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Apex was powerful, but Indigo was not without his own resources. What Indigo did not have in commercial might, he made up for in pure deviousness, and the kind of power that only ever came from the shadows.
Thanks to Christo’s tantrum, the auction did not technically close, but it had never been an official sale anyway. It had been a ploy to get the word out, and draw in the real buyers, who were not in the room. The ones for whom a billion dollars was barely pocket change.
“I’m going to kill you, Indigo,” Christo growled. “And I’m going to get that girl out of your clutches, if it is the last thing I do.”
“Please do. The price is ten trillion dollars, and you can start making memories right away. I’m not sure if she can ride a bike or not, but if she can’t, you can start teaching her tomorrow morning.”
“Ten trillion dollars is half the GDP of the entire United States.”
Their conversation was taking place in those harsh, hissed tones that always signify something worth hearing. The room was still largely silent because the band was completely absent. A hundred billionaires were trying to listen in on their hissed words, and then relaying them back through the crowd in Chinese whispers which distorted their meaning beyond all recognition. The rumors from this evening’s entertainment should be wildly amusing.
Indigo raised his voice enough so the people in the back could hear him properly.
“Goodnight, all. I’m sure I’ll see some of you very soon.”
Having ruined the party completely, turned on his heel.
“Don’t you walk away from me, Indigo… don’t you dare…” Christo’s snarled warnings and exhortations faded into the distance in the most delightful of ways.
“Happy with yourself?”
Ellen was driving. Her mature features were almost entirely hidden beneath the peaked cap, but there was never any missing the wicked intensity of her eyes. She was his right hand woman, the only woman he trusted. The only person he trusted, if push came to shove.
“Exceedingly, thank you, Ellen.”
“You’re becoming a showboat.”
“It was all in good fun,” he said, checking his messages. There were a lot of messages. “I have a Sheikh here who is willing to swap an island off Qatar for Christo’s brat.”
“Are you entertaining the idea?”
“Of course not. Islands are a billionaire cliche. I loathe a cliche.”
She didn’t reply. She let her disapproving silence do the talking for her.
It was quite tedious not having anybody to share these moments with, besides Ellen, of course. Ellen didn’t approve. Ellen thought he could do better, but he wasn’t in the habit of taking advice from professional assassins.
Chapter 3
Many hours had gone by in Daisy’s captivity. Orgasms had been inflicted on her, drawn from her, thrust into her. She had writhed in pleasure which had undone a little piece of her sanity every time she climaxed. He was trying to break her. The pleasure he gave was poison designed to weaken her.
She knew his face, but not his name. She knew his actions, but not his intentions. There was so much mystery still left to her, but Daisy was not concerning herself with mystery.
A girl with an easier life might have been frozen into inaction, terrified every moment he was there, and every moment he was not. But Daisy had not had an easy life. She had raised herself, more or less. She had fought for everything she’d ever had. Nothing had been given to her, and much had been taken.
Her captor had left her in the dark, thinking that endless walls would keep her contained, that she was nothing more than a pawn in his play. But Daisy knew chess, and she was no pawn. She was a queen, capable of moving in any direction, or perhaps a knight, able to go sideways and then sideways again. No. Queen. She liked queen better.
KEEP OUT
INTRUDERS WILL BE SHOT
KOS ORDERS IMPLEMENTED
RADIOACTIVE ZONE
Indigo walked past the various signs, quite confident that he would not be shot, killed on sight, or irradiated for that matter. He owned this derelict field. There were guards posted at all of the four towers, each of which looked entirely abandoned from the exterior. This was a place where nothing moved. Even the air was somehow stale and stagnant without a breeze to redeem it.
This was not the sort of place most of the people in attendance at Christo’s soiree would have ended up. Indigo had no doubt that Christo would be returning to Apex Tower in the center of New York City where he’d whine and complain, and then whine some more.
He picked his way between barbed wire fences deliberately left strewn about the place to add to the general ambiance of danger and decay. He had always been a huge fan of hiding in plain sight. It did not get much more plain sight than this, it’s just nobody wanted to look at it.
