Focus (10 page)

I
got to the hospital
. “I need to see CJ Parker,” I said to the front desk.

She looked at her computer. “You can’t see her,” she said. “It looks like she’s in the ICU.”

“ICU? Why was she brought in here?” Could that monster Robert had done that much damage to her? Or maybe she had a drug overdose?

“She was in a car accident,” she said. “You cannot see her.”

A car accident. I took a deep breath. “I need to find out her status,” I said. “Please let me see her doctor.”

“I’ll page him,” she said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name, or how you’re related to Ms. Parker?”

“My name is Asher Sloane,” I said, and then I pulled the card that I hated to pull. But I had to do it. “And I’m one of the largest benefactors of this hospital.”

“Oh, I’m very sorry,” she said. “I didn’t recognize you. Just please give me a second, and I’ll page Dr. Bristow.”

I stood there, and, within a few minutes, a tall man dressed in a white coat came to greet me. “Mr. Sloane, it’s a pleasure,” he said to me. “Come with me to my office.”

I nodded and looked over at Nikolai. He had Marisa with him, and I went over to talk to them. “Listen, I’m going to talk to CJ’s doctor. Maybe you should get Marisa checked out while we’re here.”

“Good thinking,” Nikolai said. Then I saw him go over to Marisa, and the two of them went to the front desk, apparently to get the paperwork that was necessary for her to be checked in.

I followed the doctor to his office, and he shut the door behind me. “Have a seat,” he said.

I sat down across from him. “Tell me about CJ Parker. Why is she in the ICU?”

“She was in an accident,” he said. “She was in the back of a limo that slid into a semi that had jack-knifed on the icy road. She wasn’t wearing her seatbelt, so she went through the windshield.”

I drew a breath. “Is she going to be okay?”

“That remains to be seen. I will tell you that we relieved the cranial swelling in her brain, but she’s in a medically induced coma right now. That’s a necessary thing in such a case, because it allows the body to heal itself.”

A medically-induced coma. “How long will she be in this coma?”

“Until her vital signs stabilize. It could be days. It could be weeks. While we were able to relieve much of the cranial swelling, there is still a great deal more. Once the swelling recedes completely, I’ll bring her out of the coma.”

“Were there any other injuries, or was it just a head injury?”

“It was only her head. She was lucky in that regard.”

I drew a breath. “I know that she’s in the ICU, but I would like to see her. Could I please see her?”

He nodded his head. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt. Just please don’t stay for more than few minutes. You might disturb the other patients.”

“I understand. Is there any chance that I could have her moved to a private room?”

“There would be, after she gets out of the ICU,” he said. “Which would be after she’s brought out of the coma.”

I followed Dr. Bristow to the ICU, where CJ was lying on the bed. I felt tears coming to my eyes as I saw that there were bruises on her arms and legs. I turned to the doctor. “You said that she only suffered a head injury in the accident,” I said. “But you can see that her entire body is bruised.”

“Yes,” he said. “I will need to talk to the patient when she wakes up, and ask her why she has these bruises. Unfortunately, the other two people in the limousine were dead on arrival, so I cannot ask either of them these questions.”

“You’re absolutely sure that these bruises were not caused by the accident?”

“Reasonably sure. The impact was such that she could not have sustained these contusions in the accident. And, the appearance of these contusions would indicate that they were suffered sometime before the accident occurred.”

I sighed. I realized that the most logical explanation was that the worm Robert did this to her.

I should have killed him when I had the chance.

I sat down on the chair next to CJ, and put my hand on her clammy forehead. “Dr. Bristow, could I have a moment alone with her?”

He nodded. “I’ll be right down the hall.”

“Thank you.” I kissed CJ’s forehead lightly. “You’re safe now,” he said. “I’ll never let anybody hurt you. I’ll never let anybody touch you again. You’re safe, and you’re going to be with me. When you come back, you’re going to stay with me, and I’ll protect you always.” I took her hand, which was as clammy as her forehead. I kissed her knuckles lightly. “You’re going to come back to me, CJ Parker. I hope that you can hear me. You’re going to come back to me, and you and I will always be together. Please hear me, CJ. Please listen to me.”

I hung my head. I hoped that she could hear me. I knew that I couldn’t bring her out of her coma, as it was medically induced, but I wished that she would be able to know what I was saying anyhow.

I sat there for just a few minutes more. The doctor came back shortly. “Okay, I’m so sorry, but your time with her is up,” he said. “She’s very fragile right now.”

“When do you think that she might be brought out of her coma?”

“As I said, it could be days or weeks. It all depends on when her brain swelling comes down to a point where she can be brought out of the coma with a minimum of damage done.”

I got up, and kissed her forehead again. “I’ll be back,” I said. “I love you.”

Then I got up and joined Nikolai in the waiting room. “Where’s Marisa?”

