child, he remembered happiness.  He was convinced he was an exceptionally happy kid, until his mother took off and left him to be raised by his semi-abusive father.  He had been chasing that happiness ever since, but never quite caught up.

He loved his work, though.  He saw it as man’s work.  To someone from the outside, he intimidated, conned, swindled, and killed to get what he wanted and make things happen, but to anyone on the inside, he was the wet dream of organized crime bosses everywhere.  He was a man who relished being in control, and did whatever it took to get the job done. 

He did not take well to disobedience, whether in his work or in his personal life, which were often one in the same.  Abby had started off as work.  He had taken her off the streets years ago, and eventually made her his wife.  She was young, impressionable, and most importantly obedient when they had met, and proved to be easily controlled and manipulated.  That is, until he stepped from the shower a few months ago and found that she had disappeared from his expensive apartment – and from his life entirely – only to turn up on national television a few months later.

“How could she do this to me?  I thought I had that bitch under control.”

“Hey, she did you a favor.  Do you know how much cash you are going to make off of this?  We are talking about huge money.  This is the biggest show on television.  Trust me, they want this to go away
, and they have the money to spend.”

Bryce roared, “I don’t want money!”

“What are you talking about?”

“I do not want money.  I do not need money.  I want Abby.  After everything I have done for her, how could she just up and leave like that?  I love her.  I will fucking kill her.”

Ian spoke slowly, trying to calm his client.  “Bryce, I know you’re doing well.  I mean, look at that suit you are wearing!  You’re a rising star, buddy.  Everyone in the organization loves you.  The boss loves you.  You are a made man, leapfrogging guys who have been doing this since you were a kid.  Sure you’ve got a young, hot wife, but they are a dime a dozen where you’re heading.  What do you need her for?”

Bryce spoke through his teeth
.  “She is my wife.  She has run off.  She belongs here with me.  That’s what I need her for.  I need her here, where she is supposed to be.”

“I’m just saying, what is the worst outcome here?  She is probably going to die out there.  If she does, I will make sure you get a payout, and you won’t have her to deal with anymore.”

“Die out there?  Obviously you have not been watching the same show I am,” he said, gesturing toward the television.  The sound was muted, but it was tuned into the
Trial Island
channel, a twenty-four-hour satellite channel dedicated to the show, on top of its regular airings on the network.  The analysts had spent the better part of the last hour dissecting Abby’s latest attack and escape, showing everything in slow-motion detail.  “They said this morning that she is going to win the whole thing!”

“So she wins the whole thing.  She gets rich, and you get half.  Where is the bad in that?”

“I do not want her to be rich.  If she is rich, what does she need me for?  I want her to be off that island and back here.”

A young woman, barely half his age, emerged from the bedroom wearing only a smile and a
tired look in her eyes.  Her thick dark hair hung down over her bare chest, just barely covering enough to leave something to the imagination.  “Mr. Haydenson, how much longer do you think you’ll be?  I have to get back to work at the club soon.”

Ian turned away
. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had company.”

“Don’t worry about her modesty
, Ian, she doesn’t have any.”  Bryce smiled at the girl.  He had picked her up last night from a local strip club owned by one of his associates out here.  He might not have much in the way of friends, but he had associates everywhere, and people who could be counted on for favors.  Especially when he was in an unfamiliar city and needed some company. “It’s Faye, right?”

“Yes.”

“Faye, come over here for just a second,” he gestured for her to come closer.  She approached with a smile.  He stopped her in front of him, putting his hands on her shoulders.  “Now, Faye, men are talking here.  Mr. Greene and I are discussing something very important.  Didn’t your daddy ever tell you not to interrupt when men are talking?”

“I didn’t have a daddy
, Mr. Haydenson.”  She smacked her gum, “Well, I actually guess I did, but I never met him.”

He chuckled and looked at Ian
. “Well, isn’t that shocking?”  He looked back at her, and fast as lightening, slapped her in the face with his open hand.

