Off the Edge (The Associates) (16 page)

“Dok told me Emmaline was talking about leaving,” Rolly said to Niwat. “I don’t have to tell you how I’ll feel if she’s not there for me when I arrive.”

Niwat assured him that Emmaline didn’t have a valid passport, and she wouldn’t be able to empty her bank account until Monday. She would not be leaving.

Good. Rolly arrived late Sunday. Less than two days.

“Make sure of it.” He hung up. They’d managed to keep her there for two years. He could trust them to keep her until Sunday night.

Harken had suggested having her killed back when her betrayal with the FBI had come to light. Harken didn’t understand—Emmaline belonged to Rolly. He was the one who found her and polished her up; he needed to be the one to punish her. It had to be
him
she begged. Every look of fear and every instance of collapse would be for him alone. He needed to personally and thoroughly break her until she would accept anything and everything with gratitude—the kiss, the cock, the fist. He would permeate her every pore, her every breath, her every word. He would possess her so thoroughly this time, there would be no running.

She might resist him at first, but he’d have a zero-tolerance attitude for that. He’d been too lax the first time; that had been his mistake.

This time around, he’d start off with shock and awe; at the first sign of resistance, he’d simply grab the hammer, pin her down, and smash out her upper and lower front teeth. Then he’d clamp her jaw shut and fuck her throat.

A little trick he learned in prison. Nothing broke a person faster than getting their mouth transformed into a 24-hour-a-day-access fuckhole. A psychologist could probably explain why that was, but Rolly just knew it worked, and it would work on Emmaline.

Later, when Emmaline accepted that compliance was her only option, he’d buy her dental implants. The TZ-5 money could buy her the best in the world. Beautiful new dental implants would be a carrot for her. The carrot and the hammer. Shock and jaw.

His body clenched as he imagined her spreading her legs for another man. He was glad the man had turned out to be a liar. It was important for her to see that other men would only use her.

Harken had no idea who the man was. Harken had arrived home from Bangkok just hours ago; with the exception of Rajini, Emmaline was basically alone—Harken swore to it.

Rolly would kill the man all the same. He didn’t care who he was; even if the man was Association, it was too late for them to stop him now—the TZ was already in place. That was one of the perks of having such a versatile weapon at your disposal. Let the entire Association storm the hotel. His buyers would welcome the demo.

He threw in his pants and his hat. Sexy white lingerie for Emmaline.

Harken came in with Rolly’s boots, shined up for the trip. “You’ll feel better when you see her again.”

“That makes one of us,” he said, throwing in the hammer. He hadn’t had the luxury of a hammer in prison. That was prison, always improvising.

He supposed there was a chance she’d show remorse and give herself sweetly over, but he didn’t dare hope for that; it was a recipe for unhappiness. Having to use the hammer made him sad. “Doesn’t take much to break a docile horse. It’s the wild ones where it means something,” he said, more for himself than Harken.

Rolly used to enjoy getting into her journal at night while she slept to see what she’d written. From the day he first came across her, he’d gotten a kick out of how she captured things in words, but she never once wrote about him.

It’s how he knew he never really had her.

Sometimes when they would have a good day together he would feel confident that she’d write in her journal about him. She never did.

He imagined how her eyes would look when he appeared in her room at the Imperiale Hotel Des Roses. They’d grow big as saucers with a look of surprise that would slowly die. If only she would be still and sweet for him, things would be okay.

He forced his mind off that line of thinking and checked his watch. Flight 5891 to Narita was scheduled to depart that night. He’d handle his business in Tokyo, and he’d be in Bangkok late Sunday.

Bangkok

Laney looked down at her suitcase, paralyzed with indecision. Paralyzed, yet shaky. Not the best combo on the menu.

The Shinsurins would have found the cell empty by now. What if they got the notion she’d helped Maxwell?

She hadn’t gone down for breakfast or lunch, but she couldn’t hide all day.

And what if she’d made a mistake? It was awful of the Shinsurins to hurt him and chain him up down there, but was it equally awful for her to let him out? He’d promised he wouldn’t go after the Shinsurins, but what if he’d been lying?