“She’s being checked out,” he said.

I sighed. “There’s not much more that can be done here,” I said. “I need to take my mind off of what’s going on. Let’s get a bite to eat once Marisa is released.”

“How is CJ?”

“She’s holding her own, I guess. She’s in a coma, but the doctors put her in that coma. Her body needs to heal.”

“She’ll recover,” he said.

“I don’t know that,” I said. “I’m hopeful that she will, but it sounds like the accident that she was in was very serious. The other two people in the car were killed.” I shuddered. “I guess I need to thank God that CJ wasn’t also killed. That’s the only silver lining of all of this.”

Nikolai smiled. “There’s always a silver lining, Alexei.”

Just then, a nurse came out to talk to us about Marisa. “We’re going to keep her overnight for observation,” she said. “Her vital signs are a little low.”

I nodded. I couldn’t get too emotional about Marisa. My mind was 100% on CJ. “Is she going to be okay?”

“It seems so,” she said. “You can talk to the doctor in charge if you like.”

I just shook my head. “Not right now. Right now, I have to go somewhere and get away from this place. I’ll be back, though, tomorrow, to check on CJ.”

N
ikolai
and I went to an all-night diner
to try to think about things and talk about what was going on back home. I was happy that he was around, because he could give me some valuable information on how my father was and how the syndicate was doing. I was going to have to broach the subject of CJ to my father, and I hadn’t talked to him in quite awhile.

We sat down and ordered, and then I brought up my father to Nikolai. “So,” I said. “How is my father doing these days?”

He shrugged. “He’s the same. It’s been a very profitable year.” He took a sip of his coffee and his eyes didn’t meet mine.

I fidgeted. I needed to talk around the issues, because I didn’t want to talk about the specifics of my dad’s operation. I didn’t want to talk about how my father’s main income generation came from human trafficking and illegal drugs. Especially after what CJ went through. I didn’t support that aspect of the business then, and I certainly didn’t support it now. “Nikolai, I think that I’m serious about CJ.” Then I shook my head. “No, shake that. I
know
that I’m serious about CJ. I would like to marry her.”

Nikolai raised his eyebrows. “Well, that will be complicated, to say the least. Your father is going to have to give his blessing, otherwise he won’t protect her. And you know how he feels about you marrying somebody who is Russian Orthodox.”

I knew that. That was going to be the obstacle that would possibly come between CJ and me. With my father’s protection, CJ would be safe. Without it, she would be vulnerable. I couldn’t put her in that position. So, as silly as it was that my father wanted me to marry a woman who was a part of a faith that I had long since renounced, I knew that it was important to him. I was going to have to figure out a way around that, I knew.

“How is Natalia?” I asked him. I never wanted to talk about Natalia. I hated what she was doing for my father’s business. She had a role in the trafficking part of the business, for she was the one who found most of the girls for my father. She had the kind of personality that made the girls trust her right away, so, by the time they found out that they had been targeted for abduction, they never associated Natalia with the targeting. But she was the one who found them, nine times out of ten.

Yet she was my twin sister. It was always difficult for me to completely walk away from her. There was a part of me that still loved her very much. She was there for me when my mother died. And when Anton was killed. And there was also a part of me that didn’t necessarily blame her for doing what she was doing. My father didn’t give her the same chance to leave the country as he gave to me. It might have been a clear case of sexism, or it might have been that my father didn’t see as much potential in Natalia as he did in me. Whatever the reason, the upshot was that Natalia remained in Russia, so she had to make a living.

Unfortunately, she chose to work for my father.

I knew that she had very few choices, however, and I felt for her.

Nikolai shrugged. “Natalia is Natalia. She has a girlfriend now.”

“A girlfriend?” I asked. “Since when has she decided that she likes girls?”

“About six months ago. Alexei, you don’t keep in very good touch with any of us. You don’t now about your father or Natalia or anybody else.”

“I know.” I sighed. “It’s been tough. I’ve been trying so hard to leave all of that behind. I’ve tried to forget everything that I did over there. What I was involved in. Personally, it makes me sick to my stomach. No offense to you, of course.”

“Alexei,” he said. “You’ve always been too good for us. I know that.”

I couldn’t tell if that was meant to be a dig or a compliment. I took it was a compliment. “Well, I wouldn’t say that. But the whole thing is just repugnant. Aside from the cyber stuff.”

“The cyber stuff, as you call it, is just as much of a crime as anything else we do.”

“Maybe. But, on the other hand, we only targeted large banks and corporations. And very wealthy individuals. I remember just thinking that these entities would never even miss the money we stole.”

“And now you’re one of them,” he said. “Your kind would be the one that we would be targeting now. Do you still feel the same way?”