She grabbed her face
. “You piece of sh…”

He slapped her again
, and she was silent.  “Faye, when men are talking, you do not interrupt.  Nod your head if you understand.”

She did so, without removing her hand from her face.

“Good.  Now be a good girl and go lay on the bed and wait for me.  I don’t know how long I will be.  Do not ask again.”  As she turned to leave the room, he smacked her ass hard enough to make her yelp.  Turning to Ian, he said, “The trick is to hit them hard enough to get their attention, but not leave a mark.”

“If you say so.”

“What?  You’ve got to keep them in their place.”  He looked at the television.  “Speaking of, how are we going to get her back in her place?”

“I’ll do what I can, but she’s on an island, halfway across the world.  Few people know exactly where it is.  Even if we did, it’s completely inaccessible from what I’ve heard in the press about the show.  They do not want any gawkers just showing up there,
and they don’t want anyone getting off the island either, so they have got some sort of protection surrounding the place.  If they do not want to let her go, I don’t think there’s much we can do about it.”  He gestured toward the television, “Based on this, I don’t see them just letting her walk away.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I think we would have better luck going after the money and forgetting about getting her off the show.  I will try, but no promises.”

“Do not tell me you will try.  Tell me it will get done.  If you cannot do it, I will get it done myself.  One way or another
, she is coming back.”

“Let’s see how the meeting goes this afternoon and take it from there.”

Bryce sat down on the plush leg of one of the armchairs and watched the screen intently.  The television replayed the full sequence of Abby taking out her captors around the campfire, the first night that she and Eric were taken. 

“Who is this bitch anyway?”  He said out loud.  She certainly
did not resemble the meek little girl he had tied up in his bed a few months ago.  It was Abby.  But at the same time, it was not. 

“I’m going to get something to eat,” Ian said.  “
Meet you downstairs in an hour?”

“Sure,”
Bryce replied.  He did not take his eyes off the screen as Ian let himself out.  Bryce was having second thoughts.  Did he want to deal with this woman?  He looked through the bedroom door at Faye lying on the bed, naked, and waiting.  That is the kind of girl he likes.  Obedient.  That is the kind of wife he had.  He had spent years perfecting their relationship. 

Who changed her?  “DAMN IT!” he
growled, smashing his fist against the wall.  She did not do this on her own.  Someone must have helped her.  Someone changed her.  That thought enraged him almost as much as seeing her strut around that damned island with another man.

He walked into the bedroom and took off his shirt.  Opening a bag on the nightstand
, he took out a pair of silver handcuffs, and tossed them at Faye.  “Be a good girl and put these on,” he said, flashing a crooked smile at her.  “It’s time I worked off some of this stress.”

IAN WAS
GRANDSTANDING in Olivia’s office.  “Forged!  Every single one of them, forged.  How could you people let this happen?”

Olivia was significantly calmer
. “We followed all standard practices, Mr. Greene, and I can assure you that neither myself nor anyone on the staff had even the slightest hint that there was anything going on here.  We would never intentionally let a spouse get cut out of the loop like this.”  She looked at Bryce, “I hope you know that we are very sorry this happened.”

Ian went right back in
. “Oh, you’re sorry,” he announced to the ceiling, sarcasm dripping from his lips. “She is sorry!  Well that makes it all better, now doesn’t it? 

Mike spoke up
. “No, it doesn’t, but…”

“But nothing.  What if she dies out there?  What about that?  My client’s wife of five years left him, without a word and ran off to join your circus.  If she dies out there, how is he supposed to live with that?”

Olivia spoke up. “It is not our fault that she went to these great lengths to circumvent the system and make sure he did not know anything about what she was doing.  It seems to me that she was trying to cut him out.  She is out there with her memory wiped right now, which means she doesn’t even know who he is.  This was not a surprise to her.  She must have wanted it this way.” 

She immediately knew that she had
misspoken when Bryce slammed his fist down on the thick wooden conference table.

