The Rich and the Dead (29 page)

“Can you imagine if my dad is the next fucking Bernie Madoff?” With a groan, Effie lay back on the beach. “I asked him if there was anything to worry about, and he just kept telling me, over and over again, that he was innocent. And I guess I believe him, but why would he sound so crazy if he had nothing to hide?”

“We all have something to hide,” Lila said quietly. “But if anything happens, I'm here for you. You know that, right?”

Effie nodded. Lila brushed away some of the mascara-tinged tears that were on her friend's cheek.

“Okay.” Effie sniffed. “Let's go back.”

Lila stood, pulling Effie up with her, and the two women walked back to the club hand in hand.

When she entered the room, Lila immediately saw Dylan. “Effie,” she said, unable to take her eyes off him, “I'll be right back.”

Lila almost ran to him. She couldn't help herself. She threw her arms around his shoulders, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. She could feel all the eyes of South Beach on them. This was the first time they'd been affectionate in public.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Looking for you, of course.”

Lila felt joy well up inside her. “Lucky me,” she whispered into his ear.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Effie and Chase cross the room together and disappear down a hallway. They both had very serious looks on their faces. Something was wrong.

“Dylan,” she said, leaning her head against his shoulder. “Effie's in a bit of a crisis at the moment.”

“What else is new?” he said, exhaling loudly.

“I know. But just humor me, all right? I'll be back in a minute.”

Lila left Dylan's side to follow Effie and Chase. She went through an empty dining area and stopped when she heard shouting down the hall.

As she tiptoed toward the commotion, the voices grew louder, but she couldn't make out what was being said. Suddenly, Effie ran out of the room, with Chase behind her. They whooshed by, rushing out a back door that led to the tennis courts, not paying Lila any mind.

Chase Haverford and Effie Webster? As far as Effie had let on, they barely knew each other. But Lila had already known that was a lie. Lies, it seemed, were crumbling all around her. Lila set out to find Effie and figure out exactly what was going on.

It took a fair bit of searching, but she finally found her in her boat, which was moored to the dock. Effie was passed out, reeking of booze, and slumped over the steering wheel, with only one shoe on.

Lila put her hand on Effie's shoulder, and the girl roused slightly, lifting her swaying head. She saw Lila, then started crying again.

“He's going to ruin me,” she whispered.

“Do you mean Chase?” Lila asked. Effie put her head back down and let out a big, shaky sigh. “How's Chase going to ruin you? Does he know about your dad?”

Effie was beyond talking. She was reduced to gasps, sighs, and sobs, a tiny, drunken, broken mess.

CHAPTER 31

I
T WAS HARDER
than Lila had thought to get Alexei to agree to see her again.

“Are you going to vomit this time?” he asked over the phone, his voice dripping with disgust. She felt as if she could hear his lips curling into a sneer.

“I'm not planning on it, but you never know,” Lila replied. Earlier that morning she had gone back over her notes, reviewing her files and compiling the information. In fifteen days, the Star Island killer would strike. More than ever, she was convinced that Alexei was the murderer, but everything remained unproven. She needed more evidence.

“I'll be at Club Madonna at ten tonight. If you want to see me, I'll be there. If not, then all the better. I do not give a rat's ass at this point.” With that, he hung up the phone.

“And they say chivalry is dead,” Lila muttered to herself.

At a quarter past ten, she pulled up to Club Madonna, Miami Beach's only strip club, handing her car keys over to a Dominican boy who couldn't have been older than fifteen. She figured there was at least a 50 percent chance she'd never see her car again. The marquee, with its tempting deals of two-for-one lap dances and BYOB, signaled that this was the place for sleazeballs on a budget.

“Oh, God,” Lila said to herself with a sigh before paying the ten-dollar cover and entering the darkly lit, dismal club. House music blared as two bored girls lazily ground against each other on the stage.

Alexei and his crew were in the back of the club, surrounded by many bottles of vodka and at least six completely naked strippers. As she walked toward him through the fog created by fake smoke and strobe lights, Lila could see him funneling vodka off a woman's nipple and directly into his mouth.
This should be a fun night,
she thought. If Dylan could see her now, he'd think she was crazier than he already did.

When Alexei spotted her, he put the stripper's nipple deep into his mouth, staring directly into Lila's eyes. Then he got up and reached for Lila, pressing his lips to hers. He tasted like booze and sickeningly sweet perfume. Lila tried to pull away, but he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her flush against him. His eyes were droopy and drugged—by lust, vodka, madness, Lila didn't know.

“I know how you like to tease,” he whispered loudly into her ear. “But tonight you came to me, so don't pull away like some silly virgin. See this girl,” he said, pointing to a brunette with enormous implants pushing out against her seemingly tortured skin. “You think you are better than her, with your fancy clothes and all your money.”

“I don't,” Lila said, still trying to get out of his grip.

“But you are nothing compared to her. She is honest. You lie. You act like you've never had a cock in your mouth before. But I can tell you have. I can tell you like to play hard to get. I just like to play hard. Do you know who will win?” he asked as his fingers dug into her flesh. Lila winced in pain. “I will.”

