At that price, a few of the bidders’ representatives hung up their phones. By six million, half the room had stilled as I sat upright, literally on the edge of my seat. At seven million, most everyone else in the theater dropped out. But two remained: a stout woman in thick glasses competing against a particularly enthusiastic phone bidder, represented by the blonde, whose arm remained in the air, her finger registering “yes” to every uptick in the price.
“Now at eight point five … eight point five, and we have nine. That is nine million over here on the phone! Nine million two …”
Holy hell! It’s going to ten million. That’ll finance a lot of fantasies. I craned my neck to look for my driver, who was no longer shadowing me. Maybe he had joined the other drivers in the lobby.
“Ten million dollars, we are at ten. Ten point four, that is ten million, four hundred thousand …”
Left, right, right, left, the two remaining bidders each spurned the other on, the blonde on the phone never losing her cool, the woman in glasses becoming increasingly agitated. My heart played along, spiking with every raised hand. This was way more exciting than sports!
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are at eleven million and one hundred thousand dollars. Do I hear eleven two? We have … eleven two,” said the auctioneer, pointing his hammer at the bespectacled woman whose arm was becoming heavier and heavier. The blonde’s remained steadily aloft.
“Eleven three? Yes, we have eleven three on the phone. Will we get eleven four?”
The pause weighed on the room. All heads now turned to face the woman in the thick black glasses. Maybe because she wasn’t some disembodied voice on the phone, I suddenly wanted her to win. But alas, the blonde’s arm spiked calmly at the last price.
“We have eleven point four from anonymous bidder number eight up front … eleven point four … do we have eleven five?”
The woman in the glasses lifted a tentative hand.
“We have eleven five—”
“Fifteen million!” boomed a familiar voice from the back of the room.
It took me a second to realize who it was, because he was no longer wearing his uniform. My driver, Dante, stood there, in a dark suit that looked freshly pressed, a white shirt neatly tucked into the slacks, and his cap, sunglasses and ill-fitting jacket gone. He looked alarmingly sexy, a hand slung in a pocket.
“Are you a registered bidder?”
He pointed to the late arrival, the nervous blonde at the phone table.
“That is my company’s representative, Isabella, from the Central Bank of Argentina. She can vouch for my funds. You can hang up now, Isabella. I am so sorry I’m late.”
Dante—or whatever his real name was—raised the temperature of the theater from simmer to boil. The auctioneer, now flustered, turned to find the bespectacled woman’s head resting in a hand, defeated.
“So then … it is fifteen million … going once … going twice … and sold to the gentleman in the dark suit. Carolina Mendoza’s Red Rage goes for fifteen million. A record, ladies and gentlemen. A smashing record!”
Applause broke out in the theater, but my hands held firm to my armrests as I watched Dante stride over to the losing bidder to shake her hand. The crowd continued to clap as Dante posed for pictures in front of the painting. The auctioneer, after a quiet word with Isabella, motioned me down the stairs to the telephone table, now cleared of everything except an elaborate certificate carefully centered on a leather blotter.
“Isabella tells me the fifteen million dollars has already been cleared. Unless you have any objections to an unregistered bidder purchasing the painting, you may sign the transfer of ownership,” said the auctioneer, handing me a fancy pen with a feather tail, and adding, “It is an enormous amount of money. Impressive.”
He also seemed unnerved by this handsome man who had infiltrated these somber, private proceedings in such a strangely dramatic way. But what do you say when someone drops fifteen million dollars, tripling what was projected? You say thank you, and you sign on the dotted line, which is what I did, with an appropriate flourish. I couldn’t wait to tell Matilda about the windfall.
I handed the auctioneer the papers.
Dante, or whoever he was, came over to the table and completed the transfer with his own undecipherable signature. Then he met my still-confused gaze.
“Nice to formally meet you, Miss Mason. I can assure you that Ms. Mendoza’s painting will be going to a very good home. I am a big fan of all her endeavors. So you can imagine how sad I was to be left off the list of bidders, and how grateful I am that you did not hold that against me.”
“Who are you?” I asked, cautiously weaving my hand through the crook of an arm he offered. “And what was all that limo subterfuge? The not speaking English? Showing up unregistered? Was that really necessary? Surely you could have—”
“Dauphine, my dear, I will explain everything in good time. But we must leave now, before curiosity overtakes the room, swallowing us both. People will begin to ask questions. About me, about you and about the … group you represent.”
“What do you know about that?”
“I know enough to ask you … if you’ll accept the Step.”
Of course! So he is one of them. He’s one of us!
As a crowd gathered to photograph Red Rage before it was packed and shipped, he ushered me up the steps to the theater’s exit. Now it was all making sense, though my heart continued pounding.
The foyer was empty, save for a half-dozen bored drivers checking their watches. Dante pulled me sharply in the opposite direction, through high glass doors covered in lace curtains. Suddenly, we were alone in a beautiful narrow hall painted ivory, lined with columns and wainscoting in the same golden hue as my bracelet. He let go of my arm, his whole body now facing me.
“So?”
“So …” I said, inching backwards until I collapsed onto an overstuffed settee beneath a bust of some famous composer. “Did you really just spend fifteen million dollars on a painting?”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“To impress you. Did it work?”
I shifted over so he could sit beside me.
“Possibly.”
Clearly, this was a man for whom everything came easy. But I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to be one of those things. He leaned in, his face inches from mine. His nostrils flared like an animal’s picking up the scent of fear … and liking it.
“I’ll ask you once again: do you accept the Step?”
He lifted my hand and was about to examine my bracelet when I snatched my wrist from him, hiding it behind my back. He was sexy, and he knew about S.E.C.R.E.T., but there was a dark air about him that kept tripping me up.
“What’s your real name?” I asked. “And how come you didn’t know where the auction was if your banker was here, the blond one?”
“She was following us, having not received an invitation either. Now, I’ll be happy to answer the rest of your questions, Dauphine. But there’s really only one that matters. Do you accept the Step?”
His mouth now at my ear, he gathered a lobe between his lips, gently sucking it. A current flowed through me, my body turning to lava. Everywhere he touched me, the skin beneath melted. He was moving fast, so fast I’d soon be unable to stop him, even if I wanted to.
“I’ve been wanting to do this since I laid eyes on you at the hotel,” he whispered, parting my knees, his hand making its languid way up my thighs.