“You’re in way over your head,” she says.
“You might be right,” I reply, shrugging. “But I’ve got a few questions I need answers to, and you’re going to give them to me.”
I’ve secured Jackson and the woman to two of the chairs in the suite using some cable ties I’ve brought with me. I’m now sitting on the sofa in front of them, over by the main window, leaning back with my feet on the table in front of me. I was even kind enough to wrap a towel around Ted’s bleeding foot. After all, I don’t want him passing out or moaning too much before I have chance to speak to him.
Despite my first instinct to just shoot him and walk away, I now find myself in a position to find out exactly what the hell is going on around here and I can’t resist. It’ll drive me mad otherwise.
The woman hasn’t said anything. She’s just staring at the floor, almost disinterested. I lean forward and slap Jackson’s face to bring him round. Up close, he doesn’t look as high and mighty as he did when he was walking around chatting on his phone and swinging a briefcase around. He groans as consciousness washes over him once again.
“Hey, Ted,” I say.
“Wha-what’s happening?” he asks, groggily, still a little confused from being shot and kicked in the head.
“Right now, you’re tied to a chair in your suite at the Four Seasons. You have a hole in your foot, which I put there to stop you running off.”
He frowns, as if in deep concentration. He turns his head and looks at his female bodyguard sitting next to him, in much the same position. Except she hasn’t been shot…
“Don’t worry. Your lady friend is here next to you. We’ll get to her in due course, but first I really must get the formalities out of the way.”
“Wha-what formalities?” he asks. “I don’t understand.”
I can hear the fear slowly creeping into his voice, replacing the confusion.
“Sure you do, Teddy. You agreed to sell some land to a mob boss named Roberto Pellaggio. But you pulled out of the deal with no notice or explanation, and kept his money. He’s hired me to ask you really nicely to reconsider your stance on this matter and to let him have the deeds to the land, as per your original agreement.” I lean forward, gesturing with the gun. “Say, Ted, don’t suppose you fancy selling my employer the land you just screwed him out of, do you?”
“What? Oh God! Oh Jesus!” he exclaims, as the full-blown panic attack that’s been slowly brewing beneath the surface finally kicks in.
I figure I’ll hammer the point home, for effect.
“Pellaggio is going to pay me a hundred grand to kill you if you don’t sell him the land. You shouldn’t have screwed him over, Ted. People like him… they don’t — can’t, tolerate things like that.”
His eyes go wide, the fear apparent as he looks all around, as if searching for a lifeline. I see his gaze rest on his briefcase, which is standing on the floor next to the desk. I can see the cogs start turning again, and his desperation changes to opportunity.
“I’ll give you quarter of a million dollars to let me go right now, to pretend this never happened,” he says quickly.
I smile and shake my head. “While I have no doubt you can afford such a generous offer, that’s not how I operate. I stand by my contracts, Ted. You can’t buy your way out of this.”
He leans forward as much as he can, which isn’t much. His eyes are watering. “P-p-please…” he begs. “I have a family!”
I sigh. “No, you don’t,” I reply, matter-of-factly.
He holds my gaze a moment longer, realizing that lying and bargaining aren’t working, then he sits back in his chair and sighs heavily with defeat, staring at the floor as a tear rolls down his cheek and splashes on his lap.
I regard him for a few minutes, trying to figure him out. Any confidence he once had has long gone. He looks full of regret and almost ashamed.
My eyes flick over to the woman for a second. She still hasn’t looked up or changed her expression. I look back at Jackson. “Ted, tell me why you backed out of the deal.”
He closes his eyes and swallows, sensing there’s no option left but to talk. I almost feel sorry for him. “GlobaTech Industries assigned me to a special project involving the land,” he explains. “I had no choice, I swear!”
I nod slowly, trying to piece together everything in my head. But very little about any of this makes sense to me. “And why do GlobaTech Industries have such an interest in a plot of land in the middle of the Nevada desert?” I ask.
He sighs again, pursing his lips together in a subconscious act of defiance. There’s obviously a lot more to this thing than he’s telling me and he seems very reluctant to divulge any information. Usually, people in his current predicament will say anything if they thought it could save their life. That tells me he’s probably under immense pressure from his employer and that whatever deal he’s part of involving this land must be big. If that’s the case, I can see why he walked away from the Pellaggio deal — if it’s big enough that he’s effectively willing to sacrifice himself for it, he wouldn’t have thought twice about turning his back on the mob.
I’ll try another approach.
“Who’s she?” I ask after a moment, gesturing to the woman next to him.
“She’s my personal bodyguard,” he says.
I look at her. She’s looked up now the conversation has changed to her. She’s staring at us both in turn with a curious detachment, remaining almost stubbornly silent.
“You’re being protected by a girl? Jesus, Teddy, is that not emasculating at all to you?”
The woman huffs in disgust at me, which I don’t acknowledge. Although at least I know I can get a reaction out of her, which might be useful later. I simply smile back at her, causing her to roll her eyes and look away. Jackson says nothing, although he clearly wants to. I’m trying to goad him into giving me information and he probably knows it. But his consistent reluctance is starting to become an issue for me and I need to put a stop to it.
“Not your standard security detail, I’m sure you’ll agree,” I continue, turning back to Jackson. “So, come on… who is she?”
He looks me right in the eye and I can see his inner torment. He wants to tell me everything, I can see it. He’s your typical, sleazy businessman — out to make as much money as possible, but self-preservation always comes first. His instinct is to do whatever he can to save his life, but there’s still something stopping him. Something he apparently fears more than me.
He should really fear me more…
In one swift movement, I stand and use my free hand to throw the table in front of me across the room. The spontaneous, violent act takes Jackson by surprise. He gasps in shock, and without warning, I shoot him in his other foot. He screams and blacks out.
“Oh, Teddy…” I say. “Now that’s just embarrassing.”
8
Happy that Jackson will be absolutely terrified of me when he wakes up again, I turn my attention to our mystery woman. Despite the commotion, she’s remained silent, but shooting Jackson again clearly took her by surprise as well. I can see her thinking… assessing her situation, trying her restraints, looking around the room, and finally coming to the realization that she’s screwed. She relaxes back in her chair and looks at me, clearly opting for a different approach to her situation, just like I would.
“I can’t believe you hit a woman,” she says, eventually. She doesn’t sound pissed off — well, no more than anyone else would be after they’d been elbowed in the face. I think she’s toying with me, seeing what reaction she can get. I know the tactic very well.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” I say, before stopping myself from apologizing further. “Actually, I’m not — you had a gun on me so you deserved everything you got.”