Hellbuckets.

She grabbed a handful of panties and threw them in. Going through the motions of packing, but how could she leave without a valid passport or money?

She collapsed on the bed.

What had she done?

But she’d do it again, that was the crazy thing. She’d let him out of there with glee. No, that wasn’t the precise word. She loved that Maxwell always went for a precise word.

She’d do it again with a sense of privilege.

So crazy. Maxwell had screwed her and invaded her privacy. And he carried three guns. He didn’t work for Rolly, but obviously he wasn’t a boy scout.

Still, you had to listen to your gut when you were on the run—Maxwell was right about that. Technically, he hadn’t lied to her once. And he was right about a lot, even the dragons. In a way, that meant more to her than the rest. And he had that thing with words. In fact, he really did seem like a man who would teach at the university.

He’d thought she should take off ASAP, like one of those brown birds. Well, she would take off. As soon as she got her money out of the bank. And she needed to cut and dye her hair.

Knock, knock.

She jumped nearly out of her skin.

A voice: “Laney?”

Niwat.

She froze.

Had he discovered her part in Maxwell’s escape? What if Sujet had said something? She stared at the balcony, feeling like she was in a dream. A three-story leap. Too far.

“Are you okay, Laney?”

He didn’t sound angry. And anyway, he could come in if he wanted. He had the master key. “One sec.” She shoved her suitcase under her bed. “Hold on.” She went to the door and opened it. “Hi.”

Niwat smiled. “It’s past noon. I didn’t wake you…”

“I had my headphones on.”

Niwat took a scan around her room; her iPod was not in evidence. “I just wanted to let you know, you have nothing to fear from your visitor.”

Nothing to fear?
What did
that
mean? “Ah,” she said. “What happened?”

He shrugged. “He’s willing to play along. A businessman, just as I expected.”

She nodded, trying to look relieved. “Good. Wow.” How could he not know Maxwell was gone?

Niwat smiled. He wore a yellow turtleneck. Niwat was a turtleneck guy. An odd thing in Bangkok. “Nothing more to fear, okay?”

“Well!” she said, way too energetically. “Thank you. I really do appreciate it.”

He hesitated. There was something more. “I’m confident this is the safest place for you,” he said, “but I understand you want to be ready for anything. So I came to tell you, I’ve expedited your passport. It will be ready in three days instead of the customary week.”

“Really?”

He looked away. “When I reflected on our conversation, I understood that you felt trapped. And then last night’s visitor frightened you, so I requested a rush. How do you like the name
Gia Nordwall?”

She nodded. “It has a ring to it.”

“On Monday, Rajini will go to your bank with you and extract some funds. Soon after, the passport will be ready. There’s no place safer for you than with us, but we don’t want you to feel trapped.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“
Yin dee khrap,”
he said.
You’re welcome.
He smiled. “Nearly full house tonight. Rest up.” With that he left.

She sank onto the bed.
What in the hell?
Why would he say she was safe if Maxwell escaped?

Nothing made sense.

Though a passport would make leaving easier. A couple more days. What would two days matter? Or should she flee like Maxwell said? The Shinsurins were far more dangerous than she’d imagined, but did that justify leaving with no passport and barely any money? They’d never been dangerous to her.

And what had happened with Maxwell?

Her brother Charlie would know what to do. She checked her email for the umpteenth time.

Still nothing.

Was he even getting her emails? He’d set up a secret account to email her with under a fake name, and he accessed it from a coffee shop only. They’d been so careful.

She sent him a quick message—
I need your advice ASAP. I need to know you’re there!
Charlie had gone through a phase of distrusting Rajini and her brothers, but lately he’d been all about her staying in the safety of the hotel. What would he say when she told him what the Shinsurins did to Maxwell?

Then she got a horrible thought: what if they’d caught Maxwell trying to escape? What if he was dead?

Her heart pounded. She didn’t dare sneak down there during the day, but she had to know. She took the elevator down to the lobby and found Sujet at his post near the door.

“Hey,” she said. “What’s new?”

“No scuttlebutt,” he said.