“Just who the hell do you think you are
?” he said, standing up.  Ian stood next to him, putting his hand on his shoulder, encouraging him to relax. 

“I apologize for my client,” he said.  “He is obviously under a great deal of stress.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Olivia conceded.  “That did not come out right.”

“You said something about her memory was wiped?  S
he doesn’t even know who I am anymore?  What exactly did you do to her?  You erased her memory?”

“I am sure one of our tech guys could explain it better than I could, but nothing was erased.  It is just hidden, temporarily.”

Bryce was confused, but very curious, “So it’s some sort of a hypnosis trick or something?”

Olivia could not believe that he did not know about this.  Even if his wife was no
t on the show, they had been using the technology for ten years, and it was pretty big news at the time the show was announced.  “No, it is not hypnosis.  It is a chip implant that allows us to map the brain and memories, like files on a computer.  Also, like a computer, we can hide certain files, as well.  In the case of the contestants, we hide their memories back to before the show was announced.  This way, they have no knowledge of what the show is or what they are participating in.”

“You guys attached a chip to my wife’s brain?”

“Again, I am not any sort of tech guru, but as I understand it, it’s a bio-digital implant.  It’s part living tissue, part silicon.  It is not exactly microscopic, but it’s not much bigger than a flea.  It was originally developed for the military, to allow the user to interface directly with computer systems.  We have adapted it for this particular use.  There have been tons of studies; there is absolutely no long-term harm.”

Ian commented, “Well
, at least that is good to know.”

“But she signed off on this,” Mike assured them.  “She was fully aware that this was going to happen.  It was completely her choice.  Nothing was done without her knowledge and consent.”

“And that is supposed to make me feel better?”  Bryce was still boiling under his skin.

“I’m just saying
she entered the drawing, she won the chance to compete, she got through the training, and signed off on the memory wipe.  We did not just pluck her off the street to do this.  This was entirely intentional on her part.  Trust me, it is a hell of a lot of work to actually make it though all of the steps and onto the show.  She did not do this on a whim.”

Ian spoke up again
. “So this drawing she won – I am not entirely familiar with the process.  She won money?”

“No,” Olivia answered.  “She did not win any money.  She won the chance to compete.  As far as
a drawing goes, it’s pretty decent odds.  We only accept U.S. contestants between eighteen and thirty-five, but truth be told, we are looking for contestants around thirty-two-years old, give or take a year.  That is a lot of people.  However not all of them are into the concept of risking their life, even if it means millions of dollars.  On average, between twenty and thirty thousand enter each season.  Of those, fifty candidates are selected to audition.”

Mike picked it up
. “So the drawing is just for the chance to audition.  The first part of the audition is a physical.  Contestants must be in good basic health and pass a toxicology screening.  That usually cuts the field by ten to fifteen contestants.  The second part is a physical test, a three-day, mini-survival camp.  This typically cuts the field in half to about twenty finalists.  The third part is a psychological screening.  They dig in deep to see what the contestant’s lives were like back at the time their memory will be erased to.  They must be able to essentially pick up at that point without much of a problem.”

Olivia continued
. “The last part of the audition process is to sell yourself to the judges.  Why should they pick you to be on the show?  Four contestants, two men, and two women, are chosen to train.  The entire audition process is a huge event unto itself.  Like any other reality contest, the public starts choosing their favorites right away.”  She was looking at Bryce, who appeared completely dumbfounded.  “I’m sorry,” she said, “I just cannot believe that you are completely unfamiliar with the show.  It’s the biggest thing on television right now.”

“So I have
learned,” he said.  “I just don’t have a lot of time to waste watching these things.”

“She is a public favorite.  She is also a favorite to go all the way,” Olivia said.  “I would say you’re making out pretty good in this deal.” 

Bryce nearly exploded, “I certainly don’t need you to tell me how good a deal I’m getting here Miss Thomas, because it seems like a rotten deal to me.”  

She paused to choose her words carefully.  “I
don’t know what her plans are after the show, but if she wins, half of that cash is yours according to the State of California.  I fail to see how this is the bad thing.”