“No,” I said. “I would never take too kindly to being hacked now, just because there is such sensitive information in my database. I wouldn’t necessarily care if money was stolen from me, but I certainly would never want to give up my information.”

“You see how your perspective changes when you’re out of it.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

Nikolai and I talked for a few hours more. I valued this time, because it helped take my mind off of CJ. I closed my eyes and I saw her lying there in the hospital bed, and I tried very hard to get that image out of my mind. This time with Nikolai was not only an information-gathering time, but it was also a time to just think about something other than CJ and her suffering.

I knew that there would come a time, very soon, when I would find out exactly what happened to her during those days when she was in the clutches of her abductors.

And I knew, in my heart, that I was going to want to kill those men who were responsible for her suffering.

I
decided
that I needed to pay Robert another visit. I was going to steer clear of Yuri, for the time being, simply because he actually did a huge favor for CJ, in getting her out of the clutches of the Bardha gang. Granted, he didn’t do it for altruism. I couldn’t ever expect that from him, anyhow. But, if it were not for him, I might not have CJ back at all. She might have been overseas, lost to me forever.

Besides, Yuri was mafia. He was as good as family, really. I didn’t want to start shit with him unless I really needed to. And, thus far, I didn’t.

But I did warn him not to go near CJ again. He got the message, loud and clear. He knew who my father was, and he wasn’t going to fuck with me.

But Robert….he was nothing but a weasel. An unaffiliated weasel at that. I did a background check on him, and found out that he initially made his money the old-fashioned way – by inheriting it. He then took the millions he inherited from his dad, and sunk it into the sex ring that he was operating.

In other words, I could torture him without repercussions.

And that was exactly what I was going to do. Nobody was going to get away with giving the woman I love bruises like he did.

Nobody.

I
got
to his place of business. I
had a plan to pay a girl and see how much she would tell me about the things that Robert did. I could use that against him, if push came to shove. I didn’t necessarily want Robert to go to prison, though. I knew that somebody else would just take over in his place. There was never any stopping this kind of thing.

Robert staying where he was, doing what he was doing, would be infinitely more advantageous to me than to have him go to prison and have somebody else take his place. Because I was going to have more control that way. Robert was going to be my bitch by the time I got through with him. He was going to dance, and he was going to dance well.

My instincts were coming back to me, more focused and sharper than ever.

I didn’t even need Nikolai. Which was good, because he had announced to me that he had to get back to Russia. “I’ll see you soon, Alexei,” he said. “I know you never get back to Russia, but, I have a feeling that’s going to change.”

He was referring to CJ. He knew that I was going to have to have CJ meet my dad, and that would probably entail us going to Russia, as opposed to my dad coming here.

I gave him a hug. “Take care.”

“You too.”

So, I didn’t have Nikolai to back me up when I confronted Robert, but that didn’t matter. I was angry enough to take him on all by myself. I didn’t even care that he had those two lame body-guards. I knew that I could, and would, take all of them if I really needed to.

But it was best to catch him off-guard.

When I got in the door of the club, I sat down. A woman was immediately there at my table. She was dressed in a g-string and a tiny bikini top that showed her ample cleavage.

She smiled. “Well, well, well, twice in one week. To what do we owe this privilege, Mr. Sloane?”

I narrowed my eyes. I couldn’t remember meeting her in the club the last time, but I must have. I pulled out a roll of hundred-dollar bills. “Give me a dance,” I said. “What’s your name?”

“Ruby.”

“What’s your real name?”

“Skylar.”

“Well, Skylar, show me what you can do.”

She nodded her head, and started to gyrate her ass in my face. Then she turned around and sat on my lap and grinded me in the crotch. “How do you like this?” she purred.

“I like this fine,” I said, feeling uncomfortable. I needed to cut this short and tell her what I wanted ASAP. “I need to talk to you. Alone.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Come with me,” she said. “It’s usually $5,000 to do this, but for you, I’ll gladly do it for free. Just don’t tell anyone.”

I nodded and followed her to a room that was furnished with a king-sized bed with a red comforter and four posters. She went over to the bed and laid down on it, beckoning me to come forward.

I went over to her, and sat next to her. “I don’t want to do this,” I said. “If you do a few things for me, I’ll give you enough money to set you up for a year. I know how much you make at this place in a year, and I’ll double that.”

She opened her mouth, and then closed it again. “I would love to take that offer, but Robert would never let me. I’ve only been working here for a year, so I have to work one more year. Otherwise, he’ll kill my family.”

I shook my head. “No, he won’t. Trust me on this. I’m going to take care of him, to where he won’t be able to do any of that to you girls.”

She looked skeptical. “How are you going to do that?”

“Let’s just say that I have extremely powerful connections. And I’m not afraid to use them.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I made two hundred thousand here last year.”