She smiled. She’d taught him that word. He liked funny English words, and they got him good tips from Americans and Canadians. “Have you heard anything regarding the downstairs guest?”

Sujet twisted his lips.

“What?”

“The staff is nervous,” Sujet said.

She felt the air go out of her. “How so?”

“Because he targeted you,” Sujet said, like it should be obvious. “Also, we thought they would turn him over to the police today, but he’s still down there.”

“Still down there?”
Hadn’t the hairpins worked?
“Are you sure? Did you see him?”

“No, but Pramod was asked to deliver an extra lunch for him an hour ago. And Dok was with the man all morning. It’s something serious.”

A chill came over her. “Like what?”

“I don’t know. Jao and Niwat were running around angry. At Dok. Up and down several times.” He nodded at the front desk. “Don’t tell Sirikit and Kalaya. They’re uncomfortable that a man should be held for so long.”

“Right,” Laney said.

Sujet’s face darkened suddenly. He was looking over her shoulder.

She turned to see Rajini coming up behind her. “Laney!”

Rajini wore a red skirt suit, and her black hair was up in a princess do. “Have you had lunch?”

Laney smoothed her T-shirt. “No.”

“Café. Now.” Rajini hooked her arm in Laney’s. “Sorry, Sujet, I’m taking her.”

Laney threw Sujet an apologetic smile over her shoulder as Rajini pulled her to the hotel cafe.

“You get some sleep?” Rajini asked. “How are you?”

“Freaked,” Laney said as they settled in to their usual table.

“I bet.” Rajini signaled for ice teas.

Rajini wouldn’t like that she’d snuck down, but she needed to know what her brothers were up to. “There’s something you need to know,” Laney said.

“What?”

Just then, the waiter arrived and they ordered their usual—fried rice with prawns.

Rajini bent her head in once he left. “Niwat told you about the passport, right? You’ll be Gia. Guess who made that up?”

“Wait…isn’t she a dead supermodel?” Laney said.

“Yes, but it’s a cool name. Anyway, you can’t leave.” Rajini reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “I’ll die if you leave.”

“I don’t want to leave, but Rajini—this guy—”

“He’s not going to give you trouble. Got it?” Rajini raised her brows in the way she did when she would accept no argument. “Everything’s fine with him.”

“I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but detaining a man against his will? I didn’t want him to be hurt, and you’re not going to like this, but last night—”

“Laney. This isn’t America where everything is so black and white. I get how it seems to you—they’re holding this guy. What is that in the US? Kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment…”

“For starters.”

They fell silent as the waiter delivered their ice teas.

Rajini lowered her voice. “I get it, it seems wrong to you, but you can’t take your American yardstick and impose it on my brothers and people like Rolly and his men. They play by different rules. And don’t forget, my brothers are the good guys in this.” She sat back. “I can’t think of anybody better to deal with some thug of Rolly’s than my brothers. These guys—” she flung a hand in the direction of the lobby. “A show of power. It’s what they understand.”

“Meaning, some brutality is okay?”

“You want guards and fake passports, but no violence, nothing to offend your sensibilities. There’s no such thing as a Disney criminal, Laney. My brothers are here for you, just as they are for me. Trust that. Your visitor is perfectly comfortable, in case you’re wondering. You need to stop worrying.”

Laney knew when she was being handled by Rajini. She also knew that a man chained in a cell wasn’t comfortable. She looked down at her tea, re-thinking her big idea of confessing to Rajini that she’d been down there. “Fine. Here’s my bottom line,” she said. “I don’t think he’s some thug of Rolly’s, and I want him released.”

Rajini snorted. “Are you serious?”

“I think he’s not a threat to me.”

Rajini smiled. “Did you take a degree in FBI profiling when I wasn’t looking?”

“I don’t like him being held and I want him released. It’s not right. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually does work at the university.”

“The university. Seriously? Why would he have three guns? Why would he be in your computer? Why would he tell Niwat he was working for Rolly?”

Laney straightened. “He confessed he was working for Rolly?”

“Yeah. He told Niwat. They’re nearly at a deal.”

Laney stirred her tea thinking of the man down there. Things got simple when you were on the run. And things like truth and connection got important fast.