His bright blue eyes stared right through her.  “It is a very bad thing
, Miss Thomas.  It is a very bad thing when your wife disappears without a word.  It is a very bad thing when your wife has so little respect for you that she completely cuts you out of her decision to run off and risk her life.”

She exchanged a glance with Mike
, looking for help.  It was time to ask the question.  “Mr. Haydenson,” he said, “I completely understand how upset you are.  I cannot even imagine being in your shoes right now.  But what is done is done.  Now how much is it going to take to turn this very bad thing into a very good thing, and keep us out of the courtroom?”

Ian took the lead to answer
. “How much does she get if she wins?”

Bryce held up his hand
. “No.”  He looked at Ian, then at Mike. “You don’t understand.  I don’t want your money.  I want my wife.  I want her off the show and back here where she belongs.  She had no business running off like this, and I intend to correct that.”

“Excuse me?”  The words escaped her mouth before her thought was finished.

“Oh, you heard me just fine, Miss Thomas.”

Ian spoke up
. “My client is very concerned for the safety of his wife.  That’s all.  You can see why he wants her off the show.” He shot a look at Bryce.  “But let’s be realistic.  I know she is very popular.  I know you want to keep her on the air.  Let’s talk about how we can put my client’s mind at ease.”

Bryce was not saying anything, but he was not buying in either.  He watched while the three of them discussed the logistics of getting her off the show.  The public outcry and backlash would be a nightmare for them.  He figured they probably would pay out a ton of money.  Why not take that money and use
part of it to finance his way to the island and bring her home himself?

He thought about that.  It could not be that difficult.  The boss would not be happy that Bryce would be away for a while.  He will probably be even less happy that he has to take a crew with him. 
Nothing that some cash in the boss’s pocket would not fix, though. As he thought through the beginning of his plan, he decided that taking her off the island might prove difficult.  There would be cameras, and there must be some type of crew there.  But if he waited until she got off the island herself, she would not even remember him. 

They had done some additional research before the meeting and had a general idea of where the island was.  He knew he could fly a crew there in just under seventeen hours. 
He could take a few guys with him to scope the place out for a month or so to see if she makes it off.  He would stick around as long as he could, but he couldn’t stay there indefinitely.  With some money to grease some palms he should be able to get inside information and have someone get word to him as soon as she made it off the island though.  If she did, he would be ready.

“Let’s do it,” he interrupted.  They all turned to look at him.  “Let’s talk settlement.  She is doing great.  Why ruin a good thing, right?”  His smile was not authentic, but then again
, what was in this business?

Ian smiled back
at his client before turning to Mike. “Would you mind excusing us for a few minutes so we can discuss?”

“Not a problem,”
Mike said.  “Take all the time you need.”

Ian and Bryce went into the reception area, leaving Olivia and Mike behind.

“What is his deal?” she asked.

“He is
in with organized crime in the Midwest.  Low to mid-level, from what our guy could dig up on short notice.”  He was checking information on his tablet.  Their investigator was sending him real-time information as he dug it up.  “Well, this is interesting,” he turned it for her to view.

“These are hospital visits?”

“Yep.  Looks like she’s been laid up a few times.  Funny, she doesn’t strike me as the clumsy type, but she does a lot of falling apparently.  Obviously our guy assumes that she is getting beaten up, but she has never pressed charges.”

“What a piece of shit.  Do we have to give him anything?”

“Of course we don’t
have
to.  But if we don’t, this thing is going to court, and I do not like our chances in front of a judge.  I doubt we would have to pull her off the show, but if she winds up dead, we’re sunk.  It makes more financial sense just to get her off now, before something stupid happens.”

“Are you crazy? 
She’s favored to win, and is the most popular contestant we have had in years!  She tests through the roof.  No way is she coming off the show.  Let’s just pay this jackass and be done with him.”

“
I think that’s the best plan, we’ll see what he thinks.”