“Okay. You do what I ask you to do, and you’ll have a half million deposited in your bank account.”

She still looked skeptical. “What do you need for me to do?”

“I need for you to distract Robert. I need to get in to talk to him, but I need there to not be those two goons around protecting him. Can you do that for me?”

She took a deep breath. “Distract him?”

“Yes. Go in there and tell him that you’re going to give him a blow job. He’ll send his guys out, and then I’ll come right in.”

“I can do that. Robert often has his girls do that for him, and more. And, you’re right, he doesn’t have those guys around when we do this.”

“I hate to ask you this,” I said. “Because I’m making you a prostitute. But it’s kind of important that you actually end up performing that on him. I’m going to sneak in there while you’re doing this. I can be extremely stealthy, so he won’t hear me if he’s in the throes.”

She nodded. “It’s okay. Like I said, he has his girls do that to him all the time.” She looked shy. “Including me. At least this time, I’ll be doing it for a good reason.”

“Okay,” I said. “Go in there now, and I’ll be in within five minutes. So, you’re going to have to do some quick working in there.”

She took a deep breath. “I’m putting my life in your hands, I hope that you know this.”

“I do. And I appreciate it. I hope that you can trust me when I tell you that you’ll be protected from Robert. And so will all of these girls.”

She left, and I prepared what I needed to prepare. I got my vise, my bat, and my gun, and waited for five minutes.

I slipped into the room, just like I said that I would. Robert was sitting in his chair, his eyes closed. He looked extremely happy. “That’s it, baby, that’s it,” he was saying. “Keep that up. You’re such a good girl.”

I felt nauseated. I stealthily made my way so that I was behind him, and then I put my gun to his neck and cocked it.

“What the fuck?” he said when I did that. “Who the fuck is in here?”

At that, Skylar got up off her knees and beat a hasty retreat.

“Pull up your pants,” I said to him.

He did as he was told. And then he put his hands in the air. “I don’t know who you are, but I’ll kill you. I’ll hunt you down and I’ll kill you.”

“You won’t,” I said. “My name is Alexei Pushkin. Since you’re obviously friendly with mobsters, you should know that, when I tell you the name of my father, you won’t fuck with me ever again. And you will never touch a hair on CJ’s head.”

“Who’s your father?” he asked, his teeth gritted.

“Sergei Pushkin,” I said.

He took an enormous breath. “Okay,” he said. “What do you want?”

“CJ had a lot of bruises on her body.”

“Of course she did. She was in a car accident. A major accident.”

“No. These bruises weren’t caused by the accident.”

“You can think what you want,” he said.

“I can. And I will.” At that, I put the vise on his head. He groaned. “As I see it, you have two choices. You can either lay down on the floor, and I’ll duplicate, on your body, every bruise that you caused to CJ. Or I’ll tighten this vise until your eyes literally pop out of your skull. Which will it be?”

With his hands in the air, he laid down on the ground.

I took my baseball bat, and I wacked him hard on his side. I wacked him several more times, harder and harder each time. Then I started to kick him in his side and his groin.

He cried out, but I wasn’t finished with him. The beating lasted several more seconds, and then I finally stopped.

I backed away from the crumpled man on the floor. “Now,” I said. “Here’s how it’s going to go. You will not beat a woman in your club, ever again. If I hear that you have, then I’ll come back here and finish the job. And don’t even think about sending any of your goons after me, because, trust me, you don’t want to start that with me. You might start it, but I can guarantee you that I’ll finish it, and it won’t be pretty. All that would accomplish would be that you’ll be dead, and so will everyone around you who’s associated with your business. Not the girls, of course, but the other cowards who you keep around for protection.”

I knew that Robert wasn’t going to be a problem anymore.

“Do you understand me?”

He nodded his head while he continued to lie, crumpled, on the floor. “Yes, Alexei, I understand you.”

“Good. I’ll be in touch with Skylar, who will be leaving your service, by the way. And you’re not going to be able do a goddamned thing about it. I’m going to ask her to be my eyes and ears here at the club. If I hear even a hint of you laying even a finger on one of these girls, you’ll be dead. And I won’t kill you quickly, either. I’ll make sure you suffer.”

He was breathing heavy by then. “I won’t touch any of these girls. You have my word.”

“Okay,” I said.

And then I left.

W
hen I got home
,
I transferred the money to Skylar. I talked to her on the way, and told her what I needed for her to do. She promised me that she would keep in touch with the girls at the club, and get the lo-down on Robert’s practices.

I really hoped that I didn’t have to pay him another visit. As much as that worm deserved what I gave him, I really didn’t have the stomach for that kind of violence anymore.

But I knew that he would behave. He obviously knew the name “Sergei Pushkin.” Everyone who knew anybody in the underground knew that name.

It was a name that struck fear in the hearts of anybody who heard it.