Lila was holding her breath, her eyes darting around the room. She was trying to assess how she could escape if she needed to, which she probably would any minute now. But all she saw were barriers. Alexei's bodyguards were there by the back exits. He had five supersize comrades sitting with him at the table, and Lila knew they were all armed. She had miscalculated the situation. If he decided to get violent with her, she was outnumbered and in big trouble.

She made a split-second decision. It was the only way she could think of to get out of this place. She stopped pulling away from Alexei and leaned into him.

“It's a bit crowded in here,” she purred. “Plus, I don't like it when you look at other women. Why don't we go back to your place, alone?”

By going to Alexei's she was putting herself in the lion's den, but at least there she would be with only him. She figured she had a better chance of fighting off Alexei, if it came to it, than of battling his entire cadre of coked-up and drunk psychopathic sycophants.

Alexei released Lila, who exhaled in relief to be out of his clutches. He went over to one of his bodyguards and said something to him in Russian. Then the two bodyguards quickly ushered Lila and Alexei out of the club and into the idling black SUV waiting for them outside.

The bodyguards sat in the front, with Alexei and Lila in the back. Alexei poured himself a vodka from an open bottle sitting in a silver bucket between them. The car raced through the streets of Miami.

Alexei regarded Lila with a drunken smirk. “You don't fool me for a minute,” he said. His speech was slightly slurred.

“Excuse me?”

“You don't fool me!” he shouted with such force that he spilled some of his vodka on the car floor. “Dumb whore, look what you've made me do.”

“Alexei, calm down. Nobody's trying to fool you.”

Alexei began to laugh. It was a cackle that made Lila's skin crawl. There was so much hate in him. “I'm sick of playing this game with you. You think you're playing me. But I'm the one playing you. I know you're just Chase's spy. He couldn't send his little bitch Effie, so he sent you instead.”

“You've gone crazy,” Lila said. She tried to make eye contact with either of the bodyguards, but they both kept looking forward. She knew they'd do nothing to help her. “I barely know Chase.”

“Liar! You fucking lying cocktease. You think I believed you wanted to be with me? You think I don't feel you shudder when I touch you? And all these dates we still haven't kissed. Well, I'm going to get my kiss from you now.”

He leaned toward Lila. She was thankful that the bottle of vodka was sitting there between them, giving her some kind of barrier against him. She imagined smashing the bottle over his head, but instead she moved closer to him, closed her eyes, and readied herself for a kiss from a monster.
Will I have to sleep with him tonight to prove that I'm not Chase's spy?
When nothing happened, she opened her eyes to see him laughing at her.

“Even worse than a tease is a whore who'll fuck her way out of a problem.” Alexei sneered. “Sit back and shut the fuck up. I'm taking you back to my place for a real surprise.”

Now Lila was seriously afraid. If she punched his windpipe, she knew she could disable him, but she'd have to do it the moment the car hit the next stoplight.

“Not such a tough bitch now, are you?” Alexei said, seeming to relish the fear on her face.

Without him seeing, Lila kept her hand on the door handle. The second the car came to a stop at an intersection, she started to frantically turn the handle, pushing her shoulder against the door. She was ready to bolt. Nothing. She tried again. The door didn't budge.

Again, Alexei laughed. He was really enjoying himself now.

“How much of a fool do you think I am? That my security doesn't know to lock the car doors?”

The light turned green, and the car began moving again. Lila sank back into the leather seat. A feeling of defeat overwhelmed her. She was trapped.

After a long drive north up Miami Beach, the SUV turned onto La Gorce Island and pulled up in front of Alexei's gigantic white stucco mansion. The bodyguard driving the car exited the vehicle, opened Lila's door, and dragged her out.

She kicked and screamed, but he outweighed her by almost two hundred pounds. The other bodyguard and Alexei silently followed them into the house. This was it. What she had feared her entire life and had come close to several times as a cop was going to happen at this very moment. She didn't know what form the pain and violence would take, but she was sure it was coming. As sure as she'd been of anything for her entire life.

Her body went limp, and the bodyguard, holding his arm around her waist, tossed her onto the floor of the main living room. Then the two giant men flanked the front door as Alexei disappeared into another room.

When he came back, he was holding a bottle of champagne in one hand and two flutes in the other. He was smiling from ear to ear. He set down the glasses on a side table next to the black leather couch and picked up a remote control. The TV clicked on to CNN.

“You're here to be a witness to my victory. My triumph,” Alexei shouted as he uncorked the champagne. He poured some in one glass and set it in front of Lila, who was still crouched on the floor. “Drink,” he said to her. “And listen. The deal was announced at midnight, so it should be coming on any minute now.”

Lila had never been more confused. What was happening?

On the screen, a young blonde in a coral-colored blouse and matching lipstick was reading the business news. “The Dow Jones was down over one hundred points over investor concern about the continuing decline in housing prices.” Lila looked at Alexei, who was transfixed by the TV. “And, in breaking news,” the woman on the screen continued, “the hotelier Chase Haverford has announced that he has sold his hotel conglomerate to a holding company controlled by an Israeli businessman identified as Nakaleni Suka. Suka has agreed to buy a controlling stake of the Haverford empire for a reported one point six billion dollars. Next up, how can economic uncertainty work for you . . .”